UC-NRLF 
 

 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS PAINE, 
 

 
THE 
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 BY JAMES CHEETHAM. 
 
 " SPEAK OF ME At I AM." Shakspesrt. 
 
 * MEV HAT LITE POOLS ; BUT FOOLS THEY CANNOT DIE." Young. - 
 t' IP ETR THE DETIL BAD AN AGSNT ON EAUTH, I HATE BEEN ONE." 
 
 Paint's Uut memento, 
 
 AMERICA PRINTED: 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 REPRINTED TOR A. MAXWELL, BILL TA11I>, TEMPLE BAR. 
 W, Popk, Prater, 67, Chancery Lan. 
 
 1817. 
 
District of tfew-York, ss. 
 
 BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the thirtieth day of August, in the 
 thirty-fourth year of the independence of the United States 
 of America, James Cheetham, of the said district, hath 
 L. s. deposited in this office the title of a book, the right where- 
 of he claims as author, in the words following, to wit : 
 " The Life of Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, 
 the Crisis, Rights of Man, fa. $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 pro- 
 prietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned/' and 
 also to an act entitled, " An act supplementary to the act entitled 
 an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies 
 of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietor* of 
 such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending 
 the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etch- 
 ing historical and other prints." 
 
 CHARLES CLINTON. 
 Clerk of the District o 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I first saw and read the production of 
 Mr. Cheetham, which was but lately, I was forcibly 
 struck with the able and interesting manner in which 
 this gentleman had drawn the life and character 
 of Paine. From the intimate knowledge which 
 he had possessed of his person and character, and 
 local connections for many years, and also from his 
 strict impartiality, he was fully qualified to become 
 his biographer. He has followed him gradually 
 through the different scenes of life, until the last 
 awful struggle of expiring nature* His writings are 
 also ably reviewed, and every page is marked by 
 authorities, the authenticity of which must be ap- 
 parent to every reader. When 1 first perused the 
 book, I naturally exclaimed to myself, " Why has 
 not this work been reprinted in England ?" To the 
 question I could get no satisfactory answer, and 
 was therefore resolved to print it. The character 
 which it pourtrays attained a degree of celebrity 
 which few are permitted to enjoy ; but it is a cele- 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 brity which will convey to posterity all that is odi- 
 ous, blasphemous, and profane. His revolutionary 
 writings have produced effects the most remarkable 
 and violent ; like a volcano they burst forth, break- 
 ing up the foundations upon which the civilized 
 world is established. They have produced the most 
 awful convulsions, in Europe, as well as in America, 
 and even in this country had almost overturned a 
 constitution which is founded upon the noblest 
 principles, and which is yet the admiration of the 
 world. The work which is now presented to the 
 public is the most powerful antidote to all he wrote 
 and to all he did. Its intrinsic excellence must be 
 apparent to every one who has a real desire to pre- 
 vent anarchy and confusion, disorder and bloodshed. 
 At the present moment it is peculiarly seasonable, and 
 may awaken the attention of some persons who have 
 not lost all regard to virtue and religion, and yet save 
 them from being carried away into the vortex of 
 disaffection. Wherever the poison has been circulat- 
 ed, the antidote in this book ought to be administered. 
 The privileges we enjoy in this highly-favoured coun- 
 try are but ill understood by the wild advocates of 
 the abstract principle of Parliamentary Reform. The 
 minds of many well disposed people have been 
 falsely tutored, and strongly prejudiced, against the 
 constitution of England, and all the principles of 
 social order and good government. Many have 
 been excited by the inflammatory speeches and 
 writings of artful demagogues, who have taken ad- 
 vantage of the public distresses of the country, for 
 
PREFACE. yii 
 
 their own individual aggrandizement with patriot- 
 ism in their mouths, but treason and rebellion" in 
 their hearts. Let serious well disposed minds re- 
 flect, before they join the standard of revolt. The life 
 of Mr Paine is but a sample of what might be col- 
 lected from the private histories and domestic career 
 of those of similar principles who have become the 
 leaders of the uninformed part of the public. They 
 are almost universally bad domestic characters; and 
 I wish particularly to call the public attention to 
 this remarkable coincidence. It cannot be too of- 
 ten repeated, or too strongly impressed, that men 
 who are notoriously profane, immoral, and tyranni- 
 cal at home, are notoriously unfit to re-model the 
 government of the State. Let plain and honest 
 men candidly review the life of Mr. Paine ; let them 
 read and think over what an enlightened citizen of 
 America says upon the laws and constitution and 
 parliament of Great Britain ; let them not be led 
 astray by men whose domestic conduct is base, 
 awfully depraved, and desperately wicked : let 
 let them not forget that these men, like Paine, are 
 avowed infidels, low and grovelling, without any 
 moral principle to restrain, without any religious 
 feelings or sentiments to direct them. The bible is 
 the key-stone upon which the superstructure of the 
 British Constitution rests, and the foundation upon 
 which the whole of its civil polity has been raised. 
 To remove this key-stone is the chief object of these 
 artful reformers for could this be once removed, 
 the whole would fall into irremediable ruin. Let my 
 
V1U PREFACE. 
 
 countrymen, therefore, draw the contrast between 
 the domestic conduct and private benevolence of 
 those who now fill exalted stations in this country, 
 and the principal leaders of the revolutionary fac- 
 tion, and they will be convinced that My Lord Li- 
 verpool is better qualified for his office than Mr, 
 Cobbett : that Mr. Vansittart is a more able finan- 
 cier than Mr. Hunt ; that my Lord Melville is much 
 better at the head of the Admiralty than Major 
 Cartwright ; and that Mr. Canning is an abler friend 
 to reform than Messrs. Preston and Hooper. 
 
 LONDON EDITOR, 
 
 February 25, 1817- 
 
 " England, with all thy faults I love thee still I" 
 
 
TO 
 
 GEORGE CLINTON, 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 WITHOUT asking your permission, allow me to 
 dedicate to you, as a tribute of my admiration of 
 your private and public virtues, the following Life 
 of the Author of Common Sense. I know not, in- 
 deed, that a work, which necessarily treats in some 
 respect of revolutions, could more properly be de- 
 dicated than to^ one who in the struggles of the 
 colonies for independence, animated his country- 
 men by his patriotism, encouraged them by his 
 firmness, and supported them with his sword. 
 " Had it/' said Mr. Burke, adverting with pi- 
 ous resignation to the death of his son ; * ; had it 
 pleased Cod to continue to me the hopes of suc- 
 cession, I should have been a sort of founder of a 
 family/' You, sir, have been more favoured by 
 Providence. You have n ^t only the great felicity 
 of being the founder ot 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 conspicuous founders 
 of a great empire. 
 
X DEDICATION. 
 
 In whatever light we contemplate your character, 
 it is worthy of all imitation. When, at the com- 
 mencement of the war of independence, irresolu- 
 tion, 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 prepa- 
 ration for defence, and the want of adequate re- 
 sources, not a few of your contemporaries shrunk 
 from the responsibility, the suffrages 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 coun- 
 try beheld you with enthusiasm and joy, in the tri- 
 ple character of an unyielding patriot, an enlighten- 
 ed governor, a gallant general At that period, 
 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 heroic 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, civil and military, attracted the 
 notice ot Washington, your illustrious companion in 
 arms, and pointed you out in the event of his 
 death, as commander in chief of the American army. 
 Never were the civil and military functions, min- 
 gled by necessity, more mildly, more faithfully, or 
 more ably executed 
 
 The peace, which gave you a nation, and crowned 
 you witli immortality, did not efface from the minds 
 of your fellow citizens, the just impressions which 
 
 * 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, not unfrecjuently, of better men. 
 
DEDICATION. XI 
 
 your meritorious services had stamped upon them. 
 For twenty-one years you administered the govern- 
 ment of the state! There is no eulogium of lan- 
 guage that can equal the eulogium of the fact. 
 He who in a republic like ours, where a revolution 
 had let loose the passions where the press is licen- 
 tious beyond all example where suffrage, with few 
 exceptions, is in every man's hands where the 
 popular will is almost without restraint where de- 
 magogues, greedy of money, avaricious of popular 
 honour, are numerous and ambitious, and, like all 
 other demagogues, hypocritical, perfidious, remorse- 
 less ; in such a republic, under such circumstances, 
 his merit must be great, who, without flattering the 
 vanity of the multitude, without courting their ca- 
 pricious favours, dignifiedly retains a station so 
 elevated for a period so long. I like, said Lord 
 Mansfield, that popularity which follows, not that 
 which is run after. That great man liked, 1 fear, 
 what he never enjoyed. You, sir, more happy, en- 
 joyed, in plenitude, that which he liked. 
 
 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 of- 
 fice in the national government. Here,maintainingthe 
 solid reputation you had acquired, it was expected, 
 from your services and experience, from your capa- 
 city and the gradations of office^ that you would 
 have succeeded to the presidency, when Mr. Jef- 
 ferson retired from it. This expectation would have 
 been realized, had the election been free. Popula- 
 rity still followed you, and, in its course and cur- 
 rent, gained both rapidity and strength. But, al- 
 though 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 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 party) by intrigue and manoeuvre, by trick and 
 stratagem, can elude the principles of the constitu- 
 tion, 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 exam- 
 ple of Mr. Jefferson is to be followed ; if it is to be 
 " omnipotent" 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 zvith the show, 
 and thrills us with the sound of freedom, it ingeni- 
 ously, and almost without the 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 perceive any 
 essential difference. 
 
 The president and vice president are chosen by 
 electors, who in some of the states are elected im- 
 mediately by the people ; in others, by the state 
 legislatures. The constitution excludes, in terms, 
 members of congress and persons holding places of 
 honour and profit under it from the electoral func- 
 tions. The excluding 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 experi- 
 ence, 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 administration. 
 
 To Mr. Jefferson, a re-election had been offered 
 by his party, but declined by him. In his circular 
 letter ol declension to the several states, lie assigns, 
 as reasons for declining, that he had served two 
 terms ; that as the constitution had not limited the 
 
 
DEDICATION. xiil 
 
 duration of the service of a president, and evils 
 of great magnitude might grow out of long incum- 
 bency, it was an act of patriotism to make a volun- 
 tary resignation of the office. In a popular go- 
 vernment, professions so fair, concealing a purpose 
 so foul, are sure to be applauded. The sage spoke 
 like an angel, and it was therefore concluded that 
 his actions must be angelic. 
 
 But forgetting, in the course of writing his circu- 
 lar, the reasons he had assigned for his voluntary 
 retirement, perhaps in the intenseness of his pur- 
 pose to strike a blow in favour of Mr. Madison, he 
 unnecessarily went out of his way to deliver an ho- 
 mily OM old age. In this he mentioned, in very 
 pathetic terms, that the cares of office were too 
 great tor his advanced years ; that his exhausted 
 nature, sinking under those cares, urged tranquil- 
 lity 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 ad- 
 vanced in years as himself, (and you, sir, it was 
 known was one or two years older) was unfit to be 
 president of the United States ! 
 
 He who under our system of government and 
 management 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, depends upon starting, and the 
 adroitness with which the candidate is started. 
 When the candidate is nominated, (and the nomi- 
 nation is always made by a few) party doctrine and 
 discipline are, that he must be supported. Party 
 vengeance is next denounced against the noncom- 
 forniist, and though he may not, perhaps, be con- 
 sumed 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 coun- 
 
XIV DEDICATION. 
 
 tenance in any other way.* By party law it can- 
 not be asked, whether the candidate be a good 
 moral man, or qualified by capacity and acquire- 
 ments for the business of legislation. Questions of 
 this nature, when nominations are made, are he- 
 resies, 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 overbear- 
 ing doctrine and overwhelming practice, Mr. Jef- 
 ferson 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 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 causus, Mr. Madison 
 was nominated for the presidency. 
 
 The old, uniform, and slavish doctrine, was now 
 again brought forth in all its horrors. The re- 
 publicans 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 iu 
 token of regret, these champions of freedom, or 
 rather, I must say, for I will speak out, these igno- 
 
 * The republican process is this. A meeting is publicly called 
 at an ale-house. Resolutions, denouncing the dissenter by 
 name, are drawn up ; passed ; signed by the chairman and se- 
 cretary, and published in the newspapers. A person holding 
 an office, or some way dependent 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 clanger of this. A demagogue cares no- 
 thing about means, but iu their adaptation to his sinister pur 
 poses. 
 
DEDICATION". XV 
 
 rant tramplers on constitutional law, or deliberate 
 assassins of constitutional principles, mournfully 
 added, that the nomination must he supported, or 
 the party would he undone. They felt no solici- 
 tude tor 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 triumphant!}' into 
 effect by force of the logic which is frequently em- 
 ployed to preserve it. The PEOPLE, in whom the 
 power of delegation resides, and to whom, at short 
 stated periods, the power having been exercised, it 
 reverts, are the arbiters of political life and death. 
 Wheresoever the elective power is not with the in- 
 telligence 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, par- 
 ties are more distinctly marked, more rancorous, 
 more vindictive, 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 mu- 
 tual in their efforts : the more narrow and despotic 
 in their opinions and practices. Hence it is that 
 when the republican party succeeds against the 
 federal in the election of a president, his adminis- 
 tration must be, without exception, in gross, im- 
 plicitly 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 practice, 
 though not in theory, of greater weight and conse- 
 quence in the republic, than the royal personage 
 
XVI DEDICATION. 
 
 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 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 corroborated by a 
 victorious party in the national legislature, to which 
 the law, never openly, is yet always given by the 
 president, is it surprising that Mr. Jefferson, wrapped 
 up in popular mummy, in effect nominated his suc- 
 cessor, controuled the national elective power, and 
 broke down the national constitution ; or that his 
 party, that it might be entire, supported and applaud- 
 ed the violence ? 
 
 Having witnessed the success of this combination 
 of criminal intrigue and reprehensible acquies- 
 cence, my hopes of the duration of the republic are, 
 I acknowledge, 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 de-* 
 rided. 
 
 Behold then the mode of election which is now es- 
 tablished ! See to what a shadow our boasted liber-' 
 ty 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, are assembled at Washington, in the cha- 
 racter of legislators. The president, to whom more 
 deference is paid by his party, and therefore by his 
 party's representatives in congress, than is usually 
 
DEDICATION". XVU 
 
 paid to a king of England, indicates the person 
 whom he wishes for his successor. The party mem- 
 bers of congress assemble in caucus, nominate the 
 favourite of the retiring president, publish the no- 
 mination, 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 nomination as truly republican, pledge them- 
 selves to its support, 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 can- 
 not, 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 he numerous. 
 
 Such is the rule ; such the practice. The presi- 
 dent may therefore appoint his successor. The pre- 
 sidency, therefore, though not in name, is yet in 
 party management and detail next to hereditary : 
 it is not elective, for such a process cannot amount 
 to any thing more than a mockery of election. 
 
 In addition to party influence on party repre- 
 sentatives, (and they are all party representatives) 
 other motives dispose them to gratify the wishes 
 of the retiring president. In appointments to 
 office, the national executive has very extensive 
 patronage. Several members of the caucus by 
 which Mr. Madison was nominated, resigning 
 their seats in congress seemingly for the purpose, 
 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 un* 
 grateful; 
 
XVlll DEDICATION". 
 
 These evils are reluctantly confessed by the 
 friends of a nomination of the president by con- 
 gress ; by those who fiercely support it ; by those 
 who outrage freedom of opinion to carry it success- 
 fully into effect ; but they at the same time con- 
 tend, in a manner that leaves no hope of a miti- 
 gation of the practice, that there is no other com- 
 modious or feasible rule. This is thoughtfully dis- 
 pensing with the constitution as visionary and im- 
 prar.ticable. It is true that the constitutional me- 
 thod might sometimes put party malevolence in 
 jeopardy ; I admit the possibility, but if this were 
 an evH, it should be remembered, that national free- 
 dom may best be maintained by an alternate suc- 
 cession to power of the rival parties. 
 
 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 republic ; the other from a 
 republic 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 ia nation, enjoying lights 
 like those of the present age, and possessing a go- 
 vernment whose elements are free, which in so short 
 a period after its establishment was in such immi- 
 nent 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 
 
DEDICATION. XIX 
 
 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 
 incompatible with the maintenance of party max- 
 ims, drawn from party animosity, from party strug- 
 gles, from party convenience, of which the person- 
 al aggrandizement of a few demagogues is the main 
 spring, constitutional principles are no longer es- 
 timable. 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 pur- 
 poses, can excite no surprize. A people that in- 
 vites slavery cannot long be free. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 With the greatest respect, 
 Your most obedient 
 Humble servant, 
 
 JAMES CHEETHAM. 
 
 New-York, October, ISog. 
 
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 anonymous 
 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 in- 
 terest and authenticity to the work. The French 
 revolution, that terrible concussion which had per- 
 
 * I have not seen a London copy of Oldys's Life, nor is there 
 one either in our bookstores or in our city library. Mr. Cobbett 
 says, that it was published in London in 1793, but as the " Im- 
 partial Sketch," which was avowedly written to correct some of 
 the extravagancies of Oldys, bears upon its title-page the Lon- 
 don imprint of 1792, I conclude from that circumstance, and 
 from Paine's Rights of Man, part second, having been pub- 
 lished in February of the same year, that Mr. Cobbett was 
 taken in the date. 
 
 b 
 
XX11 PREFACE. 
 
 niciously affected all Europe, and particularly Eng- 
 land, had prepared the clubs for the unhinging doc- 
 trines of the " Rights of Man/' Never did the 
 parched earth receive refreshing rain with more wel- 
 come, 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 bloodshed, in all its horrid forms, they were 
 rapidly hastening. Thus predisposed, the cordiali- 
 ty 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 surprizing. The clubs, zealous to a 
 degree of frenzy ; always vigilant, always alert, pub- 
 lished a groat edition of thirty thousand copies of 
 the work, which was distributed amongst the poor, 
 who could not afford to purchase. In the great 
 manufacturing towns, Paine was considered by the 
 ignorant as an apostle of freedom.* The govern- 
 ment, alarmed, knew not how to meet the evilf . 
 
 * A song was privately circulated, beginning with 
 God save great Thomas Paine, 
 His Rights of Man proclaim, 
 From Pole to Pole ! 
 
 f Mr. Burke, alluding to the language of the cabinet, says, 
 " But I hear a language still more extraordinary, and indeed of 
 such a nature as must suppose or leave us at their mercy. It is 
 this; " you know their promptitude in writing, and their dili- 
 
PREFACE. XX111 
 
 Burke did, however, by his successive and im- 
 pressive appeals, animate them to precautionary 
 measures. In these, Qldys's life may, I think, be 
 included. To deprive Paine of the momentary 
 and undeserved popularity which he had acquired 
 amongst the illiterate, whclse 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 purpose, 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 Paine'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 im- 
 plicitly draw. 
 
 The " Impartial Sketch/' written by a friend of 
 Paine, is not worthy of particular remark. It is a 
 compilation from such parts of Oldys's narrative 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 
 original. His vigorous pen \vas wielded against 
 Paine by passions yet more vigorous. Roused by 
 
 gence in caballiug : to write, speak, or act against them, will 
 only stimulate them to new efforts," Appeal from the new to 
 thfe old whigs. 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 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 ; censured, 
 perhaps, without judgment, censuring without dis- 
 crimination. 
 
 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 referring 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 revolutionary 
 war, &c. are gentlemen of the highest political stand- 
 ing, several of whom were members of the revolu- 
 tionary congress. 
 
 When the Rights of Man was first published, I 
 was in England, involved in politics, and tolerably 
 well acquainted with political parties. 
 
 Respecting the conduct of Paine while in Paris, 
 I draw the chief part of my information from noto- 
 rious facts : and gentlemen equally distinguished in 
 diplomacy and in literature, have favoured me with 
 their correspondence. 
 
 After his return to the United States from France, 
 I became acquainted with him on his arrival in 
 New-York, in the year 1802. He introduced him- 
 
 
PREFACE; , xx* 
 
 self to me by letter from Washington City, request- 
 ing me to take lodgings for him in New- York. I 
 accordingly engaged a room in Lovett's Hotel, sup- 
 posing 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 Lovett's, in company with Mr. 
 George Clinton, jun. We rapped at the door : a 
 small figure opened it within, meanly dressed, hav- 
 ing 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 carbuncled, fiery as the setting sun, * and the 
 whole figure staggering under a load o inebriation. 
 I was on the point of inquiring for Mr. Paine, when 
 I saw in his countenance something of the portraits 
 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, drink- 
 ing, and talking, with as much composure as if 
 he had lived with us all his life. I soon perceived 
 that he had a very retentive memory, and was full 
 of anecdote. The Bishop of Llandaff was almost 
 the first word he uttered, and it was followed by 
 informing us that he had in his trunk a manuscript 
 reply to the Bishop's Apology. He then, calmly 
 mumbling his stake, and ever and anon drinking 
 
 * FalstafTs description of Bardolph'a nose, would ha-v'e suited 
 Paine's. 
 
XXVI PREFACE. 
 
 his brandy and beer, repeated the introduction to 
 his reply, which occupied him near half an hour. 
 This was done with deliberation, the utmost clear- 
 ness, 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 companievS, drunk or so- 
 ber, would 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. Having 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 Asiatic lines, as spe- 
 cimens 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 discrimination, 
 which, however hated or despised, or on whatever 
 account, was truly admirable. 
 
 My acquaintance with him continued, with very 
 various views, two or three years. My intercourse 
 with him was more frequent than agreeable ; 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 com- 
 pany he kept, was perhaps compensated by acqui- 
 ring a knowledge of the man. The latter part of 
 
PREFACE. XXV11 
 
 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 res- 
 pecting his death and burial, and the opinions which 
 he obstinately maintained on his death-bed, I have 
 from a sensible and humane Quaker gentleman ; 
 from Doctor Manley, his kind and attending physi- 
 cian, 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 written 
 the life of Mr. Paine, not his panegyric. 
 
FE 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 
 OVER families not distinguished by birth, by fortune, or 
 by extraordinary talent, time throws an obscurity that can- 
 not be removed. Of the grand-parents of Mr. Paine, we 
 know little ; of his ncestors still more remote, nothing. It 
 is intimated, possibly as imparting respectability, that his 
 grand father was a small but respectable farmer, (a) 
 
 Hib father, who bore a good character, was a staymaker 
 by trade, and a Quaker by religion. His mother, the daugh- 
 ter 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 bap- 
 tised 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 con- 
 firmed at the customary age by the bishop of Norwich. 
 
 The penury of his parents did not enable them to give him 
 a college education. He was taught reading, writing, and 
 arithmetick, at the Thetford free school, under the care of 
 the Rev. Mr. Knowles.(/>) His education was merely and 
 scantily English. He left school at the age of thirteen. 
 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. (c{) 
 
 (a) Impartial Sketch. 
 
 (6) " 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 cf his life, that the 
 old languages are superfiuous. " As there is now nothing new to be learn- 
 ed from the dead languages, all the useful books being already translated, 
 the languages are become useless, and the time expended in teaching ancj 
 learning them is wasted." Age of Reason, part 1. 
 
 (rf) ' 4 When little more than sixteen years of age, I entered on board the 
 Terrible Privateer, Captain Death." Rights of Man, part 2. Oldys re^ 
 marks, that the Terrible " was not fitted out till some years afterwards ;" 
 but it is probable that Paine's statement is coirect, and if it be, he coultj 
 #ot h^ve worked with his father more than two or three years. 
 
18 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 From his father's, perhaps \vithout his father's permission, 
 he went, when sixteen, to London, whither Scotchmen and 
 provincial adventurous English, flock to make or mar their 
 fortunes. But necessity obliged him to woik a few weeks at 
 his trade, with a Mr. Morris, a stay maker, in Hanover 
 street. From London he journeyed to Dover, where he 
 worked at staymaking with a Air. Grace. 
 
 About this time he entered on board the Terrible, (e) from 
 which adventure, he observes, *' I was happily prevented by 
 the affectionate arid moral remonstrance of a good father, 
 who from his own habits of life, being of the quaker profe's 
 sion, must begin to look upon me as lost." (f) 
 
 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." (g) How long he was at sea, or what the fruits of 
 his cruise were, we do not learn. Brave in political warfare 
 at his desk, he was not made to seek the bubble reputation in 
 the cannon* s mouth. 
 
 In the year 1759, he settled at Sandwich, as a master 
 staymaker. (fi) 
 
 At Sandwich he married Mary Lambert, daughter of an 
 exciseman, who shortly after went with him to Margate, 
 where, in the year 1760, she died, (i) 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, aided by the recorder of 
 Thetford, he obtained, after 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 towards 
 his wife had been as atrocious as Oldys represents 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 August, 17^5, 
 when, being guilty, Oldys says, of scandalous misconduct, 
 he was dismissed from the office. The same author admits 
 that he was restored to the excise the following year. This 
 
 (e) Paine's Conversation. (/) Rights of Man, part 2. 
 
 (g) Rights of Man, part 2. 
 
 (A) Oldys asserts, that ten pounds which he had borrowed of Miss Grace 
 upon a promise of marriage, daughter of Mr. Grace, staymaker, of Dover 
 with whom he had worked, enabled him to commence business, but that 
 lie neither repaid the money nor married the girl. He adds, that at Sand- 
 wich, Paine preached at his lodgings as an independent .minister. 
 
 (t) Oldys insinuates that she died of a premature birth, occasioned by 
 ill usage. 
 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 19 
 
 restoration does, I think, disprove that fact. If lie had 
 been dismissed for gross misconduct, it is not 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-five pounds a year. 
 
 In March, 1768, he was stationed as an exciseman at 
 
 ;wes, in Sussex, where he lived with Samuel Oilive, grocer 
 id tobacconist, Mr. Ollive died the following year. Short- 
 ly 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 Eliza", 
 beth Ollive, daughter of Samuel. 
 
 It is mentioned that he this year wrote an electioneering 
 song for one of the candidates for the honour of representing 
 New-Shoreham, in parliament, for which he got three gui- 
 neas, and that in the next year he wrote the case (k) of the 
 excisemen, who, united throughout the kingdom, were ap- 
 plying for an increase of salary. Whether 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 notions till very lately, and never published a syllable in 
 England in my life ;" but he was not always veracious. 
 
 In April, 1774, sinking under accumulated misfortunes, 
 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 excise, (/) he was a second time dismissed. He 
 petitioned 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 defect in formality, were redrawn, (m) 
 
 (k) Said to be an octavo Pamphlet, of 21 pages, 
 
 (/) Oldys says, that availing himself of his place in the excise, he smug- 
 gled tobacco for the use of his mill. 
 
 (i) Mr. Carver, of this city, who when a boy went to school with 
 Miss Ollive, and was well acquainted with her and Paine when they were 
 married, relates to me, as having been notorious in Lewes, the following 
 extraordinary fact. From some cause which Paine would not explain, 
 and which is yet unascertained, he aever, Mr. Carver affirms, had sexual 
 intercourse with his wife. This almost incredible circumstance, which be- 
 came the subject of the borough conversation, Mr. Carver adds, was 
 stated by Mrs. Paine in answer to a question which had been put to her by . 
 her friend, Mrs. Tibott, on observing, some weeks after their marriage, the 
 gloominess of her mind. Despised by the women, jeered by the men, 
 and charged with a want of virility, Paine submitted, Mr. Carver con- 
 tinues, to a professional scrutiny. " He was examined by Doctors Turner, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 His little property having been sold himself a second 
 tine dismissed from the excise the separation 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, neither 
 Oldys nor the Impartial Sketch offers a conjecture, but a 
 member of the revolutionary congress told me, that when 
 Dr. Franklin first knew him, which was about the middle of 
 the year 1774, he was a garret writer. In this situation, he 
 procured an introduction to Dr. Franklin, who advised him 
 to go America. () He accordingly sailed from England 
 in September, 1774, and arrived at Philadelphia just before 
 the affair at Lexington, which happened April 19, 775. (0) 
 Here his political career commences. While in England, 
 we find him struggling, indeed, with poverty, but, with 
 regard to politicks, not at all discontented, (p) No oppo- 
 sition it mentioned either 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 himself as- 
 having meddled with government, (q) His only opposition 
 
 Ridge, and Manning, who pronounced that there was no natural defect. 
 On Doctor Turner's inquiring into the cause of his abstinence, Paine 
 answered, that was no body's business but his own ; that he had cause for 
 it, but that he would not name it to any one. It sppears that he accom- 
 panied 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 separate 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 Car- 
 ver 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 com- 
 pany three or four years, which was perhaps as long as any body could 
 keep it. 
 
 (n) " 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. 3. 
 
 <* (o) " It was my fate to come to America a few months before the break- 
 
 ing oufe of hostilities." Crisis, No. 7. 
 
 (p) "I had no disposition for what was called politicks." Age of 
 Reason, part 1, p. 66, New York, 179.-. He alludes to the time when 
 he was a second time dismissed from the excise. 
 
 (q) The following anecdote, which in conversation he related himself, 
 first turned his thoughts, he remarked, to government. " 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, occasioned the re- 
 flection, that if it were necessary for a king to have so much of the devil 
 in him, kings might very beneficially be dispensed with." 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. gl 
 
 to it seems to have been that of an exciseman, who naturally 
 enough wanted additional pay. If he had been reinstated in 
 the excise 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 woman, and he did well to change the scene. 
 England had no longer any enjoyment for him. Poor, 
 resourceless, and almost without hope, from government 
 he expected nothing, and if he turned his thoughts upon his 
 wife, upon that which should have been his home, and upon 
 all their endearing and inappreciable ties, what would have 
 been his feelings had he possessed the ordinary sensibility 
 of an ordinarv man ? 
 
 His first engagement in Philadelphia was with Mr. Aitkin, 
 a reputable bookseller. In January, J775, Mr. Aitkin com- 
 menced 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 favourable reception ; 
 of which we shall only say, [that] like the early snow drop y 
 it comes forth in a barren season, and contents itself with 
 foretelling, that CHOICER FLOWERS are preparing to appear." 
 To the politeness of Dr. Rush of Philadelphia; who was 
 a member of the memorable congress, which, on the 4th 
 July, 1776, declared the colonies " Free and Independent 
 States" I am indebted for the following interesting letter. 
 
 " SIR, Philadelphia, July 17//z, ]8pp. 
 
 " In compliance with your request, I send you herewith, 
 ansuers to your questions relative to the late Thomas Paine. 
 u He came to Philadelphia about the year 1772, (;) with 
 a short letter of introductioa 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 1773, (<?) I met him accidentally in Mr. 
 Aitkin's bookstore, and was introduced to him by Mr. Ait- 
 kin. We conversed a few minutes, when 1 left him. Soon 
 
 The thought was not, however, in England, followed up by action. 
 There, he was neither a ministerialist nor an antiministerialist. When- 
 ever he turned his attention to government, 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 England. 
 ' (r) Dr. Rush is mistaken. It was 1774. (*) 1775. 
 
22 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 afterwards I read a 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 I was informed 
 was written by Mr. Paine. This excited my desire to be 
 better acquainted with him. We met soon after at Mr. 
 Aitkiu's bookstore, 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. After this Mr. Aitkin employed him 
 as the editor of his Magazine, with a salary of fifty pounds 
 currency a year. This work was well supported by him. 
 His song upon the death of Gen. Wolfe, (f) and his reflec- 
 tions upon the death of Lord Clive, gave it a sudden curren- 
 cy 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 rela- 
 tive to it. Something appeared to be wanting, to remove 
 them beyond the ordinary short and cold addresses of news- 
 
 (t) I have procured this beautiful Song, and as some groundless 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 washed with care; 
 She mourn' d for her Wolfe, and exclaim' d against fate, 
 
 And gave herself up to despair : 
 The wa'ls of her cell she had sculptured around 
 
 With the feats of her favorite son; 
 And even the dust aa it lay on the ground 
 
 Was engrav'd with some deeds he had done. 
 
 The sire of the gods from his crystalline throne, 
 
 Beheld the disconsolate Dame; 
 And moved \vith her tears he sent Mercury don n, 
 
 And these uere the Tidings that came 
 Britannia, f nbear, not a sigh or a tear 
 
 For thy Wolfe, so deservedly loved ; 
 Your tears shall be ciumg'd imo triumphs of jy, 
 
 For Wolfe is not dead, but removed. 
 
 The sons of the east, the proud giants of old, 
 
 Have crept from tneir darksome abodes; 
 And this is the news, as in Heaven 'twas 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 called to the Army above, 
 
 And the charge was intrusted to me. 
 
 To the plains of Quebec with the orders I flew, 
 
 He begged for a moment's delay f 
 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 br* 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. 23 
 
 paper publications. At this time I called upon Mr. Paine, 
 and suggested to him the propriety of preparing 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 
 objections to it. He seized the idea with avidity, and im- 
 mediately began his famous pamphlet in favour of that mea- 
 sure. He read the sheets to me at my house as he com- 
 posed 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 be- 
 lieve the second, but Judge Wilson being from home when 
 Mr. Paine called upon him, it was not subjected to his in- 
 spection. iS'o addition was made to it by Dr. Franklin, 
 but a passage was struck out, or omitted in printing it, which 
 I conceived to be the most striking in it. It was the follow- 
 ing c< 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 before it was 
 committed to the press. Mr. Paine proposed to call it 
 " Plain Truth." I objected to it and suggested the title of 
 '* Common Sense.'* This was instantly adopted, and no- 
 thing now remained, but to find a printer who had boldness 
 enough to publish it. At that time there was a certain 
 Robert Bell, an intelligent Scotch bookseller and printer in 
 Philadelphia, whom I knew to be as high toned as Mr. 
 Paine upon the subject of American Independence. I men- 
 tioned the pamphlet to him, and he at once consented to run 
 the rish of publishing it. The author and the printer were 
 immediately brought together, and < Common Sense" burst 
 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, 1776, Mr. Paine published a number of 
 essays in Mr. Bradford's paper, under the signature of " The 
 Forester," in defence of the opinions contained in his Com- 
 mon Sense. 
 
 " In the summer and autumn of 1775, he served as a vo- 
 lunteer in the American army under General Washington. 
 Whether he received pay and rations, I cannot tell. He 
 
24 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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. 
 
 fc< The legislature of Pennsylvania gave Mr. Paine 500/. 
 as an acknowledgment of the services he had rendered the 
 United States by his publications. He acted as clerk to the 
 legislature of Pennsylvania about the year 1780. I do not 
 know the compensation he received for his services in that 
 station. lie acted for a while as secretary of the Secret 
 Committee of Congress, but was dismissed by them for pub- 
 lishing some of their secrets relative 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 discovered for philosophical, as well as political sub- 
 jects. 
 
 " 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 Air. Paine when he passed through Phila- 
 delphia a few years ago. His principles, avowed in his 
 " Age of Reason/' were so offensive to me that I did not 
 wish to renew my intercourse with him. 
 
 " I have thus briefly, and in great haste endeavoured 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, 
 
 " MK. CHEETHAM." BENJN. RUSH." 
 
 Paine continued his superintendence of the magazine seve- 
 ral months. In one of his lucubrations, adverting to the 
 riches of the earth, the diligence which is necessary to dis- 
 cover, and the labour to possess them, he thus elegantly 
 invites 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 has not yet 
 acquired the European taste of receiving visitants in her 
 dressing room : She locks and bolts up her private recesses 
 
I 
 
 - 
 
 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 25 
 
 with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to preserve 
 her hoards, but to conceal her age, and hide the remains of a 
 face that was young and lovely in the days of Adam. He 
 that would view nature in her undress, and partake of her in- 
 ternal treasures, must proceed with the resolution of a robber, 
 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 dis- 
 covery of the whole. In such gifts as nature can annually 
 re-create, she is noble and profuse, and entertains the whole 
 world with the interest of her fortunes ; but watches over the 
 whole world with the capital with the care of a miser. Her 
 gold and jewels lie concealed in the 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 possi- 
 bly 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. Aitkin, 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 indistinctly mentioned, but no where encou- 
 raged. Never were a people more attached to a government 
 and nation, than were the colonists to the government and 
 people of England. Reconciliation so adjusted as to have 
 left them the right of granting their own money by their Pro- 
 vincial Assemblies, would have been universally satisfactory. 
 There was no wish for a separation ; none for a republic. 
 That indulgence which might have been allowed, which was 
 compatible with the British constitution, and essential to free- 
 dom, would have retained the colonies to the Crown, we 
 know not how long, but probably for a century at least, () 
 
 (u) Alluding to the predominant wishes of the colonists soon after hi$ 
 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 at- 
 tachment to Britain was obstinate, and it was at that time a kind of trea- 
 son to speak against it : they disliked the ministry, but they esteemed the 
 nation. Their idea of grievance operated without resentment, and their 
 single object was reconciliation/' Crisis, No. 7. 
 
 " Independence was a doctrine scarce and rare even towards the conclu- 
 sion of the year '75. All our politicks had been founded on the hope or 
 
26 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 In this spirit of cordial affection, Congress, on the 8th of 
 July, 1775, petitioned the king, most humbly imploring his 
 majesty to devise some method by which English freedom 
 might be extended and secured to the colonies. 
 
 " Attached, they say, to your Majesty's person, family, and 
 government, with all the devotion which principle and affec- 
 tion can inspire ; connected with Great Britain by the strong- 
 est ties that can unite societies, and deploring every event 
 that tends in any degree to weaken them, we solemnly assure 
 your majesty, that we not only most ardently desire the for- 
 mer harmony between her and these colonies may be restor- 
 ed, but that a concord may be established between them 
 upon so firm a basis as to perpetuate its blessings, uninter- 
 rupted by any future dissentions, to succeeding generations 
 in both countries. 
 
 " We therefore beseech your majesty, that your royal au- 
 thority and influence may be graciously interposed to pro- 
 cure 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 im- 
 portant purposes, that your majesty be pleased to direct some 
 mode by which the united applications of your faithful colo- 
 nists to the throne, may be improved into a happy and per- 
 manent reconciliation.'* (v) 
 
 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 
 court." Crisis, No. 3. 
 
 (v) Journals of Congress. Mr. Burke has a passage respecting Dr. 
 Franklin which etinces the Doctor's attachment to the British govern- 
 ment, how strongly soever he may have beeri opposed to some of its acts. 
 " What might have been in the secret thoughts of some of their leaders, it 
 if impossible to say. As far as a man so locked up as Dr. Franklin, could 
 be expected to communicate his ideas, I believe he opened them to Mr. 
 Burke. It was, I think, the very day before he set out for America, that 
 a refy long conversation passed between them, and with a greater air of 
 openness ort the Doctor's side than Mr. Burke had observed in him before. 
 Irt this discourse Dr. Franklin lamented, and with apparent sincerity, the 
 separation which he feared was inevitable between Great Britain and her 
 colonies. He certainly ypoke of it as an event which gave him the great- 
 est concern. America, he said, would never again see such happy days as 
 she had passed under the protection of England. He observed, 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 
 wheiher they were to remain as they had been before the troubles, for bet* 
 ter ; he allowed, they could not hope to be, but whether they were to give 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 27 
 
 Congress directed the petition, on which the hopes of the 
 colonists principally rested, to be presented to the king by 
 Mr. Penn, who was sent to England on purpose, accompani- 
 ed by the colony agents residing in London. On the first of 
 September, 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 re- 
 ceived by congress at the close of October, and the effect of 
 it on the colonists was inconceivable. From the top of ex- 
 pectation they were all at once precipitated down to the 
 lowest abyss of despondency. AH prospect of relief from 
 England had vanished. With the images of their brethren 
 slaughtered at- Lexington fresh in memory, their conditi- 
 on was a defenceless one. Called upon for unconditional 
 submission, they were menaced with military execution in 
 case of disobedience. Still, even now, few thought seriously 
 of independence. The mind was overpowered by fear, rather 
 than alive to safety. 
 
 Paine, like Milton's vanquished fiend, looking back malig- 
 nantly on England as a Paradise lost to him ; availing him- 
 self of this awful pause, and joyously turning to his account 
 the highhanded measures of an infatuated cabinet, wrote hi* 
 COMMON SKNSE; probably in revenge for his expulsion 
 from the excise. This pamphlet of forty octavo pages, (a;) 
 holding out relief by proposing INDEPENDENCE to an op- 
 pressed and despairing people, was published in January, 
 ]776\ Speaking a language which the colonists had felt, but 
 not thought, its popularity, terrible in its consequences to the 
 parent country, was unexampled in the history of the press. (#) 
 
 up so happy a situation without a struggle ? Mr. Burke had several other 
 conversations with him about that time, in none of which, soured and ex- 
 asperated 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. 
 
 (zu) Philadelphia, ed. 1797. 
 
 (x) " Nothing could be better timed than this performance. In union with 
 the feelings and sentiments of the people, it produced 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 to their wishes, but the objer . of their abhor- 
 rence, the current suddenly became so strong in its favour, that it bore f 
 down all before it." Ramsay's Rev. vol. 1, p. 336\7 London, 1793. 
 
 "The publications which have appeared. ha\ i-romoted the 
 
 spirit of independency, but no one so much as the ^ *ndei the sig- 
 
 nature of Common Sense, written by Mr. Thomas Paint, . . ; i shman. 
 
 Nothing could have been better timed than this performance : n has produced j 
 most astonishing effects." Gordon's Rev. voL 2, p. 78. New York, iaii ^ ^ 
 
28 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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, 
 reperused it, its arguments, nourishing his feelings and ap- 
 pealing to his pride, reanimated his hopes and satisfied his 
 understanding, that COMMON SENSE, backed by the re- 
 sources and force of the colonies, poor and feeble as they 
 were, could alone rescue them from the unqualified oppres- 
 sion with which they were threatened. The unknown au- 
 thor, in the moments of enthusiasm which succeeded, was 
 hailed as an angel sent from heaven to save from all the, hor- 
 rours of slavery, by his timely, powerful, and unerring coun- 
 cils, a faithful, but abused, a brave, but misrepresented peo- 
 ple, (y) 
 
 As a literary work, Common Sense, energetically as it pro- 
 moted the cause of independence, has no merit. Defectiverin 
 arrangement, inelegant in diction, here and there a sentence 
 excepted j with no profundity of argument, no felicity of re- 
 mark, no extent of research, no classical allusion, nor com- 
 prehension of thought, it is fugitive in nature, and cannot be 
 appealed to as authority on the subject of government. Its 
 distinguishing characteristicks are boldness and zeal, low sar- 
 casm, 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 gene- 
 rous measures ; and, on the other, to the manly spirit of the 
 colonists, which, though often depressed, could not be con- 
 quered. Yet Paine, vain beyond any man I ever read of, (z) 
 or ever knew, was of opinion, in which indeed he was partly 
 correct, that he was not only an efficacious agent in effecting 
 the independence of the colonies, the very prop and stay of 
 the house, but that the revolution, of which he was in a great 
 
 (y) When Common Sense arrived in Albany, the Convention of New- York 
 was in session. General Scott, a leading member, alarmed at the bold- 
 ness and novelty of its arguments, mentioned his fears to several of his 
 distinguished colleagues, 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 ne- 
 cessary 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 ultimately agreed 
 not to oppose it. 
 
 (2) " 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. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. gy 
 
 measure the parent, " led to the discovery of the principles 
 of government :" The assertion was undoubtedly a dictate of 
 gross ignorance. u One of the great advantages of the Ame- 
 rican revolution, has been, that it led to the discovery of the 
 principles, and laid open the impositions of government. r ( a) 
 He might have correctly said, that it led in some respects, to 
 a new practice, but certainly no new principle was discovered. 
 
 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 Co- 
 lumbus ; and that as we owe the discovery of the land to the 
 genius of the one, so we are indebted for the principle to the 
 researches of the other. 
 
 Common Sense treats of the " origin and design of govern- 
 ment; 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 princi- 
 ple, he is brief and feeble. He had, indeed, thought on the 
 subject, but not deeply ; perhaps he had read, though he af- 
 firms that he had not. (/>) If this be so, as no force of genius 
 can adequately supply the defects of study, so no probable 
 degree of vanity could have flattered him with the high expec- 
 tation of being ranked in history with the Harringtons, the 
 Sydneys, and the Lockes of England ; men who have enlight- 
 ened the world with their works ; enlightened England ; 
 England, whence we have drawn all that is excellent in our 
 constitution and worthy in our practice. 
 
 His observations on the origin of government, but lightly 
 touching the subject, are trite ; those on monarchy and here- 
 ditary succession, of no greater solidity, are not new : it was 
 on the latter, however, that he valued himself. Here, if he 
 had not discovered a new principle, he fancied he had ap- 
 plied a new argument. Let us examine his pretensions. 
 
 " To the evils of monarchy we have added that of heredi- 
 tary succession ; and as the first is a degradation and lessen- 
 ing 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 have a right to set up 
 his own family in perpetual preference to. all others for ever ; 
 and though himself might deserve some decent degree of ho- 
 
 (fl) Rights of Man, part 2, 
 
 (6) Adverting to the commencement of his revolutionary labours in 
 America, he remarks : " 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 people's opinions." Rights of Man, part 2. 
 
 
SO LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 nours of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be 
 too unworthy to inherit them. One of the strongest natural 
 proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings is, that nature 
 disapproves of it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn 
 it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion."(c) 
 
 This is the only argument contained in Common Sense 
 against hereditary succession. The conclusion, that which 
 he terms the "strongest natural proof/' although, the period 
 of its publication considered, perhaps very popular, is an im- 
 pertinent and vulgar sarcasm altogether unworthy of the sub- 
 ject. The first part, that which alone is entitled to the ap- 
 pellation of an arguinent, 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 con- 
 sent." (d) 
 
 " It is true, that whatever engagement or promises any 
 one has made for himself, he is under the obligation of them, 
 but cannot, by any compact 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." (e) 
 
 His strictures on the ability of the colonies to become 
 independent, contain nothing remarkable. A very ordinary 
 writer might have written them. 
 
 Accident directed the thoughts of the Americans to a 
 republic. When Common Sense was written, the friends 
 of independence were not republicans. 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 de- 
 signs of the British cabinet were odious. (/) The question, 
 
 (c) Common Sense, p. 13, Phil. 1797. 
 
 (d) Locke on Government, Works, vol. 5, p, 394, Lond. 1801. 
 
 (e) Locke on Government, Works, vol. 5, p, 4078, Lond. J801. 
 
 (f) " 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 concert- 
 ing measures the most disagreeable and dangerous, not from a desire of 
 innovation, not from discontent with the government under which we were 
 lorn and bred, but to preserve the honour of our country, and vindicate the 
 immemorial liberties of our ancestors. In pursuit of these measures, it be- 
 came, not an object of predilection and choice, but of indispensable neces- 
 sity, to assert our independence." President Adams's reply to the address 
 of the young men of Philadelphia, 17i)8. Boston Ed. 
 
when no alternative but colonial vassalage or national inde- 
 pendence presented itself, was one merely of independence : 
 for as Mr. Adams truly remarked, the colonists had no wish 
 but for the " immemorial liberties of their ancestors." To 
 this may be added the observation of Dr. Franklin, that they 
 could not even hope for a government under which they 
 could enjoy liberties more precious. 
 
 On the fourth of July, 1776, congress declared the colo- 
 nies " free and independent states," (g) which was as soon 
 
 Here he plainly says that he was indeed in favour of independence, but 
 not of a form of government different from that of England. He was at- 
 tached " to the immemorial liberty of his ancestors 1" 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 con- 
 versation with me at that time, concerning a pamphlet of mine, [Common 
 Sense] he censured it because it attacked monarchical 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 have quoted him in fa- 
 vour of my position, that the friends of independence were not originally 
 advooates of a republic, if he were not in this instance strengthened and 
 confirmed by a thousand facts and circumstances. Paine's remark is as 
 applicable to the whole of the congress of 1774 5 6, arid so on., and to 
 the colonists at large, as to Mr. Adams. 
 
 (g) 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 
 extraordinary ability was necessary; and as to the principle, it is evidently 
 taken from Locke, without the candour of an acknowledgment. 
 
 " 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 surlerable, than 
 to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustom- 
 ed." Declaration of Independence. 
 
 f" It is true surh men may stir whenever they please, but it will be only 
 to their own just ruin and perdition ; for until the 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 pro- 
 vide 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 go- 
 vernment was first erected." Locke of Government, vol. 5, p. 472, Lond. 
 1801. 
 
32 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 after the publication of Common Sense, Paine remarks, "as 
 the work could spread, through such an extensive country."(/j) 
 
 Paine nttw accompanied the army of independence as a 
 sort of it ; ; jnt writer, of which his pen \vss an appendage 
 almost as necessary and formidable as its cannon. Having 
 no property, he fared as the army fared, and at the same ex- 
 pence ; 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 com- 
 pany, have been a subaltern one. When the colonists droop- 
 ed, he revived them with a CRISIS. The .first of these num- 
 bers he published early in December, 1776. The object of 
 it was good, the method excellent, and the language, suited 
 to the depressed spirits of the army, of public bodies, and 
 of private citizens, cheering. WASHINGTON, defeated on 
 Long-Island, had retreated to New York, and been driven 
 with great loss from Forts Washington and Lee. The gal- 
 lant little army, overwhelmed 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 inens* 
 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 wo- 
 man. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered ; yet we 
 have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict 
 the more glorious the triumph ; what we 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 in- 
 tended effect. The convention of New York, reduced by 
 dispersion, occasioned by alarm, to nine members, was ral- 
 lied and reanimated, (i) Militia-men, who, already tired of 
 
 There is great similarity in the following sentences, excepting only the 
 superiour energy and eloquence of Milton's style. Speaking of " reason 
 and free inquiry/' Mr. Jefferson says : u 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." Nolea 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 injuriously to misdoubt her strength. 
 Let her and falsehood grapple ; who ever knew truth put to the worse in a 
 free and open encounter?" Milton's speech for the liberty of unlicensed 
 printing, Works, vol. 1, p. 326, Lond. 180)6. 
 
 {/O See his Will, in the Appendix. 
 
 (i) 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. 33 
 
 the war, were straggling from the army, returned. 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 breath- 
 ing 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 
 ridicules his proclamation " commanding all congresses, 
 committees, &c. to desist and cease from their treasonable 
 doings." Against the king and his purposes, it is full of in- 
 vective, but of a sort rather popular than exquisite. Fortu- 
 nately for the United States, the British commander in chief 
 dealt more in impotent proclamations than in the efficacy of 
 arms. Washington's retreat to Trenton was a compulsive one. 
 He had not from choice and by military skill drawn the Hes- 
 sians 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 ener- 
 getic commander. Washington's patience and care, his ad- 
 mirable coolness and prudence, although often, in the course 
 of the war, provoked to battle by a thousand irritating cir- 
 cumstances, 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 con- 
 duct, lost it to the crown. 
 
 On the lyth of April, 1776, he published at Philadelphia, 
 the 3d No. of the CRISIS. As there had been no military 
 operations from the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, it 
 was devoted to an examination of occurrences since the de- 
 claration of independence, and, as he seems to have been in 
 lack of matter, to a repetition of the arguments which he had 
 employed in Common Sense in favour of independence. To 
 these are incidentally added, as if to lengthe'n out the num- 
 ber, light immaterial observations on paper emissions. Ex- 
 cept some sensible remarks on the utility of reflecting on 
 past transactions, the only thing in this number worthy of 
 observation, and that but for reprehension, is the following 
 vulgarity. " 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 patience on the brutality, luxury, and debauchery 
 of the British court, and the violations of their army here, A 
 
 c 
 
34 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 hchemes for supporting the tory cause in this city, 
 for which several are now in gaol, and one hanged, were con- 
 certed 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 Affairs. (/) He now 
 left the army to attend to the Committee. 
 
 Bitterly as lie pretended to be opposed to TITLES, when 
 grasping the pillars of the British government, he endea- 
 voured 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 as- 
 sumption. In the title-page of his Rights of Man, he styles 
 himself, 6i 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 we see, by a Commit- 
 tee, or Board, of which he was secretary, or clerk ; 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 Depart- 
 ment, lie was, however, determined to give himself a higher 
 title. Unsubstantial in essence as superadditions to names 
 are, he nevertheless liked them, and seemed to be aware, 
 that universally they possess a charm, (A 1 ) to which he was by 
 no means insensible. From this and many other circumstances 
 
 (j) " Resolved, that the stile of the committee of secret correspondence 
 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 dnllais a month. That the said secretary, previous 
 to his entering on his office, take an oaih to be administered by the presi- 
 dent, well and faithfully to execute the trust reposed in him according to 
 his best skill and judgment, and to disclose DO 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 piescribed for the officers of the 
 army, and passed the 2 1st of Oct. 17?6, and that a certificate thereof be 
 given to tne president, and lodged with the secretary of congress. 
 
 " Congress proceeded to the election of the said secretary, and the ballots 
 being taken, Thomas Paine was elected." Journals of Congress. 
 
 (k) There is perhaps no nation so iond 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, Colonel 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 ta?ern. This is 
 universal, and we feel rxeglected if our title be forgotten. Yet we smile con- 
 temptuously at the weakness of nations by which titles are acknowledged I 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 35 
 
 \ve may infer, that his objections to being himself a lord of 
 the bed chamber, or a groom of the stole, a master of the 
 hounds, or a gentleman in waiting, would not have been strong- 
 er than were his wishes to be retained in the excise. But he 
 was totally unfit to be secretary of state, the title which he 
 had impudently assumed. He had neither the soberness of 
 habit, the reservedness of deportment, the urban'ty of man- 
 ners, the courteousness of language, the extent of reading, 
 nor the wide range of thought, which a station so distinguish- 
 ed requires. Me was formed, as has often been observed, to 
 pull down, not to set up. His fort was anarchy. Order 
 was the perpetual and invincible enemy of his talents. In 
 tranquillity he sunk into the kennel of intemperance ; in a 
 commotion of the political elements, he rode conspicuously 
 on the surge. (/) 
 
 On the 12th of Sept. 1777, he published, at Philadelphia, 
 the 4th No. of the CRISIS. Hojve, gaining some advantage 
 at Brandywine, had nevertheless deemed it prudent to fall 
 back on the Sduiylkill. Paine's object was to convince the; 
 people that a victory so trifling, followed by a retiring march, 
 was in fact a defeat. Exhorting the army to perseverance, 
 and conjuring the people to reinforce it, nothing was neces- 
 sary, he ingeniously urged, to drive Howe from the Schuylkill, 
 but conduct at once prompt, spirited, and energetic. 
 
 No. 5 of the CRISIS, addressed " to General Sir William 
 Howe," was published at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, March 21, 
 1778. It ridicules at great length Sir William's title. In this 
 sort of writing, always successful when appealing to popular 
 feeling, he was not always refined. He describes Sir Wil- 
 liam as a "savage holding humanity in contempt.'' Deriving 
 his commission from the " royal brute," he thinks it disho- 
 nourable. For language so rude, some apology may perhaps 
 be found in the nature and operations of the war. His busi- 
 ness was to excite and keep up a revolutionary spirit. He 
 charges Sir William with having forged continental paper 
 represents him as a felon speaks of the ease with which the 
 offence might be dreadfully retorted upon England, "a nation 
 
 (/) Madame Roland describes him admirably. " Among the persons 
 whom I w'as'm the habit of seeing, Paine deserves to be mentioned. J 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 Re- 
 volution, better than he concurs in tbe 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 aTa 
 vein ; but for a cool discussion in a committee, or the regular labours of a 
 legislator, I conceive David Williams, [ari Englishman] infinitely mord pro. 
 per than Paine," Roland's Appeal, vol. 1, part 2, p. 5, New- York, 1798. 
 
36 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 of paper money," and reminds him, that the laws of his coun- 
 try punish forgery with death ! He associates Sir William 
 with the Indians, who had been let loose, it was said, on our 
 defenseless inhabitants. Of the conquest of Burgoyne, he 
 writes in triumphant terms* On the military conduct of 
 Washington he is glowingly encomiastic, but of his just eulo- 
 giums on that extraordinary man, it will be proper to pay 
 more particular attention when we approach the defamations 
 which he subsequently wrote at Paris. He advises Sir W. 
 to go home, and pronounces the States unconquerable. This 
 number is the most judicious and able of the series. 
 
 No. 6 of the CRISIS, without date, (m) is addressed to the 
 66 Inhabitants of America." " As a good opinion of our- 
 selves," he observes, " is necessary to the support of a na- 
 tional character," 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. 
 
 No. 7 of the CRISIS, published in Philadelphia, Oct. 20, 
 3778, is addressed to the "Earl of Carlisle, Gen. Clinton, 
 and W. Eden, Esq. Commissioners at New-York." These 
 gentlemen, when the States were proudly confident of ultimate 
 success, laughably enough revived the paper-war which Gen. 
 Howe had farcically commenced and vigorously prosecuted. 
 In a proclamation, announcing the " benevolent intentions of 
 the king," they alternately coaxed and threatened. Coaxing 
 was now ridiculously out of character, and menacing, with the 
 surrender of Burgoyne staring them in the face, was suffici- 
 ently impotent. Paine handled both topics with an acute- 
 ness which the States must have admired, and a force which 
 the Commissioners undoubtedly felt. 
 
 The CRISIS, No. 8. published in Philadelphia, Nov. 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 represents, with great 
 cogency of argument, the possible success of the ministr^ r 
 which he does not however admit, as detrimental in its con- 
 sequences to the freedom and prosperity of England. Burke 
 is, however, on this, as on all other subjects on which they 
 write, infinitely his superior. " Considering the Americans 
 on that defensive footing, he thought Great Britain ought in- 
 stantly to have closed with them by the repeal of the taxing 
 act* He was of opinion that our general rights over that 
 
 (m) It is termed, with some others, an extraordinary or supernumerary 
 Crisis ; but it will be less embarras&ing to number them all. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 37 
 
 country would have been preserved 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 foreign troops, he thought that their cause grew daily bet- 
 ter, because daily more defensive, and that ours, because 
 daily more offensive, grew 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 consti- 
 tutional rights and privileges, %nd afterwards habituated 
 (though in America) to keep an English people in a state of 
 abject submission, would prove fatal in the end to the liberty 
 of England itself." (?i) Of the philosophy of politics) Paine 
 chuses to think the cabinet of England totally ignorant. He 
 considers the government as one of precedent and venality 
 only, and, whether deservedly or not, thus pleasantly sati- 
 rises its prime minister. " As to Lord North, it is his happi- 
 ness to have in him more of philosophy than sentiment, for 
 he bears flogging like a top, and sleeps the better for it. His 
 punishment becomes his support, for while be suffers the lash 
 for his sins, he keeps himself up by twirling about." 
 
 On the 8th of Jan. 1779, he compulsively resigned his 
 clerkship to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, having held 
 it twenty-one months. As the circumstances occasioning and 
 accompanying his resignation, have not, materially as they 
 affect his character, been fully explained, a statement of them 
 somewhat minute, may find in its pertinence an apology for 
 its prolixity. 
 
 Very early in the struggle for independence, before, I be* 
 Ueve, it \vas declared, Silas Deane, an artful speculator on the 
 revolution, but a man neither of solid nor splendid acquire^ 
 ments, was employed by the committee of secret correspon- 
 dence, afterwards the committee of foreign affairs, to pur-r 
 chase in France, as a merchant, or to obtain from the French 
 government for congress, certain military supplies. He was 
 soon after Darned by the secret committee of correspondence, 
 with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Le,e, in a commission to thQ 
 court of France. 
 
 () Burke's Appeal from the New to the OU Whigs, Works, vol. <, j>,' 
 133 4i Lpnd. 1803, 
 
38 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 At this period, Louis the XVI. intent on a comparative 
 aggrandizement of his power by abridging the power of his 
 rival, and with characteristic perfidy secretly fomenting the 
 dispute between England and her colonists, cordially and 
 promptly granted the supplies, which Paine says, (0) and pro- 
 bably in this instance he may be credited, were furnished 
 from the king's arsenal. 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 connexion 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 
 committee of correspondence, that the supplies, which were 
 a present from Louis, an exciting gratuity, should never be 
 known as such. The transaction was therefore to assume 
 the air of an ordinary mercantile one, and a Mr. Beaumar- 
 chais, a creature of Louis, or of Silas Deane, perhaps of 
 both, was the agent in whose name the supplies were to be 
 dispatched. Three ships, the Amphitrite, Seine, and Mer- 
 cury, 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 Bijrgoynt, and 
 when, therefore, the politic court of France concluded, that 
 wjth a little aid, the colonies might be severed for ever from 
 the British crown, the alliance between France and the States, 
 the effect of those brilliant events, was formed and ratified. 
 Still, notwithstanding the alliance, as tjie supplies were a 
 gratuity, as the king's word, which was the king's honour, 
 and the word of a secret committee of correspondence had 
 been given, that they should be so considered, the alliance 
 neither varied the transaction, 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 con- 
 gress to audit his accounts. Deane, clearly, I think, with 
 fraudulent designs, had left in France the principal part of his 
 papers. Considering, however, both France and America 
 bound not to disclose the nature of the supplies, he presented 
 himself in settling his accounts., as a kind of co-agent, with a 
 Mr. Francey, for Beaumarchais, in whose name he claimed 
 compensation for them. The auditing committee, perhaps 
 made acquainted by the secret committee of correspondence 
 with the nature of the supplies, questioned the justness of the 
 
 (o) See his letter to congress in the Appendix. 
 
LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 39 
 
 claim. Deane, surely a bold-faced villain, appealed to the 
 public. With Deane, Paine entered the field of newspaper 
 dispute, under the imposing head of " Common Sense to the 
 public 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 congress, to inspect an 
 account in my office, or any of Mr. Deane's friends in con- 
 gress will take the trouble of coming themselves, I will give 
 him or them my attendance, and show them in handwriting, 
 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' 
 61 disclose no matter, the knowledge of which shall be ac- 
 quired in consequence of his oific'e," not only wantonly and 
 without any sort of necessity (and no necessity could miti- 
 gate the offence) violated his oath, and embarrassed congress, 
 but proclaimed to the world the insidious conduct of France, 
 and the falsities of the king's declarations to England, at and 
 subsequent to the time when the " PRESENT" was made. 
 Deane's accounts were not to be settled by the " public," 
 but by the guardians of the public. The public, in the 
 gross character of a public, had nothing to do with the trans- 
 action, but quietly to receive the benefit of it. His appeal 
 to them was consequently as unnecessary as it was repre- 
 hensible. But he says (//) " I prevented Deane's fraudu- 
 lent demand being paid, and so far the country is obliged to 
 me; but I became the victim of my integrity." To an enor^ 
 mous 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 notori- 
 ous fact, a wilful falsehood. His newspaper victory (q) had 
 not, could not have had the effect which he ascribes to it. 
 How could he by any appeal to the public have prevented 
 the payment of the demand by the auditing committee ? If 
 the committee had been disposed to yield to the collusive and 
 nefarious 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 
 
 (p} See his letter to congress in the Appendix:. 
 
 (</) No doubt he ohtained one, for besides being a rogue, Deane was ex- 
 tremely illiterate. See his defence, published in London after the peace, 
 and republished by Hudson and Goodwin, Hartford, Connecticut, l784t 
 
40 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 rigo- 
 rous scrutiny into his accounts their refusal to pay the claim 
 (r) their referring him to congress, who alone could autho- 
 rise an inspection or exposition of the secret papers A re- > 
 suit exactly the reverse of that mentioned by Paine was the 
 fact. Instead of preventing by his publications the payment 
 of Beaumarchais' claim, his publications were the means, 
 fraudulent 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 deveiopement of 
 the secret, at the exposition of his master, presented a me- 
 morial to congress. What was the consequence ? Why, that 
 congress, in order to quiet the fears of Gerard, and to cover 
 as well as they could the word of honour which his most 
 Christian majesty had given to England, Rc$olved % as appears 
 in their proceedings below in reference to Paine, which I 
 quote at length, (s) that the PRESENT was not a present ; 
 
 (r) See Gordon's History of the Revolution, vol. 2, page 405-6-7, where, , 
 although the transaction is inaccurately and feebly stared, it will be seen, 
 that the conduct of the auditing committee, firm and dignified undoubtedly, 
 was rather haughty than yielding. 
 
 (s) " Tuesday, Jan. 5, 1779- A memorial from the minister of France 
 was read, respecting^sundry passages in two news- papers annexed, of the 
 2d and 5th inst. 
 
 " Ordered, That the consideration thereof be postponed till to-morrow. 
 
 " Wednesday, Jan. 6, 1779. A letter of this day from Thomas Paine, 
 was read ; whereupon, The order of the day on the memorial of the minis- 
 ter of France was called for, and the said memorial being read : 
 
 " Ordered, That Mr. John Dunlap, printer, and Mr. Thomas Paine, 
 attend immediately at the bar of this house. 
 
 ** Mr John Dunlap attending, was called in, and the newspapers of the 
 2d and 5th of Jan. inst. intitled, * Pennsylvania Packet, or General Ad- 
 vertiser/ being shewn to him, he was aeked whether he was the publisher ; 
 to which he answered, yes : He was then asked, who is the author ot the 
 pieces in the said papers, under the title " Common Sense to the public 
 on Mr. Deane's affairs ; w to which he answered, Mr. Thomas Paine : he 
 was then ordered 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, under the title * Common Sense to the public on 
 Mr. Deane's affairs ;' he answered that be was the author of those pieces : 
 he was then ordered to withdraw. ' 
 
 " Thursday, Jan. 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 Ad- 
 vertiser, printed by John Dunlap, lelalive 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 con- 
 jecture, they ought not by any means to be considered as justly authenti- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 41 
 
 that Beanmarchais* claim should be paid, and in addition, 
 that the president of congress be directed to write him a com- 
 
 cated : That congress never lias given occasion for, or sanction to any of 
 the said publications : That congress : ever has received any species of mi- 
 litary stores as a present from the couit of France, or from any other court 
 or persons in Europe : That Mr. Thomas Paine for his imprudence, ought 
 immediately to be dismissed from his office of secretary to the committee 
 of foreign affairs, and the said committee are directed to dismiss him ac- 
 cordingly, and to take such fuither 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 were moved : Whereas Thomas Paine, secretary to the com- 
 mittee 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 fol- 
 lowing paragraph, viz. * If Mr. Deane or any other gentleman will pro- 
 cure an order from congress to inspect an account in my office, or any <jf 
 Mr. Deane's friends in congress will take the 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 s;> pom- 
 pously 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 account is, 
 
 * upon Mr. Deane's arrival in France the businees 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 Jan. 5th, 
 1779) under the same title, in which is the following paragraph, to wit : 
 
 * and in the second instance, that those who 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 publications, 
 that the supplies sent to America in the Amphitrit?, 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 authenticate the said false insinuations, by 
 referring to papers in the office of the committee 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 affairs., referred to by the minister of France in his memorial of 
 the 5th inst. .aid are ready to adopt uny measure consistent with good 
 policy and their own honour, for correcting any assertions or insinuations 
 in the said publications derogatory to the honour of the court of France : 
 That a committee be appointed to consider the said memorial and para- 
 graphs referred u> ; that they confer with the minister of France on the 
 subject, and report as S"On as may be. 
 
 ""In lieu of the whole, the following resolution was moved as a substi- 
 tute, viz. Whereas exceptionable passages have appeared in Mr. Dunlap's 
 Pennsylvania Packet of the 2d and 5th inst. under the character of Com- 
 
42 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 plimentary letter, thanking him for his exertions, and assuring 
 him of their regard." Upon these proceedings, forced upon 
 
 inon Sense ; and Thomas Paine, secretary to the committee of foreign 
 affairs, 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 explain and shew by what authority he 
 made those publications, 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 beins required by Mr. G. Morris, 
 New Hampshire, Mr. Whipple, ay \ ay 
 
 Massachusetts- Bay, Mr. Gerry, nui 
 
 x Mr. Lovell,- no> n 
 
 Mr. IloUcn, ay) 
 
 Rhode Island. Mr. Ellery, ay ) ,. ., , 
 
 Mr. Collins, no\ dmded 
 
 Connecticut; Mr. Dyer, ay^ 
 
 Mr. Root, ay j a ^ 
 
 New York, Mr. Jay, no^k 
 
 Mr. Duane, . no ( 
 
 Mr. G. Morris, no ( 
 
 Mr. Lewis, no ) 
 
 New Jersey, Mr. Withtrspoon, woS 
 
 Mr. Scudder, no \no 
 
 Mr Fell, oj 
 
 Pennsylvania, Mr. Roberdeau, ay) 
 
 Mr. Atlee, no> ey 
 
 Mr. Searle, ay) 
 
 Delaware, Mr. M'Kean, ay \ ay 
 
 Maryland, Mr. Paca, no) 
 
 Mr. Canftichacl, no> no 
 
 Mr. Henry, ay) 
 
 Virginia, Mr T. Adams, no} 
 
 Mr. F. L. Lee, ay> no 
 
 Mr. M Smith, o) 
 
 North-Carolina, Mr. Penn, no) 
 
 Mr. Hill, no 110 
 
 Mr. Burke, no) 
 
 South -Carolina, Mr Lauren?, ay) 
 
 Mr. Dray ton, no> no 
 
 Mr. Hut sou, no) 
 
 Georgia, Mr. Lang worthy, no [ no 
 
 So it passed in the negative. 
 
 " Friday, Jan. 8, 1779. A letter, of this day, from Thomas Pains, 
 read, by which he resigns his office of secretary to the committee of foreign 
 affairs, and in which are the following words, t finding by tho journals of 
 this house of yesterday that I am not to be heard/ &c. whereupon a 
 member desired to be informed how Mr. Paine had acquired that know- 
 ledge, and the tecretary was desired to inform the house whether Mr. 
 Paine had access to the journal ; the secretary answered, i that Mr. Paine 
 had not seen 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 commuuicated the procetxU 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 43 
 
 congress by Paine's publications, Beaumarchais, supported 
 by bis imperial majesty and king, Napoleon, founded a substan- 
 
 ings of congress to any person whatever/ A motion was then made, that 
 Mr. Thomas Paine, secretary to the committee of foreign affairs, be di- 
 rected immediately 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 communicated the resolutions of yesterday to Mr. Tho- 
 mas 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 of 
 the journals, which would inform him more certainly, and he was per- 
 suaded Mr. Thompson would readily show the journal. 
 
 " Saturday, Jan. 9, 1779. Congress resumed the consideration of the 
 letter of the 8th, from Thomas Paine ; whereupon, Resolved, That the de- 
 termination of the question of the 7th inst. for substituting the last amend- 
 ment in lieu of all the sets 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 construed to imply, that congress had determined that Mr. Thomas 
 Paine was not to be heard. 
 
 " Monday, Jap. 11, 1779. A memorial dated the 10th inst. from the 
 hon. sieur Gerard, minister plenipotentiary of France, was read : 
 
 " Ordered, That the subject under debate on Thursday last be immedi- 
 ately taktn into consideration. On the question to substitute a 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 tbe first : Resolved in the affirmative. 
 
 " The first resolution in the second set was then read : 
 
 " Resolved, That the consideration of the subject be postponed till to- 
 morrow. 
 
 " Tuesday, Jan. 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 foreign affairs, has acknow- 
 ledged himself to be the author ; and also the memorials of the minister 
 plenipotentiary of France of the 5th and 10th inst. respecting the said 
 j'lihlicatious ; whereupon, 
 
 " Resolved unanimously, That in answer to the memorials of the 
 hon. sicur Gerard, minister plenipotentiary of his most Christian majesty, 
 of the 5th and lOih inst. the president be directed to assure the said mi- 
 njster, that congress do fully, in the clearest and most explicit manner, 
 disavow the publications referred to in his said memorials ; and as they 
 are convinced by indisputable evidence, that the supplies shipped in the 
 Aniphitrite, 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 bis v alliance with, any supplies whatever sent to America, so 
 they have not authorized 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. 
 
44 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 tial claim, and prosecuted it with such vigour and success, 
 that, in the year 1 80S, he obtained from the attorney general 
 
 "Friday, Jan. 15, 1779- The committee, consisting of Mr. M. Smith, 
 Mr. Ellery, Mr. Drayton, to whom was referred the letter of the 28th of 
 November lust from Mons. de Francey, having brought in a report, the 
 same was taken into consideration ; and thereupon, 
 
 " Resolved, That according to the agreement entered into with M. de 
 Francey, agent of M. de Beaumarchais, at York, on the 7th day of April, 
 1778, remittance should be made with all convenient dispatch to the said 
 M. de Beaumarchais. 
 
 " Resolved, That the requisition of M. de Francey in his letter of the 
 28th of Nov. last, is reasonable, and that 3000 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 M de Beaumarchais: 
 
 " SIR, 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. Circumstances have prevented 
 a compliance with their wishes, but they will take the most effectual 
 measures in their power to discharge the debt due to you. The liberal 
 sentiments and extensive views which alone could dictate a conduct like 
 yours, are conspicuous in your actions 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 or.ler of Congress. PRESIDENT. 
 
 " Saturday, Jan. 16, 1779. Resolved, That congress agree to the report. 
 
 4 ' Congress took into consideration the letters from Thomas Paine j 
 TV hereupon a motion was made, That Mr. Thomas Paine, secretary to the 
 committee of foreign affairs, be dismissed from office. TQ which an 
 amendment was offered as a substitute in the following words : That Tho- 
 mas 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 foreign affairs, for the publications of which he confessed 
 himself to be the author when he was before the house on the 6th day of 
 January last. 
 
 '- Another amendment was moved as a substitute to both the foregoing 
 propositions in the words following : Whereas congress were about to pro- 
 ceed against Thomas Paine, secretary to the committee of foreign affairs, 
 for certain publications and letters, 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 directed to take out 
 of the possession of Thomas Paine all the public papers entrusted to him 
 as secretary to that committee, and then discharge him from that office. 
 
 " When the question was about to be 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 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 45 
 
 of the United States, through congress, a report in favour of 
 satisfying his 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 1 
 
 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. 
 
 In the opinion of congress, Paine, in whom it was ascer- 
 tained that official trust could not be reposed, now sunk into 
 vileness. Dismissed from his clerkship to the committee for 
 a scandalous breach of office, his prospects, except the po- 
 pular hold which he still had on the people, to whom his 
 misconduct was not perhaps known, were almost as discou- 
 raging as when, a second time dismissed from the excise in 
 England, he was assailed with continuous* pains of hunger. 
 His salary for officiating as clerk to the committee, parsimo- 
 nious and spunging as he was, was scarcely adequate, consi- 
 dering the depreciation of the currency in which it was paid, 
 to the expences of his board. He had therefore made no 
 
 provision for the forlorn condition in which he now found 
 
 j 
 
 being then about to be put on the main question, a division was called for, 
 and the yeas and nays being required on the first part by M. M'Kean, 
 " Resolved unanimously, in the affirmative. 
 
 " On the question to agree in the second clause, namely, ' and then dis- 
 charge him from that office/ the yeas and nays being required by Mr. Penn, 
 New- Hampshire, 
 Massachusetfs-Bay, 
 
 Rhode-Island, 
 Connecticut* 
 New-York, 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 North-Carolina, 
 
 South-Carolina, 
 
 Georgia, 
 " So the state* being divided, the clause was lost." 
 
 Mr Whipple, 
 
 no 1 no 
 
 Mr. Gerry, 
 
 nol 
 
 Mr. S. Adams, 
 
 ^ J1Q 
 
 Mr Lovell, 
 
 
 Mr. Holten, 
 
 ay) 
 
 Mr. Ellery, 
 Mr. Collins. 
 
 110 1 divided 
 
 oy ) 
 
 Mr. Dyer, 
 Mr Root, 
 
 *{* 
 
 no) 
 
 Mr. Jay, 
 
 a y \ 
 
 Mr. Lewis, 
 
 ay) y 
 
 Mr. Robcrdean, 
 
 nu\ 
 
 Mr. Searle, 
 
 nof 
 
 Mr Atlee, 
 
 > no 
 
 Mr. Shippen, 
 
 no) 
 
 Mr. M'Kean, 
 
 no! no 
 
 Mr. Paca, 
 
 ay) ay 
 
 Mr. Carmichael, 
 
 
 Mr. T. Adams, 
 
 a y) 
 
 Mr. F. L. Lee, 
 
 not ay 
 
 Mr, M. Smith, 
 
 
 Mr. Penn, 
 
 a y) 
 
 Mr, Hill, 
 
 ay> ay 
 
 Mr. Burke, 
 
 ayj 
 
 Mr, Drayton, 
 
 
 Mr. Hutson, 
 
 no ) 
 
 Mr. Langworthy, 
 
 ay\ ay 
 
46 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 himself; for as yet public bounty had not, bating his mainten- 
 ance by the army while he was with it, been extended to him 
 for his political labours. Thus situated, thus abandoned by 
 the assembled wisdom and patriotism of the States, he hired 
 himself as a clerk to Owen Biddle, of Philadelphia, (t) In 
 this clerkship, where, perhaps, he had no secrets to betray, 
 he prosecuted his controversy with Deane, who, he remarks, 
 " absconded and took poison" in England, (u) The poison- 
 ing, if true, but it is not, must, I have no doubt from his 
 manner of mentioning it, from the constitution ot his mind, 
 and from the malignity of feelings which he indulged, have 
 afforded him great satisfaction. But Deane, whatever causes 
 he might have had in other respects for self-upbraiding and 
 condemnation, and he must have had many, certainly had 
 none in reference to Beaumarchais' claim, which, as he knew 
 before he u absconded," had, through the impertinent med- 
 dling of Paine, succeeded with congress. The probability is 
 that he triumphantly returned to Paris, (v) to receive from 
 Beaumarchais, his colleague in the fraud, the infamous re- 
 ward of his infamous conduct. Having finished his disputa- 
 tion 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 as- 
 sembly of Pennsylvania, (w) 
 
 As if nothing had happened personally to himself, he now 
 returned to the GRISTS , and published, in March 1780, thefith 
 number. This is a: continuation of his address to the people 
 of England. It is an ordinary description of -the ordinary 
 calamities of war, biat mentions them as operating with almost 
 peculiar seventy on the colonists. Being well calculated to 
 keep up the i evolutionary spirit, it was probably serviceable. 
 
 In the following June he published, at Philadelphia, the 
 10th 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 confi- 
 dence by dissipating gloom. He represents the attacks in 
 the south as so many indications of military weakness, and 
 zealously concludes with the remark, that Cl 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 ac- 
 
 (0 An attorney, I believe : see his letter to congress in the Appendix. 
 
 (u) See his letter to congress in the Appendix. 
 
 () From Paris he went to London. 
 
 (zu) See his letter to congress in the Appendix. 
 
LIFE Of THOMAS PAINE. 47 
 
 cordingly, is no longer worthy of a peaceable rasidence among 
 a people determined to be free. 
 
 No. 11 of the Crisis was published at Philadelphia the 
 succeeding October. The fiscal means of congress being ex- 
 hausted, from an unaccountable unwillingness in the people 
 to bear increased burthens, he runs a consoling parallel be- 
 tween the expences of England in carrying 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 indispensa- 
 ble, may be commensurately raised without greatly incom- 
 moding 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 ur- 
 gent 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 financial distress, congress framed 
 a mission to France, in order to obtain a loan. Col. Lau- 
 rens, ton of the late president of congress, was appointed to 
 fill it. Paine, at the solicitation of the colonel, he says, (,r) 
 but certainly without the agency or approbation of congress, 
 accompanied him to France, but in what capacity is not 
 known, as major Jackson was the colonel's secretary. They 
 sailed in February, 1781 arrived in France the following 
 month obtained a loan of ten millions of livres, and a pre- 
 sent of six, and landed in America the succeeding August, 
 with two millions and a half in silver. According to Paine, 
 this aid enabled the army to " move to York-Town," where 
 Cornwallis and his troops surrendered, (y) But he was guil- 
 ty of an egregious falsehood. The combined armies under 
 Washington and Rochambeau had moved before the money 
 arrived. Assertion so strong should be supported by proof. 
 " We sailed from Brest," Paine observes, " in the Resolve 
 frigate the 1st of June, and arrived at Boston the 25th of 
 August, bringing with us 1;wo millions and a half 141 silver, 
 and convoying a ship and brig laden with clothing and milU 
 tary stores. The money was transported in sixteen ox-teams 
 to the national bank at Philadelphia, which enabled the army 
 
 (x) See his letter lo congress in the Appendix. He intimates that the 
 mission originated from him, and takes to him r self the credit of it ; hut as 
 I knew him, my mind involuntarily doubts almost all his assertions. He 
 was rarely to be believed. 
 
 (j/) See his letter in the Appendix, 
 
48 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 to movt to York-Town, to attack, in conjunction with the 
 French army under Rochambeau, the British army under 
 Cornwallis" (z) This is a specimen, a poor one indeed, of 
 the almost treasonable arguments which his invincible at- 
 tachment to France in preference to all other nations, not ex- 
 cepting his " beloved America," often prompted him to use 
 in newspaper effusions in 1807-8 ; attachment strong enough 
 to have led him to a base surrender of our national indepen- 
 dence to 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 towards the theatre 
 of the decisive event, 1 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 commanders, that General Washington and Count 
 Rochambeau 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." (a} It appears, according to Ramsay, that the plan 
 was laid more than three months anterior to the arrival of 
 the money at Boston in August, and that on the 6th of May 
 the armies had u passed the British head-quarters at New- 
 York, and were considerably advanced in their way to York- 
 Town." 
 
 Gordon, perhaps generally less copious and elegant, is yet 
 more precise to the point. " The French and American ar- 
 mies continued their march from the northward till they ar- 
 rived 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 fde Grasse] for a loan, which was instantly grant- 
 ed. General Washington and Rochambeau, with their suites 
 and other officers, arrived at Wlliiamsburgh by hard travell- 
 ing on the 14th of September." () The loati then was ap- 
 plied for by Washington when he was at the head of Elk in 
 
 (z) See his letter in the Appendix. 
 
 (a) Ramsay's Hist. Rev, vol. 2, p. 264. 
 
 (*) Gordon's Hist. Rev. vol. 3, p. 254. 
 
1IFB OF THOMAS PAINE. 4$ 
 
 "Maryland, which was at the latter end of August, or, at 
 furthest, on the Jst or ^nd of September. At this time the 
 money, which arrived at Boston on the 25th of An gust, 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 armies, therefore, had not 
 only "moved"' without the money of which Paine speaks, to 
 which he adverts as saving America, on which he vauntingly 
 plumes himself, and the credit of which he arrogantly places 
 to his own account, but Washington had arrived at the head 
 of Elk without a cent of it ; and even then, so far from re- 
 lying 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 Williams burgh, he was ignorant of the arrival of the 
 money at Boston. 
 
 No. J2 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 expence, we are pleased, but with 
 miserable abortions of it we are always disgusted. The 
 number contains, however, some sensible reflections. 
 
 The Crisis, No 13, published at Philadelphia 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, lie was lost in a calm. 
 
 In the following May he published, at Philadelphia, the 
 Crisis, No. 14, on the " Present State of News." Conjec- 
 turing that England would first endeavour to detach France 
 from America, and make a separate peace with her, and that 
 afterwards, if unsuccessful, she would make a similar at- 
 tempt upon the fidelity of the States, it sets forth the reasons 
 for the jealousy 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 Bri- 
 tish court excited in him, he thus forcibly describes, happily 
 illustrates. " We sometimes experience sensations to which 
 language is not equal. The conception is too bulky to be 
 born alive, and in the torture of thinking we stand dumb. 
 Our feelings, imprisoned by their magnitude, find no way 
 
 D 
 
50 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 \ve 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, endeavoured, by propositions which she made to Eng- 
 land, but which England rejected, essentially to deprive the 
 States of the sovereignty for which they had long and ardu- 
 ously struggled, (c) In the same month he published, at 
 Philadelphia, addressed to Sir Guy Carlton, No. 15 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. Huddy, by Lippincot, a 
 refugee, and the interesting situation of Capt. Asgill. The 
 issue of Asgill's captivity and doom is known. After suf- 
 fering all the pangs of death, diminished only by the inter- 
 position 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 inno- 
 cence in revenge for a murder committed by a wretch over 
 whose actions Asgill had no controul. In October, 1782, 
 he published, at Philadelphia, No. 16 of the Crisis, address- 
 ed to Earl Shelburne. Peace was about to be concluded, 
 and his Lordship, who was opposed to it, had delivered a 
 very unseasonable and silly speech preparatory to a discus- 
 sion of its terms in Parliament. On this speech Paine in- 
 'veetively arid un profitably animadverts. 
 
 The last Crisis was published at Philadelphia, April 1.9th, 
 1785. Peace was now substantially concluded, and the IN- 
 DEPENDENCE of the UNITED STATES acknowledged. He 
 who, if not the suggester, was the ablest literary advocate of 
 independence, could do no less, when independence was ac- 
 quired, than salute the nation on the great event. He is 
 not, however, content with proudly reflecting on past, and 
 triumphantly revelling 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 glo- 
 ry, and strenuously recommends an UNION OF THE STATES. 
 
 (c) See Mr. Jay's and Mr. John Adams's correspondence with congress. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 51 
 
 This was not, however, though so denominated, the last 
 Crisis. In l the following October he published, at New- 
 York, the concluding number, which is a trifling notice of 
 Lord Sheffield's "Observations on the Commerce of the 
 American States ;" but as he seems to have been unacquaint- 
 ed 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 1-7^0, and published it does not appear 
 when, but probably soon after the peace, relates wholly to 
 Virginia, 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 pamphlet of 
 fifty-eight pages r published at Philadelphia, August, 1782, 
 is a re 'petition of the arguments and facts contained in Com- 
 mon Sense and the Crisis. There could have been no motive 
 for wiiting it but that of detecting the Abbe in some plagia- 
 rism from Common Sense. 
 
 In 1783, when the army was on the point of being dis- 
 banded, General Washington, at the request of congress, re- 
 moved his quarters to Rocky Hill, the seat of their delibera- 
 tions. The general availed himself of this opportunity to 
 obtain 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 nat at his table, but that he would doubtless prefer some- 
 thing more independent. In consequence of the general's 
 suggestion, a motion was made in congress by my iniormant, 
 to appoint Paine Historiographer to the Unitea Suites, with 
 a salary sufficient to support him through life ; but it was 
 received by the house v\ith such a -burst of indignation, that 
 the mover found it prudent to withdraw k. Congress had 
 not got over the irritation which Paine's conduct in Demie's 
 case had excited. In 17^5. c granted him three 
 
 thousand dollar* for his revolutionary writings. 
 
 " Friday, Aug _t>, i?^- On the report of a committee 
 consisting of Mr. Gerry, Mr. Petit, and Mr. King, to whom 
 was referred a letter of the i ^th from Thomas Paine : 
 
 si Resolved, That the early, unsolicited, and continued la- 
 
52 LIFE OF THOMAS ?AIKE. 
 
 hours of Mr. Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing 
 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 approbation 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, Oct. 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 Paine, 
 and a report on his letter of the 14th of September : 
 
 " 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 contain 
 Paine's letter, mentioned in the Preamble of the resolution 
 of August 26, and 1 have not been able to obtain a copy of 
 it, we are referred for its import to Paine himself. One 
 would naturally conclude, from the phraseology of the jour- 
 nals, that the letter was an application to congress, claiming 
 compensation for his revolutionary writings. Upon that let- 
 ter the committee report, that for his " early, unsolicited, and 
 continued labours, in explaining and enforcing by numerous 
 timely publications," &c. (referring undoubtedly to his Com- 
 mon 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 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 
 publications, in the Letters which he addressed to the citizens 
 of the United States after his return from France, and in his 
 letter to congress in 1808, (d) that he never claimed, nor 
 thought of claiming, being too disinterested, any compensa- 
 sation for his revolutionary writings, there is either a capital 
 error in the phraseology of the journals, or Paine has im- 
 posed himself upon the world for a more immaculate patriot 
 than he really was : the latter is by much the more probable. 
 In his letter to congress of 1808, (e) he claims compensation 
 for accompanying colonel Laurens to France, and for nothing 
 else ; and he thinks he is the more entitled to it, because 
 
 (d) See the Appendix. (e) See the Appendix. 
 
 

 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 53 
 
 the supplies which they obtained, or rather which he ob- 
 tained, for he makes himself the hero of the piece, en- 
 Sblc ..i Washington to attack Cornwallis. I have already 
 noticed the supplies, and the motion which Paine affirms 
 they gave to Washington's army. Now if we suppose, and 
 we cannot, I think, but suppose, his letter of 1 808 to be in 
 substance his letter of August 13, 17 85,, mentioned in the 
 journals, then the latter referred 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 appli- 
 cation, and of the nature of the decision of congress upon it. 
 For accompanying colonel Laurens he certainly had no claim 
 on congress for recom pence Did congress employ him ? 
 No. Did congress sanction the employment of him by co- 
 lonel Laurens ? Did they approve of it? Were they consulted 
 about it ? Certainly not ; for congress, by whom he had been 
 dismissed for betraying ofiieial trust, could not, without for- 
 feiting all claim to consistency and sense, have confidence in 
 him in the mission. Congress consequently decided in Au- 
 gust 1785, if in his letter of that month he claimed compen- 
 sation for going to France, and if he did not the case is infi-> 
 nitely stronger against him, that he had no title to compen- 
 sation. Congress, therefore, in 1785, resolved, whatever 
 the nature of his application at that time was, that for his 
 revolutionary writings only he was entitled to a liberal gra- 
 tification. 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, and 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 undoubtedly was, is out of the question in relation to 
 the effect which Common Sense and the Crisis had on Ame- 
 rican independence. That effect was unquestionably great, 
 and, therefore, if his "early, unsolicited, and continued la- 
 bours" had been " well received by the citizens," and had 
 " benefited*' the states, the recompence should have been 
 commensurate with the benefit. Was a grant of 3000 dol- 
 lars of that character r If with great ability to reward exer- 
 tions which were deemed meritorious and beneficial ; with 
 an immense domain, not indeed immediately productive ; 
 with resources capable of being called forth to- the utmost 
 amplitude of the utmost hope ; with a debt worthy of consi- 
 4eratfon O nly as a precious bond of tranquillity and union ; 
 
54 , LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.' 
 
 if with these rich possessions congress considered 3000 dol- 
 lars a liberal compensation, then we are acquainted with the 
 value which they placed on the quantity and quality of his 
 revolutionary writings. 
 
 Two only of the states noticed by gratuities his revolution- 
 ary labours. Pennsylvania, the seat of his Common Sense 
 and the Crisis, a state which, if his productions were ho- 
 nourable, was most honoured, gave him, in the yea 1 1785, 
 by an act of the legislature, 500/ currency ! New-York was 
 niore liberal. i hey gave him the confiscated estate of Fre- 
 derick Devoe, a royalist. This estate .situate at New-Ro- 
 chelle, county of Westchester, consisting of more than 300 
 acres of land, was in high cultivation There was upon it, 
 besides outbuildings, an elegant stone house, : 20 bv ^S ft. 
 
 In 1786, he published, in Philadelphia], u Dissertations on 
 Government, the affairs of the bank, and paper money," an 
 octavo pamphlet of sixty four pa^es. The bank alluded to 
 is the bank of North America. There is an unhappy fatality 
 attending a similar establis merit. By men borne down by 
 a heavy load of vulgar prejudice, or lamentably labouring 
 under incurable ignorance, or utterly disregarding public 
 utility and faith by a vehem-.nt 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 hi tory of the origin of the former, which is so 
 closely interwoven with the revolution-, and allied to its most 
 distressing period, that 1 cannot refuse myself the pleasure 
 of briefly describing it. 
 
 In the year 17- X 0, when the British army, having laid 
 waste the southern states, closed its ravages by the capture 
 of Charleston ; when the financial sources or congress were 
 dried up; when the public treasury was empty, and tne ar- 
 my of independence paralysed by want, a voluntary sub- 
 scription for it^ relief was raised in Philadelphia* (J) Tiiis 
 voluntary fund, amounting to ^00,000/, afterwards 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 Cornw ? allis Congress, in the 
 year 178 i, incorporated the subscribers to the fund uruler 
 
 (/) Paint slates thai i,e drew five hundred dollars of the salary of .his 
 clerkship to the Pennsylvania, Ass-eiubly, and subscribed it to the fund. 
 As usual, he takes all the merit of the plan arid subscription to himself, 
 J-Je proposed it ; &e was every thing. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. , 55 
 
 the title of the Bank of Nortir* America. In the following 
 year it was fuither incorporated by an act of the Pennsylva- 
 nia .i-s( ubly. When the war was over when extreme dis- 
 tress had ceased, and the services which the bank had ren- 
 dered were forgotten, it was attacked as an institution in- 
 compatible "ith individual prosperity and public safety. All 
 those recondite arguments which we every day hear, that 
 bank^ are dangerous to freedom, were, with the customary 
 eloquence of those who use them, (g) forcibly urged in peti- 
 
 tions to the Pennsylvania assembly against the bank of 
 North America. The assembly, which was truly the repre- 
 sentative of the petitioners, Which thought as they thought, 
 I and was as wise as they were, was prayed to rep'eal the 
 state act of incorporation. The petitions were referred to a 
 select committee, who, recapitulating in character the deep 
 reasoning of the petitioners, reported in favour of the repeal. 
 Here was an attempt, under the pretence of promoting liber- 
 ty, happiness, and safety, to violate them all by a most ty- 
 rannical nvasion of private property! Paine very uncere- 
 moniously and vigorously assailed both the assembly and its 
 petitioners, and probably averted the act of despotism which 
 the freemen were about to commit. 
 
 Paine is now to figure on another and a different stage. 
 We must follow him to Europe. He had long formed the 
 design of revolutionizing England, and if he had not the ar~ 
 rogance 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 my- 
 self a design of coming over to England, and communicated 
 it to General Greene. I was strongly impressed with the 
 idea, that, if I could get over to England without being 
 known, and only remain in safety till I could get out a pub- 
 lication, that I could open the eyes of the country with res-* 
 pect to the madness and stupidity of its government. I saw 
 that the parties in parliament had pitteu themselves as far 
 as they could go, and could make no new impression 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," (K) 
 
 (g) A sort of unread, innate republicans, who make themselves happy 
 with thinking, that their tendency to a state of perfect freedom is determin- 
 ed by the near approaches which they make towards the savage condition. 
 1 must do them the justice to say that their progress is uncommonly rapidt 
 
 (/O Note in the Rights of Mai), part 2, Philadelphia, 1797. 
 
56 LIFE OF THOMAS PA1XE. 
 
 It was of importance tt* 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 annex 
 to his name the appendage of " secretary for foreign ntFairs." 
 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 revolu- 
 tionizing England. Besides, Paine was then in disgrace, 
 and almost in want of bread, It was but the 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 unworthv of his attention. Had 
 Paine told us, that when banished tram the confidence and 
 employ of congress when forced by imperious circum- 
 stances, as in the year 1780, into the ungracious service of 
 Mr. Biddle when all propitious scenes had closed upon 
 him, he thought of returning to England to stir up commor 
 tion, that he might find in national uproar individual gratifi- 
 cation, he might have been believed. 
 
 Having, in the year 1785, procured from congress, by 
 much importunity, 3000 dollars, from Pennsylvania 500/., 
 and from the opulent and more liberal state of New- York 
 the confiscated estate of Mr. Davoe, he sailed, in April, 
 1787, (i) 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 principles, princi- 
 ples which uprooted and laid waste every thing valuable s 
 were vigorously germinating in that ill-fated country Up- 
 start philosophers in Paris, then in daily intercourse with 
 Mr. Jefferson, were plotting confusion. Men without wealth 
 were eyeing wealth to be plundered. Atheists were sacking 
 the churches in thought. Sanguinary wretches, with honied 
 \vords issuing from their lips, were revelling by anticipation 
 Jn blood. That Paine was admitted into the philosophical 
 caverns of the^ philosophic banditti is probable. What these 
 tigers of Europe machinated for the benefit of France, of 
 England, and of the world, is left to conjecture ; but after 
 
 ) See his letter to general Washington. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 57 
 
 what Europe and America have seen and suffered, we can- 
 not, I think, conjecture amiss. 
 
 From France Paine passed over to England with* the mo- 
 del of his bridge : i e arrived in London in September, 1787. 
 From London he went to Thetford to see his mother, whom 
 he h:id the merit of allowing nine shillings sterling a week 
 for her support, until bis American recompence-inoney was 
 expanded. In England he became acquainted with my 
 fiien Thomas Walker, of Manchester, a man than whom 
 one more enlightened and patriotic, more generous and no- 
 ble, perhaps never lived. Mr. Walker, the friend and com- 
 panion of Fox, was what the Washingtons, the Clintons, the 
 Hancocks, and the Adamses were before the declaration of 
 independence was forced upon the colonies, an EXGLISH 
 WHIG. He was indeed a zealous advocate of a reform in 
 parliament that would have led, or I am now greatly mis- 
 taken, to a revolution which he would have abhorred ; for 
 he was a rational and solid friend of freedom, and had no 
 inclination to the shedding of English hlood hy English 
 hands. Principally at the expence 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 mathematicians of Eu- 
 rope a tjigh reputation. 
 
 Early in the year 1788, he published in London, his 
 " Prospects on the Rubicon," an bvo pamplet of 33 pages. 
 The United Provinces having abridged the assumed power of 
 the prince of Orange, and finding themselves in consequence 
 involved with the Prussian monarch, who chose to consider 
 the curtailment as a personal offence to him, had successful- 
 ly applied for succour to Louis XVI. England, it was 
 thought, would embark in the war, which seemed to be threat- 
 ened. The " Rubicon" was on this subject ; but possessing 
 no merit it attracted 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 privilege of thinking (j) This is both ill 
 intentioned and false. The people of France were not begin- 
 ning to think. A few men in France, beginning to act, were 
 about to let loose the people from all restraint as instru- 
 ments of their meditated mischief. The people of England 
 had long thought ; nor will they ever resign their triple and 
 undoubted privileges of freely thinking, freely speaking, and 
 
 (j) Page 5. 
 
58 LIFE OF THOMAS PAIN*. 
 
 freely printing. He meant that Frarrce was approximating 
 to a revolution, to a national hurricane of national passions, 
 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 disturbt d in 
 the other. 
 
 In the middle of the year 17^9, he was arrested in Lon- 
 don for debt. The books of Whiteside, a merchant who had 
 failed, having passed into the hands of his creditors, it was 
 fouad that Paine was debtor to the bankrupt estate, in the 
 sum of near TOO/. Arrested by the assignees, he was released 
 from a three weeks imprisonment by Giaggpt and Murdoch, 
 American merchants. How he- became indebted, is not and 
 cannot be satisfactorily explained. It is alleged, that White- 
 side uas employed to receive his remittances from rhe United 
 States. Having no property but the American donatives, 
 his remittances must have consisted of two sums only ; the 
 three thousand dollars which he had obtained from con 
 in 17H5, 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 extraordinary degree of 
 credulity to believe, that the aggregate of the grants had been 
 diminished before his departure from America upon his revo- 
 lutionary expedition to England. But I deduce the infe- 
 rence from a supposition which is contrary to his usual prac- 
 tice ; 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 with him, or with some of it purchase bills en hite- 
 side, we will suppose ; in which case he would see them 
 transmitted, or be assured that they would be by a different 
 vessel. Whiteside receives them, and Paine has a credit 
 with him. He arrives in London, Sept. 1 7 87- Eighteen 
 months after, he had overdrawn his* merchant in the sum 
 of near ?()0/. He could not in this short time have expend- 
 ed that public bounty and this private exaction, for gene- 
 rally he lived in holes and corners, and his diet, while L knew 
 him, and long, I believe, before, was the poorest and the 
 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 
 castings for his bridge, they cost him next to nothing, the 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 59 
 
 expense having been principally defrayed by Mr. Walker. If 
 his grants were not expended, and we cannot from his gro- 
 velling and imposing rmb'ts imagine how they could have 
 been, his unwarrantable draughts on Whiteside may be ex- 
 plained, in a way which would not illumine the dark shades 
 of his character. Dai y occurrences were now kind to his 
 hop^s The French revolution, the pretended object of uhich, 
 like the pretended object of all t evolution, was at first mild 
 and beneficent reform, was advancing with accelerated velo- 
 city to its acme of spoliation and blood. Paine, peeping out 
 of his lurking hole in the purlieus of London, watched with 
 ecstacy every advance. The assembly of the Notables had 
 been succeeded by the States- General, and the States Gene- 
 ral, at the suggestion of tbe proteus Sieves, without any dele- 
 gation by the people, and therefore by usurpation, had de- 
 clan <i itself the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. The king was taken 
 captive by m n, who vowing to each other republican attach- 
 ment, were individually planning assasination 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 mercilesslv treed, by those who were to be their tyrants 
 and scourges, irom those high obligations which they owed 
 to themselves, their country, and their God, and with which 
 they could not dispense without Buffering as they did, the 
 greatest calamities, the most excruciating pains Overjoyed 
 at appearances in France, Paine, from imprisonment in Lon- 
 don tor debt, passed, while those measures were in train, to 
 Paris tor commotion. "The edicts, !:e says, were again ten- 
 dered to them, and the count D'Artois undertook to act as 
 representative for the kin^. For this purpose, he came from 
 Versa'lie- to Paris, in a tiain of procession; and the parlia^ 
 ment were assembled to receive him. But show and parade 
 had lost their influence in France; and whatever ideas of 
 importance he might se,t off with, he had to return with those 
 of mortification and disappointment. On alighting from his 
 carriage to ascend the steps of the parliament house, the 
 crowd (whicu was numerously collected) threw out trite ex- 
 pressions, saying, tl this is monsieur D'Artois, who wants 
 more of our money to spend." The marked disapprobation 
 which he sa\\, impressed him with apprehensions; and the 
 word aiu amis (to amis ) \\as given out by the officer of the 
 guard who attended him. It wa& so loudly vociferated, that 
 it echoed through the avenues of the house ; and produced a 
 
60 LIFE OF THOMAS PAIXE. 
 
 temporary confusion : I was then standing in one of the 
 apartments through which he had to pa?s." (g) 
 
 Having viewed with rapture the many mutations in the af- 
 fairs 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 unfrequently devoted for days the rich to the Bas- 
 tile; to those who- would convert all France into a Bastile in- 
 finitely more gloomy and horrid ; having whetted his keen ap- 
 petite for subversion and ruin and massacre, by cabals with 
 the grand constructors of anarchy and desolation in France, 
 the incendiary returned to fire England. The usurpation of 
 the National Assembly, necessary in the process of confound- 
 ing valuable, essential, and unalterable distinctions ; neces- 
 sary 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's that act of as- 
 sumption worked up all England, a few men of cool reflec* 
 tion, 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 
 horror-exciting, in the ruins of an ancient and splendid go- 
 vernment ; in the transfer of ail power from those who had 
 excluded the people from any participation of it, to the peo- 
 ple themselves, who knew not what to do with it ; \vho could 
 give it no form, no direction, and who, in a tumult of joy, ex- 
 cited by being masters, without knowing how to master them- 
 selves, 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 hearts were sound, whose intentions were 
 good, who loved their country, who idolised its solid and ven-* 
 erable freedom, but whose notions, as events have proved, 
 were visionary, were in raptures at the disenthralment of a 
 neighbouring 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 hu- 
 manity 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 letters, men 
 
 (g) Pti^hts of Man, part I, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAIN^. 01 
 
 therefore should not have suffered reflection to be overpower- 
 ed by gorgeous novelties, by real mockeries, by changes 
 which are productive of nothing but mischief, forgot that they 
 were tree, forgot that they were Englishmen, 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 As- 
 sembly could comprehend, or France enjoy ; but in the mo- 
 ments of frenzy, for frenzy it surely was, deposing French- 
 men ; Frenchmen of the national razor stamp, (h) The world 
 was to become a republic of licentiousness in fact? a frater- 
 nity of incongruous and repelling atoms ; a brotherhood of 
 absurd principles and irrecKicible rules. This was the philo- 
 sophy ; this the charm ; as if all nature, at the command of 
 presumptuous and impious Frenchmen, would at once give 
 way ; as if, to use the language of Fielding's Square, the eter- 
 nal fitness of tilings could be unfitted, recreated, and new 
 modelled. Parisian jacobin clubs were imitated in London. 
 Fraternal hugs were interchanged by jacobin plenipotentia- 
 ries, Revolution dinners were had all over England, and re- 
 volutionary toasts drank. Even Dr. Price gave for his toast 
 at one of these jubilees of preparatory commotion, the <( par- 
 liament of England ; may it become "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: \Vas England without this palladium 
 of safety? all the paper immunities which the National As- 
 sembly 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 adoles- 
 cence 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 awav. England 
 
 / O 
 
 too was to be new-born. The world a republic or a desart, 
 was one of the humane dogmas. Hunted, pillaged, and 
 blood-sucked, a desert it might be, but a republic, and least 
 of all a republic like that to w r hich 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 
 
 (/O All this I felt myself, but time, with the reflection and experience 
 which time brings with it, has settled me down in that substantial medium 
 whfch cannot be overstepped, whatever be the pretence, whatever the caws 
 or the object, without violating every principle and attribute of freedom. 
 
62 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 toward 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 trium- 
 phantly to resi-t the pitiless pelt ings of the pitiless storm. 
 BURKE, whose enlightened patriotism had been grateful to 
 America, and whose oratory in the British senate had de- 
 lighte.l Europe, came forth from the tranquil scenes of clos- 
 ing lite to avert the whelming danger. His " Reflections," 
 uniting to profoundest sagacity unrivalled eloquence, have 
 drawn from the world an undivided tribute of reluctant pane- 
 gyric. Who can now question his prophetic truths ? All the 
 enormities, which from the nature of the French revolution, 
 he sagaciously predicted and admirably described, have been 
 committed by the French people.. Its never-ending fluctua- 
 tions, but in a despotism infinitely more tenible than that 
 which the united labours of the National Assembly and Con- 
 vention overthrew, he foretold and delineated with wonderful 
 precision and force. Who, now that the events have hap- 
 pened 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 connection, and the great energy of his 
 great mind, roused by the horror which perfect vision had ex- 
 cited, was exerted to save his country. The safety of England, 
 which is indeed the safety of the world, was his primary ob- 
 ject. He was sure that neither the French revolution nor its 
 deleterious effects could be kept within ihe limits of France. 
 French audacity had already emboldened British presump- 
 tion From the subversion of the one government, transi- 
 tions had been made to 'that of the other. Dr. Price had 
 propagated 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 cer- 
 tain. But as the nation was well acquainted with its light of 
 Cashiering for a deliberate, systematic, continued, and un- 
 doubted effort to destroy its freedom ; and as cashiering was 
 the daily right and practice of France, with whom he was 
 fraternizing, could it be that no more was intended by the 
 doctor, amiable as it is said he was, than to remind the peo- 
 ple of what they well knew, and of which they had not lost 
 the recollection? The clubs and the nation, judging from the 
 noise that was made, supported the drum ecclesiastic. Ca- 
 shiering was in the mouths of men who had been taught no- 
 thing, but that it meant violence, a deposing of the king, an 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 03 
 
 extinction of the house of peers, a destruction of the whole 
 government. Little was heard but cashiering. Nor was en- 
 couragement withheld from France. The English spirit of 
 English reform was to be quickened by French revolutionists* 
 BUKKE'S Reflections were published early in the year 1790* 
 Paine, who had been a Parisian spectator of Parisian scenes, 
 went over from France to England. in order to hasten the 
 business of reform. In March, 1791, he published "The 
 Rights of Man, part first," in answer, as he thought fit 
 to style it, to Burke's Reflections. This miserable pro- 
 duction was from similarity of causes, as popular in England 
 as his Common Sense had 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 furl her 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 con- 
 tended for the abstract right of cashiering; Paine, coarsely 
 and bluntly, not only for the right, but for the necessity of 
 immediate 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 disapprobation ? Having experienced an unprecedented 
 sale of his pamphlet ;(z) having perceived the anarchial spi- 
 rit that was up ; being sure that the government would be 
 overthrown, broken into fragments, wholly demolished, and 
 that, as in France, the wholesome doctrine of reform would 
 be superseded by the bloody w-ork of revolution, he returned 
 in the following May to Paris, where violence was increasing 
 in decree and swiftness far exceeding the calculations, but 
 not the hopes of the most expert and sanguinary citizen of 
 the terrible republic. That he was well received at the seat 
 of universal havock, will not be doubted. His British fame ; 
 the popular celebrity of his despicable work, had preceded 
 him, and rendered a particular report to his co-plotters un- 
 necessary. The fraternizing spirit in ruin \\hich pervaded 
 England, of whose existent t he could give meiragible assu- 
 rances, must have delighted those artificers of the greatest hu- 
 man misery that human means ever inflicted. Soon after his 
 arrival, the king fled from Paris. On his return, Paine , was 
 in some danger of becoming the victim of a sedition which he 
 
 - (') " Between forty and fifty thousand copies were sold" Rights of Mao, 
 part II. Probably more than a hundred thousand copies were published- 
 This is a much greater number than was published of his Common 
 
64 ItFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 had disseminated in London, and of which he was a friend in 
 France. On the appearance of the king, " an officer pro- 
 claimed the will of the National Assembly, that all should be 
 silent and 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 Itinterne ; a la 
 lanterne ! He was desired by those near him to put on his hat, 
 and it was not till after some time that the mob were satisfi- 
 ed by explanation. ''(./ J T ne mob elevated to liberty and equa- 
 lity > going a la lanterne with one of the most distinguished 
 champions of disorder, would have been a scene curious 
 enough; but he was unknown to them. Poor abused wretches, 
 they were unacquainted with his mission to England, and 
 with 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 Sieyes now perceived, and this is the fatal er- 
 ror of many sensible men, that he had v 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 
 contributed. He now began to apprehend that the kingly 
 office, as well as the king was in danger ; he was sure that 
 France was unfit for a republic, and that the destruction of 
 the monarchy and the monarch would be followed, as it was, 
 by the destruction of civil and social order. When the dis- 
 ease was beyond the power of the physician, he publicly 
 challenged all writers in defence of the monarchial against 
 the republican system. " If it be asked, he said, what is my 
 opinion with respect to hereditary right, 1 answer without 
 hesitation, that, in good theory, an hereditary transmission of 
 any power or office, can never accord with the laws of a true 
 representation. Hereditaryship is, in this sense, as much an 
 attaint upon principle as an outrage upon society : But, re- 
 fer to the histories of all elective monarchies and principali- 
 ties : is there one in which the elective mode is not worse 
 than the hereditary succession r" Paine, elate with the rare 
 work which was going on in France, as well as with his Bri- 
 tish success, accepted the challenge. His public letter of ac- 
 ceptance is dated, Paris, July 8, 1791? the moment of his 
 departure for England. France was now in a condition to 
 
 0') Impartial Sketch. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. . U3 
 
 Complete her own ruin without his aid. His post was Eng- 
 land, where the work of subversion, dismay, and horror was 
 to be prosecuted. On the 1 3th of the same month, he arriv- 
 ed in London, where the French revolution was to be cele- 
 brated by party feasting and toasts, prepared by party arts. 
 He was not, however, one of the dinner celebrators. It was 
 " not thought prudent that he should attend." (k) But he at- 
 tended a meeting of the reformist at the Thatched House 
 Tavern on the 20th of the following August, where an inflam- 
 matory address 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 
 address, 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 one could mistake the uncouth and 
 ungrammatical writings of the one, for the correct and ele- 
 gant productions of the other. On the 4th of Nov. he as- 
 sisted, on the eve of the gunpowder plot, at the customary 
 celebration of the 5th, by the revolution society. He was 
 thanked for his Rights of Man, and gave for his toast " The 
 revolution of the world /" (m) In Feb. 17.92, he published 
 the 2nd part of his Rights of Man. Part I. is full of sedition ; 
 Part II., openly and fearlessly calls on the people to revolt, 
 and unequivocally advocates a subversion of the government. 
 Never before had the freedom, the protection, and the hos- 
 pitality of the nation, or of any other nation, been so daringly 
 and outrageously abused. Whatever irregularities or oppres- 
 sions Mr. Pitt may afterwards have committed, occasioned 
 and probably rendered indispensable by the irregularities and 
 oppressions of the times, surely he was patient and forbear- 
 ing with Paine to a fault. Paine was an alien. He was in- 
 deed an 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, be- 
 sides that of England, would have suffered an alien to beard 
 it to set it at defiance to pronounce it an usurpation 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 riot the government of the 
 United States energetically exert its power to punish offences, 
 committed even by a citizen, so intrinsically traitorous ? Would 
 
 (A) Rights of Man, part II. (/) Rights of Man, part II. (m) Oldys. 
 
 1 
 
66 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 the people allow an alien thus to interfere in their affairs ? I 
 know that the government would promptly and vigorously 
 punish ; it ought to do so. I know that the people, were they 
 to relish a dismemberment of the union, a destruction of the 
 national government, if suggested and enforced by a native 
 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 politics ? If so, he is told, and with few excep- 
 tions he is universally told, that being an alien, he has no 
 right to speak, much less to write on our political concerns. 
 Native opposition to alien meddling, extends much further. 
 Emigrants, settled with their families and fortunes for ever, 
 and naturalized by all the forms of law, are always considered, 
 and by all parties treated as foreigners, (n) But there is in 
 
 (n) 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 America bid all comers welcome, and ini- 
 tiate them into all the rights of citizenship." Two years after this uncere- 
 monious assertion, France imprisoned him because he was born in Eng- 
 land! 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, * into all the rights of native citizenship, but one or 
 two. But what are constitutions and laws when almost universally oppos- 
 ed by obstinate opinion, unconquerable prejudices, and cherished habits ? 
 Birth in the United States would have covered all Paine* s faults in his con- 
 troversy with Deane. Lee's military genius was repressed, even during 
 the revolutionary war, because it was not Native. Montgomery's death be- 
 fore Quebec is mentioned only at elections, and then but to operate on the 
 generous feelings of Irishmen in favour of the Republican party. Gates's 
 conquest oi Burgoyne was envied, and is now rarely mentioned, because 
 he was an Englishman, General Hamilton, who was born in one of the 
 English West-India Islands, came to the Colonies when a lad ; entered in- 
 to the revolutionary war with zeal ; bees me 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 Conven- 
 tion from wfiich our national constitution originated ; was the first secre- 
 tary of the treasury, or chancellor of the exchequer, under the national go- 
 vernment ; he formed the department and brought order out of chaos ; he 
 
 * The first naturalization act under the federal government, required a previous resi- 
 dence of two years. The second, that of 1798, passed by the federal party, then In power, 
 trho found that naturalizing operated against them, required fourteen. The third and 
 last and present act, passed by the republican party in the year 1801, who had just got 
 into power, wanted strength, and knew that eight-tenths of the persons naturalized, ar- 
 range themselves with the republican party, and generally vote for their masters, re- 
 quires /we years previous residence; but it is so clogged with forms, such as giving two 
 years notice of intention to become citizens, 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. Naturalized citizens are to the Americans, what the Helots were to the Greci- 
 ans. There can be no greater slavery no greater punishment for human pride ajid 
 p resumption j Jt might add, for disaffection in one's native land. 
 
England much more liberalit}?. Keeping within constitutional 
 bounds and who ought to transcend them ? he might have 
 
 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 distinctions are to 
 be ascribed to the circumstances of the times ; to a poverty of talents. 
 The late president Adams, who is now in newspaper essays defending or 
 explaining his administration, says, that being a Foreigner, it could not 
 be supposed that Hamilton could have American feelings, or be well in- 
 formed 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 residence amongst us, which was irom the first day of his land- 
 ing in the colonies. Air. Gallatin, the present secretary of the treasury, 
 born in Geneva, a gentleman but little if at all interior to Hamilton in ca- 
 pacity 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 the senate, by his own party in that body, who 
 threatened at all hazards, to negative it if made, because he was a FO- 
 REIGNER. In this instance the new president was overawed by his party 
 in the senate. He was obliged to nominate Mr. llobt. Smith, a Native ; a 
 gentleman, indeed, in manners, but as may be seen in diplomatic corres- 
 pondence, with talents fitting him only for a counting house clerk. The se- 
 nate readily and unanimously consented to his appointment. Against fo- 
 reigners by birth and citizens by adoption, universal prejudice has formed 
 an universal conspiracy. The subjoined address, written by me at the sug- 
 gestioB 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 illustrating our 
 natioual opinions, national prejudices, national manners and party ma- 
 nagement. 
 
 At a respectable meeting, consisting of about five hundred Adopted Repub- 
 lican Citizens of the City of New-York, held at Lyon's Hotel, Mott- 
 Street, on Friday Evening, April 14, 18O9. Mr. Archibald Taylor being 
 unanimously called to the chair, and Dr. Stephen Dempscy appointed se- 
 cretary. The subjoined address was unanimously adopted, and ordered 
 to be published. 
 
 To the Adopttd R.epublican Citizens of the City of New-York. 
 FELLOW CITIZENS. A long train ot disagreeable circumstances have 
 called us together, and induced us to address you upon a subject, which fur 
 years we have acutely felt and deeply deplored. Some of you, groaning un- 
 der oppression in your native land, have voluntarily emigrated from it, 
 whilst others, more afflicted bv despotism and less favoured by propitious 
 events, find yourselves 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, perhaps mistaking the character 
 )f human nature, we pleasingly anticipated, from those who avow them- 
 ilves the friends of freedom, exemption from that religious persecution and 
 civil tyranny, whose inexorable reign had forced us from our native coun- 
 try. Alas ! how greatly were we mihtaken ! how egregiously have we been 
 disappointed ! Our constitutions and governments are indeed free, but be- 
 tween these admirable institutions and ourselves, a tyranny is intervened, 
 
63 LI*E OF THOMAS PATN'F,. 
 
 written as much and as long as he pleased, unreproached as 
 being a foreigner. There is, however, in extreme cases a 
 
 much less tolerable than that from which we fled. We are denominated 
 Foreigners and treated as Slaves. 
 
 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 set- 
 tled 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, rest- 
 ing their weary limbs, and piously thanking God for their deliverance from 
 the intolerance of the church, and the despotism of the state; here, our 
 noble and high minded ancestors, introducing our principles, our language, 
 our laws, and our habits, laid the foundation of this vast empire ; for them- 
 selves, for their descendants, and for their countrymen. This therefore is 
 truly, and we may emphatically assert, the Land of our Fathers. Why 
 then are we persecuted? Why are invidious distinctions malignantly dis- 
 seminated 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 descenderits of our ancestors were the most 
 numerous. In the memorable war for Independence, (freedom was after- 
 wards to be established and maintained) the Europeans, who constituted 
 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 names of Montgomery, of Gates, and of Mer- 
 cer, we reflect 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 of 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 revolution depended, was born in that island 
 which gave birth to Shakespeare 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 ! des- 
 cendants 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 undistinguish- 
 ed but by merit. All, in case of failure in our revolutionary struggles, 
 had committed the same offence, and incurred the same punishment, for all 
 were subjects of the same monarch. Then, animated with a noble ardour 
 in a glorious cause, and united by common danger and common advantages, 
 envious distinctions between citizens of native and foreign birth, the effect 
 of ignorance or the dictate of personal aggrandizement, were unknown 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 69 
 
 a material difference between an alien who has no claim to 
 protection, but that which the common hospitalities of all na- 
 
 Fayette was eulogised Hamilton caressed Pulaski lamented, and Steu- 
 ben revered. Congress, following the sage example of Peter the Great ; 
 cherishing a liberal and enlightened policy ; knowing that national popu- 
 lation is national strength, and that literature and the sciences constitute 
 the solid foundations of national greatness, invited and encouraged emigra- 
 tion. In one of the many expressive 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 incentives 
 to emigrants. Is the endearing address of congress to the people of Ire- 
 land 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 Ire- 
 land were saluted as brethren of the same principles 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 crown- 
 ed. They were represented as identified with revolutionary America in 
 consanguinity, in cause, in feeling, and in interest, and they were cordially 
 invited to come and equally partake of the new world. We cheerfully 
 availed ourselves of the invitation ; we came : we have made permanent 
 settlements in the land of our forefathers ; we admire and we are attached 
 to our republican 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 f Have the promises been 
 performed ? Are not we, who are Citizens by all the solemnities and obli- 
 gations of law, treated as aliens stigmatised as Foreigner 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 I 
 Can human ingenuity devise offence more galling and complete, more hu- 
 miliating and degrading ? We complain not of the constitutions and the 
 laws : they are liberal in principle and benign in operation. Theyenjoin 
 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 in truth to both, we have eagerly taken it. 
 What more is 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, sub- 
 vert the law put it at defiance trample it under foot ? The law places 
 upon the same undistinguishable level, the citizen of native, and the citi- 
 zen 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 society is not a govern- 
 ment 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 consonant to the 
 civil and social state. We have remonstrated against distinctions, at once 
 impolitic and unjust, between native and adopted citizens ; but have not 
 our remonstrances and efforts been in vain ? No zeal, no exertion?, no ser- 
 vices however disinterested, unreniitted, or great, have been sufficient to 
 us from an epithet, which while it poisons the social; and impairs 
 
70 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 tions give, and a subject or citizen who of right owes allegi- 
 ance and enjoys protection. But in either, inflammatory in- 
 
 the enjoyment of political life, must ultimately 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 
 Country. 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 demarkation is ai length drawn, too 
 legible to be mistaken, and too offensive not to roi^e 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 pro- 
 perty 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 do- 
 minion of the British king? What greater tyranny can you be under than 
 that which calls 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 gread lord Cam- 
 den 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 
 foundrd 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 republic turned upon itself, and in the short period of twenty 
 yeais (from the adoption of the constitution) abandoned its own principles? 
 To you, fellow-citizens, the maxim is NOW denied ; taxation and represen- 
 tation are no longer inseparable! The same despotism which England 
 attempted to impose upon the United States, is now lorded over you. You 
 will be called upon in the imperious mime of the law to contribute your 
 proportion 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 magni- 
 tude is to b,e 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, ai 
 are of right arid to all intents and purposes Citizens, are banished by me 
 calling themselves republicans, from public confidence ! Countrymen of 
 Emmet and Tone, of Gerald and of Margajrot, of Fletcher and of Skirving, 
 what say you to this? If all self 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 suffered, 
 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 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 71 
 
 vitations to rebellion, are, especially in periods of great agi- 
 tation, an offence, and the offence is aggravated if committed 
 by an alien who has no interest either in the peace, or in the 
 integrity of the state in which he sojourns. Whatever, there- 
 fore, party and passion, prejudice and malignity, ignorance 
 and injustice may roundly assert, Paine experienced from the 
 British government a mildness, a forbearance, which no man, 
 urging amongst us in the boldest language of sedition a dis- 
 solution of the union, a destruction of the national government, 
 and a consequent civil war, could expect from the govern- 
 ment of the United States. The first part of his Rights of 
 Man, not a jot less intemperate and rebellious than the se- 
 cond, was published not only with impunity, but without no- 
 tice from the government. I do not mention the fact in com- 
 mendation. 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 ? 
 
 not blunted by ftfction if your hearts are susceptible of a pang, you will 
 resist 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, which they have kindly nominated for 
 you! Fellow citizens, WITHHOLD YOUR VOTES ! Tell them, if you con- 
 descend to listen to their importunities for your suffrages, that you will 
 extend your aid to the republican cause when their liberality, equalling the 
 liberality of the laws, will admit you to an equal participation. Resolve 
 to abstain from the polls, and teach your Would-be-Masters, by mildness 
 of demeanour aud 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, no't United 
 States, to the government of England, was founded upon the fact, that the 
 colonies were not represented in the parliament, and that therefore they 
 were not bound by its laws ; and whereas our countrymen essentially COIK 
 tributed 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 Nev.-York in the assembly of the state. 
 Therefore, 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That repelling with just indignation a distinc- 
 tion made between republican citizens of the same states, we will not sup- 
 port a ticket, in the formation of which we have been excluded from any 
 participation. 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That 500 copies of the above address and reso- 
 lution be printed in hand bills, for the benefit of our fellow republican 
 adopted citizens. 
 
 Resolved, unanimously, That the said address and resolution be publish- 
 ed in tht American Citizen. ARCHIBALD TAYLOR, Chairman, 
 
 S. DEMPSEY, Secretary. 
 
73 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Parliament had been frequently petitioned for a reform in 
 the representation of the house of commons, and the petitions 
 had been amply and ably discussed by the orators of both 
 parties. These petitions were, however, uniformly and ne- 
 cessarily unsuccessful. I say necessarily, for the ministers 
 and their friends knowing, as I hope, that one innovation 
 would, by an unavoidable succession of innovations, lead to 
 a dissolution of the government, opposed it, and the chiefs of 
 the petitioning party did not agree as to the nature and ex- 
 tent of reform. Fox, the Demosthenes of the Whigs, was ve- 
 hemently adverse, and in this he was wise, to universal siif- 
 frage* Grey, Sheridan, Erskine, and the rest, with perhaps 
 one or two exceptions, coincided with him. Their notions 
 of reform, for they had none of an element that is naturally 
 and necessarily always tumultuous, were judiciously limited. 
 But Paine was against all petitioning. He considered peti- 
 tioning 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 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 intention, what shall we say of his reasoning? That, as is 
 usual with him, it is very despicable. What say you, citizens 
 of the United States r If you are wronged, if you are aggriev- 
 ed, if you but imagine either, do you not petition congress ? 
 do you not petition your state legislatures ? Is it not your 
 right and your duty to do so ? would you disdain to petition ? 
 W r ould you, without petitioning, without laying your griev- 
 ances before your legislatures, rashly and ruinously 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, the motive, 
 and nothing is necessary or should follow, but swift and exem- 
 plary punishment, That his meaning might not be misunder-t 
 stood, and I see not how it could be, he illustrates it in another 
 
 (o) Rights of Man, part 2. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.' 73 
 
 place, by example. " Much is to be learned from the French 
 constitution. Conquest and tyranny transplanted themselves 
 with William the conqueror from Normandy into England, and 
 the country is yet disfigured with the marks. May the example 
 of all France contribute to regenerate the freedom which a pro- 
 vince of it destroyed." (p) What was the example of France? 
 Revolution : d la lanterne I What washer constitution, from 
 which much may be learned ? A paper of absurdities ; an in- 
 strument that: lasted nearly a year ; a charter, unlike Magna 
 Cliarta, 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 ac- 
 tion its self-preserving powers. Encouraged by lenity, he 
 proceeded. "The bill which the present Mr. Pitt brought 
 into parliament some years ago to reform parliament, was on 
 the same erroneous principles. The right of reform is in the 
 nation in its original character, and the constitutional me- 
 thod would be by general convention elected for the purpose. 
 A government on the principles in which constitutional go- 
 vernments, 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 he contends, and 
 which he considers as fundamental and uaalienable. Amongst 
 a people without government, (if there ever were such a peo- 
 ple) and over whom government is to be, a convention aris- 
 ing out of society (if such a people can be called society) 
 would be a prerequisite to just government. But where go- 
 vernment is established, there never was, I apprehend, a dis- 
 tinct convention constituted for the sole purpose of correct- 
 ing its abuses : the solecism has been, as yet, too great for 
 the world, and I am pretty certain that it will continue to be 
 so. Such a convention would be a supreme power, ren- 
 dering the government at once a preposterous and useless 
 . existence. Paine might perhaps have allowed, 1 think he 
 does in his Rights of Man, that the present government of 
 
 (p} Rights of Man, paft 1. 
 
 (</) Rights of Man, part 2. It was probably this passage that suggest- 
 ed the British Convention, which sat in Scotland the following year, of 
 which Gerald and Margarot were members. The convention was a self- 
 Created and unauthorised body, organized to overawe parliament and acce- 
 lerate revolution. 
 
74 LIFE OF THOMAS 
 
 the United States arose out of society. Novt, being esta- 
 blished, does it admit of a distinct convention, constituted 
 for the purpose of reforming 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 convention, even arising out of 
 society, organized to correct its abuses, to overawe and to 
 controiil 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 pur- 
 pose whatsoever. The people cannot with regard either to 
 the national government or to the governments of the respec- 
 tive states, establish a convention lor any one purpose of go- 
 vernment. Operative propositions for altering our constitu- 
 tions 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 amended, 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 go- 
 vernment ; that is a very different and a very inadmissible 
 thing. As to our federal convention, out of which the national 
 government arose, it was not assembled by the national go- 
 vernment, for we had none, nor by the people, for they as- 
 sumed no such power : it was recommended by a compe- 
 tent 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 ; whether in respect to 
 abstract principles, as to which it is exceedingly absurd, or in 
 reference to practice, 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 unimpor- 
 tant 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 miscel- 
 laneous ehapter is added. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 75 
 
 Whoever recurs to the chapter on " Society and Civiliza- 
 tion," in the hope or expectation of finding a regular and 
 able disquisition, will be miserably disappointed A few 
 loose observations are thrown together without method, and 
 made without either elegance or force. Of the progress from 
 the primitive state to that which is termed the civilized, no- 
 thing is said ; and as to the diversified nature of society, the 
 infinite complexity of its actions and features, and the prin- 
 ciples from which they proceed, there is nothing to recom- 
 pence the labour of perusal ; no originality, no order, no vi- 
 gour of thought, no gracefulness of expression; nothing to 
 admire, nor any thing to condemn, but malice of design, and 
 a gross imposition of a formal chapter on informal nothing. 
 His chapter " Of the origin of the present old governments," 
 consists of two pages ! The title is a misnomer, for of the 
 plural he takes no notice. Its wretched contents are con- 
 fined 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 de- 
 vote the government to subversion, he chose falsely to repre- 
 sent it as one of conquest only. The Norman conquest did 
 not annihilate the ancient liberty of England. It did indeed, 
 introduce a new line of kings, and it suspended for a time its 
 freedom. But liberty afterwards shone forth with ,more than 
 its ancient Saxon splendour. The great charter was succeed- 
 ed by the treason-law of Edward II L, the principal provi- 
 sion of which has been wisely incorporated into our federal 
 constitution. And these and other glorious acts were again 
 followed by those substantial ones of freedom which were 
 passed at the settlement of William III. If, therefore, his 
 anomalous thoughts, his worthless remarks, were applicable 
 to England at the period of the Norman conquest, subse- 
 quent events had superseded, and rendered them inappli- 
 cable and impertinent when he wrote them. But his object 
 was not to reason : it was to misrepresent ; it was to involve 
 the people iu misery, the government in ruin. 
 
 On " the old and new systems of governments," he is yet 
 more seditious, but not more argumentative. The new dif- 
 fers from the old in the difference, in his opinion, between 
 representative and hereditary functions. If he meant that a 
 representative executive, in contradistinction to one that is 
 hereditary, is a branch of government altogether new, what 
 shall we say of his ignorance r Had he no acquaintance 
 
76 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 with the histories of those nations, ancient and modern, over 
 which executives, no matter by what name called, whether 
 kings or emperors, consuls or dictators, had been elected? 
 Was he i ;norant of their perpetual turbulence; of the many 
 revolutions which their elections occasioned ; of the oceans 
 of blend which were shed, for no purpose but that of capri- 
 cious and u eless change? But these elections were made 
 by a few ; by a senate ; 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 pr'nci- 
 pie and a new government ? I wish too to know what nation, 
 when his rebellious Rights of Man burst upon the world, 
 was in possession 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 peremp- 
 torily denies to the people y absolutely withholds from them, 
 the right of electing their president ; and it does so undoubt- 
 edly upon the presumption, which is the fact, that they are 
 incompetent to a wise choice. If this be not the reason, 
 then the right is wantonly and tyrannically withheld. The 
 president, by the constitution, is to be chosen by electors, 
 an intermediate 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 anar- 
 chist wrote ; 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 ? Considering the constitutional 
 relation of the people to the electors, completely aristocrati- 
 cal as the process of the election is, as too near, he indirect-* 
 ly, but ail-powerfully, nominates his successor ; a caucus of 
 members of congress is convened at his nod, and managed 
 by him ; it echoes his nomination ; 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 popularity, by consi- 
 derations of office, if they have any, by present expectations 
 and future prospects, to vote for the successor nominated by 
 the expiring president. Is this election ? Is this the new sys- 
 tem ? Is it not as old as intrigue, and is not intrigue as old 
 
r A let 19 (/ 
 
 as politics ? If this be not 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 here- 
 ditary 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 and preclude, imposition ! 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 ap- 
 plaud his imposition ! I hazard nothing in remarking, 
 unless it be hazardous to state the truth, that, however 
 excellent the system of our government may be in theory, 
 the whole operation of our system of politics 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 impo- 
 sition. In these articles, which abound amongst us, no na- 
 tion can vie with the United States. That I hold to be im- 
 possible. His chapter " on constitutions," is a tedious histo- 
 ry 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, 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 innocent man ! He makes this philo- 
 sophical assertion in the hope of convincing the people of 
 England that they would be greatly advantaged by a revolu- 
 tion ; by destroying their government; and, if either commo- 
 tion or usurpation would permit, by making a paper consti- 
 tution, which, being a law to the government as in the United 
 States, the government could not violate. How many in- 
 stances have we of a total disregard by congress of the prin- 
 ciples, 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 poli- 
 ticks, different expectations, different designs, they expound 
 it differently. To a federalist, it means one thing ; to a r$- 
 . publican, another, exactly the reverse ; and both bend and 
 break it at pleasure to suit their purposes. . Neither party 
 respects it when it is in their way. It has now, in tbs 
 
78 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 twenty- second year of its age, been oftener infracted than the 
 English bill of rights has during a period of more than one 
 hundred years. The people of England have another advan- 
 tage over us. Opposed to all violations of that inestimable 
 act, they huve 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 of- 
 ten done so, the federal party, always following their leaders, 
 commend and support the violation ; and when, by ever- 
 fluctuating popular will, power shifts, and the republican 
 majority in congress tear the paper constitution to tatters, to 
 very rags, 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 always 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 
 intended to make the soldiery and the poor eager for a revo- 
 tion, by holding out to them suitable rewards. It proposes, 
 on the supposition of a new government being established, 
 an augmentation of pay to the army a national gift to 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 million and a half of children. Did we not 
 know that his object was to assort and to organise all the means 
 of national destruction, we might dignify 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 be- 
 tween England, France, and America, and that the national ex- 
 pences of France and England may consequently be lessen- 
 ed. 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, 1 have good reason to conclude that 
 she is disposed to enter into a consideration of such a mea- 
 $ure, provided that the governments with which she might 
 ally, acted as national government L s, and not as courts enve^ 
 loped in intrigue and mystery." 
 
 (r) When the Rights of Man reached Lewes, where Paine married Mist 
 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 women is : we'll toss ittt ia 
 a blanket, and ring him out </ Lewes wi' our frying pans." 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. . 7< 
 
 No doubt France would be pleased not only with the re- 
 duction but with the destruction of the 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 tri- 
 umphant force, which is the safety of the world against the 
 ambition and tyranny of Napoleon. Something there is un- 
 accountably and unutterably silly in the proposition. It 
 contemplates a national government ; a government formed 
 according to the atheistical principles of the desolators of 
 France, upon the destruction of the old, experienced, solid, 
 and free government of England. If, w r hieh God forbid, 
 England should ever have the misfortune to be a republic, 
 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 essential 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, forsooth, direct authority from the United States 
 to make a specific proposition. No, I think not, nor any indi- 
 rect authority either, though he wished to make the people of 
 England believe ; 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 national government. Of all his impos- 
 tures and vanities, all his presumptions on ignorance of his 
 character, this is the greatest. No direct authority 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 
 inferior. Home Tooke, it was said, corrected its gramma- 
 tical errors ; 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. c< He introduced his proposal to the doctor by let^ 
 ter, which is now in the hands of Mr. Beaumarchais in Pa^ 
 ris, stating, thai, as the Americans had dismissed their king, 
 that they would want another." Rights of Man, part J . 
 
 " In France aristocracy had one feature less in its counte- 
 nance than ivhat 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 dignity proposed, that, if hid'. 
 
$0 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 offer was not accepted, that an acknowledgment of about 
 S0,000/. 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 inform him, that, in case 
 of that natural extinction to which all nobility is subject, that 
 kings may be had again from Normandy." Part ] . 
 
 " The artificial noble shrinks into a dwarf before the noble 
 of nature, and in the few instances in whom nature, as by a 
 miracle, has survived the aristocracy, those me?i despise it." 
 Part I. 
 
 " Several other reasons contributed to produce this deter- 
 mination. I wished to know the manner in which a work, 
 written in a style of thinking different to what had been cus- 
 tomary in England, would be received before I proceeded 
 further." Part 2. 
 
 " The authority of the present assembly is different 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 nature, 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 government by violence ; for inflicting 
 upon a nation the heaviest calamities, without considering the 
 end. 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 incomparably better than that which is to be sub- 
 verted. And herein they always assume an awful responsi- 
 bility, for what can assure them but the fact ? A revolution 
 is a positive, a tremendous evil ; whereas the object of it is a 
 contingent, and, even if successful, a very problematical 
 good. And when all is destroyed when the tranquil opera- 
 tions of systematized society are interrupted by violence 
 when nothing is heard but the frightful howl of commotion 
 Oothing seen but savage man embruing his hands in human 
 Wood when ignorance and passion are let loose to tyran- 
 nize and to prey, and revolutionary factions, never seekinj 
 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 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 81 
 
 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 horror have finally terminated ! Would the 
 means be. milder in England, the end less deplorable? I 
 think not ; both would be much the same. But in case of a 
 revolution, and the final establishment of what is called a 
 representative republic, like ours, for example, of what ad- 
 vantage could it be to England ? It would be an error in 
 fact as well as in argument to consider the relative 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 somewhat 
 more familiar with what has been, we may say, that the days 
 of Azincour and Cressy are passed: Shakspeare does, in- 
 deed, sometimes remind us of them, else they would be for- 
 gotten. Taking circumstances then as they are, I think that 
 if England were a republic like ours, England would be un- 
 done: 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 neces- 
 sary to save a nation. War brings distress along with it, 
 even upon England, opulent and powerful as she is. Imagine 
 Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, &c. n.id the chief part of 
 the immense population of London, going to the polls, of 
 election, pressed by poverty, operated upon by ail the arts of 
 demagogues out of power, who want to get in, and suffering, 
 perhaps, the pains of hunger : Need we ask what the conse- 
 quences would be ? New men would come into the govern- 
 ment ; peace must be made ; even a peace vvhich would be 
 the forerunner of national subjugation. France would know 
 that this would be unavoidable ; she would know that there 
 could be no escape for England but to a government like that 
 which now preserves her independence, her power, and her 
 grandeur. 
 
 I am not drawing from fancy, but frorri life. What I have- 
 said of England in a supposed case applies to us in a real 
 one. It would be foreign from my purpose to inquire into 
 the cause of our late memorable embargo ; but it was sus- 
 
 Bl, that, in advibing it, Mr. Jefferson was actuated by a 
 
 
82 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 strong desire to co-operate with France .in the commercial 
 warfare winch 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 em- 
 bargo was a sufficient one ; that the measure was forced up- 
 on us by imperious circumstances ; that the honour of the 
 country was grossly insulted, and her rights wantonly and 
 flagitiously infringed by England, 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 consi- 
 deration 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 uni- 
 versal suffrage, came to the polls of the election, the govern- 
 ment found that they must either remove the embargo, or 
 the people would remove them. No one could mistake the 
 choice that would be made. The embargo wag abandoned. 
 And yet the distress, compared with the distress 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, perhaps, well enough 
 with it, (s) for as the bayonet 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, increasing expences and occa- 
 sioning 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 object 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 con- 
 
 (*) It would be curious enough to set an army voting, and the vote 
 would, perhaps, be still raore curious. The men would vote as the officers 
 would wish, and the officers would wish as the government desired. Or, 
 it may be, that &e officers and the men would turn out the government. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 83 
 
 gres?, and perhaps the reason is, because universal suffrage 
 is there considered anarchial in theory, and not allowed in 
 practice. The honest, the enlightened, the patriotic, and the 
 eloquent Mr. John Randolph proudly boasts, and well he 
 may, that, in opposition to the wishes of Mr. Jefferson, to 
 whose administration he was opposed, and with the'influence 
 and efforts of the government against him, the freeholder* 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. If, in the 
 city of New- York, where universal suffrage is in the full tide 
 of successful experiment ; where those govern who cannot 
 govern themselves, and who ought every where to be govern- 
 ed, a statesman should ever be elected, it will be by surpriz- 
 ing the popular will. Universal suffrage has a mortal aver- 
 sion from talents. It looks to itself for representatives. If 
 in its district shoemakers, for instance, are the most nu- 
 merous class, every thing being decided by vote, a shoe- 
 maker, 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 governed by well-meaning but incapable man. Eng- 
 land can only be ruined by presumptuous ignorance 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 2 1st of May, 1792* the king issued a 
 proclamation, for suppressing " wicked and seditious publica- 
 tions ;" alluding to, but not naming the Rights of Man. On 
 the same day the attorney-general commenced a prosecution 
 against Paine as author of the work. An action had been 
 previously commenced against Jordan, the publi-her of it ; 
 but as he had made concessions which were satisfactory to 
 the government, the prosecution was discontinued. The 
 king's proclamation was an act of graciousness. 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 vindictively inclined, had full 
 scope for operation. The proclamation notified the kingdom 
 of the diabolical 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 tjie government of the press. It was 
 
 
84 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 therefore preventive, not retributive justice. Mackintosh had 
 published, as he now doubtless regrets, his Vindiciac Gralll- 
 cce, an elaborate and eloquent defence of the French revolu- 
 tion ; 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 trajiquii 
 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 than 
 in England. Fox, controverting in parliament in moments 
 of reformation-zeal, some of the maxims of Mr. Burke, quo- 
 ted 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 indig- 
 nant 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 commission 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 revo- 
 lutionary efforts of the revolution- clubs. Passion met pas- 
 sion, 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, 1794, his " Address to the 
 Addressers." This is a miserable lampoon on the orators 
 in parliament who had spoken on the side of the king's pro- 
 clamation, as well as on those placemen into whose offices 
 Paine would willingly have crept before he left England in 
 the year 1774. He states that a prosecution had been com- 
 menced against him declares the incompetency oi&jury to 
 decide on a work so recondite and important as the Rights 
 of Man talks quite philosophically of the propriety of tak- 
 ing the sense of the nation 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 sol- 
 
 (0 Paine's Address to the Addressers. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 85 
 
 diers, 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 pa- 
 triotic spirit of the nation. All over England he was carried 
 about in effigy with a pair of stays under his arm, and the 
 populace, stayrnakers 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 
 December Whilst he foresaw and no doubt dreaded the 
 imprisonment which awaited him, a French deputation an- 
 nounced to him in London, in the preceding September, that 
 the department of Calais had elected him a member of the 
 National 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 bag- 
 gage, and finally let him pass. He had not, however, sailed 
 from Dover to 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, Sept. 15, 1792. 
 
 On the 25th of September he published a letter addressed 
 to the people of France, in which, saluting them as " fellow citi- 
 zens," as indeed they were, he says : " I receive with affecti- 
 onate 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 terror and confusion." This terror and confusion he had, 
 however, endeavoured to excite in England. The world has 
 reason to be thankful that he did not succeed. He encou- 
 rages the revolutionists of France to persevere by all the ar- 
 guments which he could draw from his combustible maga- 
 zine. A ?iew constitution, he observes, must be formed, ia 
 which the " bagatelles of monarchy, royalty, regency, and 
 hereditary succession shall be exposed." Another new con- 
 stitution has since been formed, in which the tyrant who now 
 governs France has taken to himself all those u bagatelles /" 
 This is the natural effect of revolution ; of " terror and con- 
 fusion." A mild and wholesome reform of the government 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 would have prevented the confiscations the proscriptions, 
 and the murders which have been committed ; preserved the 
 peace of the world, and left France with much of freedom, 
 of \vhich she has nothing now. 
 
 Notwithstanding his escape from England, and his elec- 
 tion to the National Conventi- >n by his J el low citizens of 
 France, his trial, as if present, came on at Guildhall, Lon- 
 don, Dec. 18, 1792, before Lord Kenyon and a special jury. 
 Mr. Perceval, now chancellor of the exchequer, opened the 
 information. Paine was tried for libellous passages contain- 
 ed in the Rights of Man, part II. The attorney-general, 
 Mr. Macdonald, carelessly, and therefore with little ability, 
 opened the case to the jury. 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, Nov. 11, first year of the 
 republic," which he read to the jury. In this letter he says: 
 "The time, sir, is becoming too serious to play wth 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 prose- 
 cuting judge, jury, or attorney-general can now do in Eng- 
 land, ought to have some weight with men in your situation. 
 That the government of England is as great if not the great- 
 est perfection of fraud and corruption that ever took place 
 since governments began, is what you cannot be a stran- 
 ger to, unless 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 he plainly threatened should be brought home to Eng- 
 land, 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 testi- 
 mony given by Mr. Chapman upon the trial illustrates the 
 character of Paiqe, I will here introduce it. Mr. Chapman, 
 whom Paine calls " an honest man," (u) was the printer of 
 
 (w) Appendix to the Rights of Man, part 2. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 oifer- 
 ed Paine a thousand pounds for the copyright. But when 
 he had printed to page 112, finding that it was highly sedi- 
 tious, he declined having any thing more to do with it, and 
 returned to its author the remainder of the copy. Paine in- 
 sinuates (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 Mr. Pitt, 
 and that having ascertained that the work could not be sup- 
 pressed by purchase, Mr. Pitt had persuaded Chapman to 
 print no more of it. All .this accords very well with the va- 
 nity ot Paine. The reader will now understand Chapman's 
 testimony, which 1 quote from the London edition, 1793, of 
 the trial. 
 
 "THOMAS CHAPMAN sworn. 
 Examined by Mr. Solicitor General. 
 
 2. What business are you ? A. A printer, sir. 
 
 2. Do you know the defendant, Thomas Paine ? A. I 
 do, sir. 
 
 2. Upon what occasion did you become acquainted with 
 him ? A. Upon the recommendation of Mr. Tnos. Christie. 
 
 2. For what purpose was Mr. Paine introduced to you, 
 or you to him ? A. 1 was introduced by Mr. Christie to 
 Mr. Paine, as a printer, to print some book he had. 
 
 2. You were introduced by Mr. Christie to Mr. Paine to 
 print some book ? A. Yes. 
 
 2, When was that introduction" A, I cannot exactly 
 remember ; it was the beginning of the last year. 
 
 2. The year 1791 ? A. I think it was. " 
 
 2. Do you remember what book it was that you say Mr. 
 Paine had ? A. It was the first part of the Rights of Man. 
 
 2. Are you a publisher as well as a printer ? A. I am 
 not, sir ; I am merely a printer. 
 
 2. Did you print the first part of the Rights of Man ? 
 A. I did, sir. 
 
 2. Who was the selling bookseller ? A. Mr. Jordan of 
 Fleet Street. 
 
 2. Had you any intercourse with Jordan and Paine upon 
 that book ? A. I had, sir. 
 
 2. What was that intercourse relative to ? A. Merely 
 relative to the manner of publishing the book, 
 
 (i?) Appendix. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 2. Did Jordan in fact publish the book ? A. He did, sir 
 
 2. 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. 
 
 2. Is this the first or second part ? A. This is the se- 
 cond part. 
 
 2. Look at that. A I printed a part of the second part. 
 
 Mr. Er shine. Do you mean that very book* can you 
 swear to that book ? A. I cannot, sir. 
 
 Mr. Solic. General. Then this second part of the Rights 
 of Man, you say you printed a part of it? A. A part of it ? 
 
 Q. Will you inform my lord and the jury what part of it 
 you did print? A. I printed as far as page 1 :2, signature //. 
 
 2. By signature H you mean that letter H at the bottom 
 of the page ? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 2. Now upon whose employment did you print so much 
 of the second part of the Rights of Man ? A. Mr. Painc's 
 employment. 
 
 Q. Did you, Mr. Chapman, print the rest of the work, 
 from letter // to the conclusion of it ? A. I had the copy 
 of it in my possession so far as 146. 
 
 Q. What do you mean by the copy ? A. The manuscript, 
 sir ; I had the manuscript as far as J46. 
 
 Q. Did you stop at 1 12, signature H. A. I stopped at 
 112, but my people had composed to .page J46, which was 
 not printed by me. 
 
 Q. Now had you any conversation with Mr. Paine rela- 
 tive to printing the remainder of the work r A. I had. 
 
 Q. And if you had, what was that conversation? A. 
 When I had finished page 1 1*2, or sheet //, the proof sheet 
 I came into my hands. 
 
 Court. When you printed G, vou say / came into youi 
 hands ? A. No, H. 
 
 Q,. And then the proof sheet / came into your hands 
 A. The proof sheet I upon examining sheet 7, then 
 was a part which, in my weak judgment, appeared of a 
 dangerous tendency ; I, therefore, immediately concluded in 
 my mind not to proceed any further. Accordingly, in deter^ 
 mining 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 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 89 
 
 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 fear- 
 ful I should not have courage in the morning to deliver up 
 his copy; but a circumstance occurred in the course of the 
 day that enabled me to do it with pleasure to myself. 
 
 2. Was Mr. Paine present when that circumstance hap- 
 pened ? 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 would suffer me to 
 mention the circumstance.- 
 
 Court. Certainly. A. That very day at six o'clock, Mr. 
 Paine called upon me. 
 
 2 What day was that? A. I have a copy of my letter 
 dated 17th of January, (w) so he must have called upon me 
 on the 16th ; Mr. Paine called upon me, and, which w^s 
 unusual with him, he was rather intoxicated with liquor ; he 
 had been dining with Mr. Johnson, I believe, in St. Paul's 
 Church-yard, according to his own account ; being intoxi- 
 cated, he introduced his favourite topic and subject, upon 
 which we unfortunately differed, namely, religion, a favourite 
 topic with him when he is intoxicated. I am sorry to men- 
 tion the circumstance, only as it may justify me in the eyes 
 of the public, as his false insinuation in his Appendix res- 
 pecting his copy has done me material injury in my profes- 
 sion. The subject of debate ran high, and Mr. Paine pro- 
 ceeded in his argument, till it came at length to personal 
 abuse both to myself and Mrs. Chapman. An observation 
 was made late in the evening, (I believe near JO 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 extrinsic matter. 
 Lord Kenyon. It appears at present important. 
 
 (u) SIR, January 17, 1/92. 
 
 I am much obliged by the favour of your printing, and should have es- 
 teemed myself happy in the expectation of your future interest and friend- 
 ship ; but there appear so many observations in the sheet (I) directly per- 
 sonal against the king and government, that I feel myself under the neces- 
 sity of requesting 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 of the copy ; And am, 
 Sir, your obliged humble servant, 
 
 T. Paine, Esq. T. CHAPMAN. 
 
90 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 himself. 
 
 Witness. Mr. Paine rose up in a great passion, declaring 
 as I was a dissenter, he had a very had opinion of dissenters 
 to general, believing them all to be a pack of hypocrites, and 
 he should deal with them accordingly, and desired me to de- 
 liver up his accounts the next morning; which I did, and 
 felt a degree of pleasure at the circumstance. I delivered a 
 letter enclosing the whole of his copy he called itpon me 
 immediately, 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. 
 
 2. 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. 
 
 2. 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. 
 
 2. To whom? A. To Mr, Paine. 
 
 2. When you made those offers, did Mr. Paine accept, or 
 refuse, or how treat them ? A. I made three separate offers 
 in the different stages of the work : The first, I believe, was 
 100 guineas; the second, 500; the last 1000. 
 
 2. To those offers what did Mr. Paine answer? 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 Chap- 
 man's very accurate representation ot his abuse of Mrs. Chap- 
 man, and of his having 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 hypocrites, precisely 
 his words upon all occasions, when inveighing, as was his cus- 
 tom, against religion. To the sex, whether animated with li- 
 quor, 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 inconvenience. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 91 
 
 The revoluntary ferment in England increased. The issue 
 of Paine's trial was far from tranquillizing the passions. The 
 seed of rebellion had heen sown, and nothing seemed capa- 
 ble of stopping its growth. Projects of parliamentary reform 
 were vehemently pressed upon parliament, as if at a crisis 
 threatening universal commotion, visionary schemes of ima- 
 ginary good could be either coolly entertained or safely car- 
 ried into effect. At a period like this, parliamentary reform 
 would have been fatal. Partial success would have invited 
 more desperate efforts at a total overthrow of the govern- 
 ment: nothing could have preserved it. The atrocious con- 
 vention, meditating the murder of Louis, had passed their de- 
 cree of the 19th of November, 1792, exciting the people of 
 Europe to insurrection against their governments, and pro- 
 mising " assistance and fraternity " Upon the publication 
 of this infamous decree, parliament, which was to have met 
 on the third day of the following January, was convened by 
 proclamation on the 13th of the preceding December. What 
 under all these circumstances, could have saved the nation 
 from all the horrors of revolution, but war ? The remedy was 
 indeed an evil, but it was one, infinitely less than that with 
 which it was menaced by the French republic and by Paine; 
 co-operating with the thoughtless or mistaken people of Eng- 
 land. Early in January, 1793, Louis was decapitated. On 
 the 23d of the same month, his minister, Chauvelin, resident 
 in London, was ordered by the British government to quit 
 the kingdom, and on the first of the following month, the 
 " French Republic" declared war against Great Britain. 
 
 L T pon the trial of Louis XVI, Paine, who had been em- 
 ployed as a copier of papers to the committee of foreign af- 
 fairs, 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 imprisoning him during 
 the war, and of transporting him afterwards. His mild na- 
 ture 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, ad- 
 vanced pretensions to the attributes ot humanity ! " It has al- 
 ready been proposed/' he observes in his speech in the con- 
 vention, " to abolish the punishment of death, and it is with 
 infinite satisfaction that I recollect the humane and excellent 
 oration pronounced by Robtspierre on the subject, in the con- 
 stituent assembly/' The whole of his speech is hypocritical, 
 fawning, time-serving, and pusillanimous. He felt that in the 
 
92 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 terrible republic, whose course and conduct he had recom- 
 mended to England, there was neither freedom nor safety. If 
 the king was guilty of the charges which murderous and 
 sacrilegious faction had conjured up against him, death was 
 the punishment of his crimes ; but as Paine, Irom 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 Nota- 
 bles, the States General, andthe 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 
 superseded by a convention, whose business, besides despatch- 
 ing the king, and sounding some notes of dread f&l preparation 9 
 was to make another constitution. This prodigy of human in- 
 tellect, or rather, this sediment of ever-renewed intoxication, 
 was present; d to the convention on the 15th of Feb. 1793. In 
 this disproportioned thing, this dream of well meaning fanatics, 
 or deliberate act of cool dilapidators, universal suffrage was 
 laid down to perfection. The executive power was vested in 
 a council, the members of which were to be elected by the 
 sanguinary rabble of France, whose hands were already clot- 
 ted with human blood. A power, which if it be any where 
 or at any time usefully practicable, requires the utmost tran 
 quillity 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 system was 
 not at all adapted to the nature and condition of the subject on 
 whom it was to operate. What could be expected but that 
 which followed ? In March, the next month, the new con- 
 stitution of of Condorcet, Paine, and the rest of the commit- 
 tee, was in effect nearly annihilated. The convention, to 
 which supreme and almost exclusive power had been unac- 
 countably left, awed as it was by the jacobins in and out of 
 it, organized in March, 1793, the revolutionary tribunal, 
 with its public accuser and its t\vo assistants. This court, 
 consisting of six judges, or rather of six assassins, having all 
 France within its functions, and subject to its power, sum- 
 
I 
 
 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. Q3 
 
 mtrily pronounced sentence without appeal, and sent its vic- 
 tims 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 ; and a mild one, indicating all possible goodness, 
 was fatal. 
 
 In the following month, April 1793, the powers of another 
 engine of horror, the committee of public safety, were so am- 
 plified as to complete the destruction of the executive coun- 
 cil. This again was followed in May by a declaration, that 
 the " republic is one and indivisible." In June, 1793, the 
 new constitution of Condorcet, Paine, &c. was formally des- 
 troyed, 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 Oct. 179^, by the murder of Brissot and his 
 colleagues. In Dec. 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 ot our poison'd chalice 
 To our own lips." 
 
 He had just finished, when arrested, the first part of his Age 
 
 *of Reason; (x) but considering the work as unsafe in the 
 
 hands of the representatives of a free people, he called on 
 
 Mr. Barlow, 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 fa- 
 voured me with his correspondence on the subject of this 
 work, whose name I am not at liberty to mention, that 
 Paine's deistical productions do not form in him a distinctive 
 character, so many able men of different ages and nations 
 having written on the same side of the subject ; and therefore, 
 perhaps he would infer, it would be superfluous, if not imper- 
 tinent, to say one word upon it in writing his life. With be- 
 coming deference I must however, say, that indistinctiveness 
 of character, or the sameness of his opinions with the opi- 
 nions of his deistical predecessors, even if granted, could 
 form no solid objection to a liberal notice of his Age of Rea- 
 son. How could I account, in writing his life, for so large 
 a cbasrn 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. A* 
 
 (JT) Preface to tie Age of Reason, part 2. 
 
94 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 
 \var for independence, he was a very subordinate retailer of 
 the works of the great men of England. As a deistical con- 
 troversialist, 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 intention. His 
 Age of Reason is an acrimonious attack, not on priestcraft^ 
 nor on the abuses of religion, nor on the irregularities of its 
 ministers, but on religion itself. In this he was not original , 
 in this he had been preceded by distinguished statesmen, pro- 
 found philosophers, and grave historians ; by Bolingbroke, 
 by Hume, and by others, to whose works we may turn as 
 curious speculations , as specimens of admirable reasoning, 
 upon premises however false. Nor was he original in his 
 impertinent witticisms, his shocking indecencies, his indeco- 
 rous scoffs. In these, Voltaire had gone before and sur- 
 passed him. A deist even one indeed who outstrips a deist 
 and sneeringly and contemptuously views him as a religious 
 fanatic ; 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 superior to himself; even 
 he, if he has read Hume on miracles, cannot peruse the 
 wretched scurrility of Paine. 
 
 The intention of Paine, and the intention only, both in 
 politics and religion, constitutes a character entirely original. 
 His intention was more completely destructive than that of any 
 other author that perhaps lived. While conspiring to subvert 
 all government, he meditated the overthrow of all religion. 
 Whilst planning devastation and blood on earth, he was 
 hatching rebellion 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 distinctiveness of character. Bolingbroke was 
 no anarchist in government : Hume was for a very solid and 
 durable one ; and Voltaire, if he was not a monarchist, af- 
 fected to adore the Prussian monarch, But in hypocrisy, 
 for Paine was a hypocrite, he was not original 
 
 In the preface (j/) 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 sufficient!/ 
 tells us what his thoughts were. In the same preface, (z) he 
 
 (y) Page 7, New-York, 1795. (~) Page 9. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 95 
 
 adds : " Soon after I published the pamphlet, COMMON 
 SENSE, in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a 
 revolution in the system of government, would be followed 
 by a revolution in the system of religion." All was to be 
 overthrown. The world was to be undone. The word sys- 
 tem, affords no refuge even for a quibble in favour of Paine. 
 He was not attacking the church of England as established 
 by law ; he was not assailing this or that church, but the 
 subject of all churches, Those amongst us who may be op- 
 posed 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 esta- 
 blished 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 circum- 
 stances wish to be understood. And yet it is dedicated to 
 us, he u puts it under our protection,"- -he sent amongst 
 us an edition of several thousand copies, and they w r ere spread 
 from one end of the union to the other, with an alacrity 
 which he must have commended. What then was his object 
 here ? The same as it was every where : licentiousness con- 
 . fusion an abolition of the forms of religion annihilation of 
 religion itself a letting <c loose of reason," HS Mr. Jefferson 
 terms it, which in good English, means a id. ness a loss of 
 memory a loss of judgment a forgetful ne^s of obligations 
 to God and man a state of society more savage, more furi- 
 ous, more criminal, by having been civilized, than the primi- 
 tive 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 religion. Every man amongst us 
 can worship God without pains or disabilities, according to 
 the dictates of his conscience. In no nation is religion more 
 free. In no condition of man, feeling, benevolent, thinking, 
 and good, can a more perfect state ot religious freedom exist. 
 And yet even here it was to be attacked ; even here, all the 
 holds of the state, and the hopes of individuals were to be 
 destroyed. 
 
 Soon after the publication of Common Sense in America, 
 ad by fair inference, when he wrote Common Sense, he saw 
 that a revolution in government would be followed by a re- 
 volution in religion ; such a revolution as he advocates ; a 
 destruction of religion : but he intended this desperate effort 
 
96 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 as the " last offering he would make to his fellow citizens of 
 all nations. "(a) In the mean while the well masked dissimu- 
 lator pretended to be a pious Christian. This he would de- 
 nominate State Crafty which, he told the people of England 
 in his Rights of Man, cannot exist in America ! " For my- 
 self, he observes, I fully and conscientiously believe that it is 
 the will of the Almighty that there should be a diversity of 
 religious opinions amongst us : it affords a larger field for 
 our* Christian kindness." Here he is a Christian, full of Chris- 
 tian kindness ! And yet he had decided in favour of a " re- 
 volution in religion," and resolved to unite his efforts to the 
 efforts of congenial men, to effect it but would reserve the 
 act for one of the last of his life. " Should Howe be now ex- 
 pelled, I wish, with all the devotion of a Christian, that the 
 names of whig and tory may never more be mentioned. " (b) 
 This he wrote a year after the publication of Common 
 Sense. " Soon after I had published Common Sense, I saw 
 that a revolution in government would be followed by a re- 
 volution in religion." 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 ripen- 
 ing for his purposes. Even after the 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. Perdition was to develope itself by degrees. 
 " Governments thus established, he says, last as long as the 
 power to support them lasts ; but that they might avail them- 
 selves 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 re- 
 ligion, twisted itself afterwards into an idol of another shape."(c) 
 When he wrote this passage, in which he affects to be a disci- 
 ple of Christ, whose maxims he admires, he had resohved to 
 defer his " last work" no longer; he had decided to write, 
 and probably 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 
 intention to publish my thoughts upon religion ; but that I 
 originally reserved it to a later period in life, intending it 
 
 (a) Preface to the Age of Reason, Part 1, 
 
 () Crisis, Number 1. (c) Rights oi Man, Part 1. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. IJ7 
 
 be the last work I should undertake. The circumstances, 
 however, which existed in France, in the latter end of the 
 year ,7^0, determined me to delay it no longer" (d) 
 
 The Rights of Man, part first, was published in London in 
 1791, a year after the "circumstances which existed ia 
 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 composing the 
 work, he cast off the trammels of hypocrisy. The National 
 Assembly of France, that first cause of the national wreck 
 which followed, having displeased him in an article of its de- 
 claration 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 public order established 
 by law. J \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 of opinion, has nothing to do with doctrines, 
 whether they disturb its tranquillity or not ! 
 
 6 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 religion, 
 and weakens its operative force upon the mind, to make it a sub- 
 ject of human laws, (f) Now what is it in the article that takes 
 off from the divine dignity of religion ? That which allows 
 all freedom in religious opinions but such as disturbs the pub * 
 
 (d} Preface to the Age of Reason, part 2, page 1, New York, 1796. 
 The opinion of the late Mr. Gilbert Wakefield, is deserving the attention 
 of the reader : speaking of the Age of Reason, he says, " Every man who 
 feels himself solicitous for the dignity of human nature, who glories in the 
 prerogative of rationality, or is charmed by the loveliness of virtue, will 
 observe, with humiliating sympathy, a debasement of his species, in the 
 most astonishing, unprincipled, and unparellelled arrogance, to the last, of 
 such a contemptuous, self-opinionated, ill informed writer. His excess of 
 tolly will be lamented by all his friends, not estranged, like himself, /rora 
 shame and modesty ; and his enemies will read his outrageous vaunts, 
 united to such an excess of ignorance and stupor, with that pleasure, which 
 results from a just expression of mingled abhorrence, derision and contempt. 
 For my part, his unprecedented infatuation almost strikes me dumb with 
 amazement. I am not acquainted with such a compound of vanity and 
 ignorance as Thomas Paine, in the records ot literary history." 
 
 [iWc by the English Editor, 
 
 (e) Declaration of Rights of the National Assembly. 
 
 (/) Rights of Man, part 1, p. 69, Phil, ed. 1797. 
 
 6 
 
4)3 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 lie order established by law ! According to Paine, therefore, 
 divine dignity in religion consists in disturbing the public 
 peace ! In this he goes, I think, but I am not quite sure, fur- 
 ther than Mr. Jefferson. " The legitimate powers of go- 
 vernment 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 (g) It neither picks my pocket, 
 nor breaks my leg. (//) 
 
 Mr. Jefferson admits, that the legitimate powers of go- 
 vernment extend to such acts as are injurious to others ; yet 
 that his neighbour's declaration, 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 neighbour'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 fol- 
 low, from his own doctrine, that as picking pockets and break- 
 ing legs are injurious acts, they may be legitimately punish- 
 ed. If I am right in thus construing the late president's 
 meaning, he stops short of Paine, who declares, that to dis- 
 turb the public order established by law, is an essential part 
 of the " divine dignity of religion." 
 
 The human mind is apt to run to extremes. From doubt- 
 ing the divinity of the Christian religion, it descends to deism, 
 and it would be surprising 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 favourable to it. He be- 
 lieves, he asserts in his Age of Reason, in one God, but it is 
 probable that he believed in nothing superiour to matter. In 
 conversation with Mrs. Palmer, widow of the deistical ha- 
 ranguer, in the presence of Mr. Carver, of this city, from 
 whom I have the fact, he let out his materialism. Stewart, 
 " the traveller,' 1 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 re- 
 marked : <c 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, 
 
 (g) Mr. Jefferson writes " lengthy" for long. Notes, p. 348, New Appen. 
 (A) Notes on Virginia, p. 235, New York, 1801. 
 
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 im- 
 mortality 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" 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 government' could not be subverted, 
 that havock could not be commenced, that misery could not 
 be complete, without discarding religion; and this seems to 
 have been cause enough with him, without reading, without 
 reflection, to commence the work. He suffered eleven months 
 imprisonment in France; from Dec. 1793, to the 4th of 
 Nov. 1794. In one place (i) he ascribes his escape from the 
 guillotine to a fever with which he was afflicted ; in another, 
 to Providence, (j) The fever was the effect of intemperance. 
 A medical gentleman of great eminence, who rendered him pro- 
 fessional 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 that 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 com- 
 menced with the delirium of the French Revolution. The 
 practice gained upon him in London. " Reason had been 
 let loose." Wildness 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 immured, 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 imprisonment* 
 Was Paine then so weak ? But they overlook dates. The 
 putrescent state of his body while in prison, was brought on 
 by drinking before his imprisonment. His habits were sor- 
 did, his thirst for liquor had been great, and to quench it, he 
 had associated with ti.-e meanest company in Paris for months 
 before his incarceration. After his liberation, he found an 
 asylum in the hospitable house of Mr. Munroe, our minister. 
 
 (i) Letter to general Washington. 
 
 (f) Letters written at Washington, addressed to the citizens of ths 
 United States. 
 
100 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 The near approach of death, for he expected every moment 
 to die, either by the guillotine or by natural dissolution, neither 
 frightened nor dissuaded 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 imprisonment laid waste his mind, 
 such as it had been. 
 
 During his imprisonment, an extraordinary revolution hap- 
 pened. The atrocious Robespierre and his accomplices had 
 expiated at the guillotine 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 triumph- 
 ed over the old, a new paper constitution was now to be 
 made. Paine and Co.'s constitution of 1793 was informally 
 abolished a month after it was presented. The two committees 
 of revolution and safety, which had grown out of that con- 
 stitution, were now to be destroyed. 
 
 In April, 1795, a committee of eleven was appointed for 
 the purpose of organizing a fresh constitution, which was re- 
 ported 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 suffrage ; it establishes electoral as- 
 semblies between the people and the government ; it permits 
 a citizen of France, if he has paid direct taxes, fought a cam- 
 paign, and possesses several other qualifications, to vote for 
 electors. The directory was to be chosen after Mr. Jefferson's 
 manner ; by the legislature, but not, I believe, on the sug- 
 gestion of the directory itself. 
 
 On the 7th of July, the convention granted permission to 
 Paine to make a speech against the constitution of Boissy 
 D'Anglas. This he tremblingly begins with adverting to his 
 imprisonment, and to the fever with which he had been af- 
 flicted. He states that he was " proscribed in England for 
 vindicating the French revolution," 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 tyranny and cruelty of 
 his master. On the subject of universal suffrage, he is, how- 
 ever, silent. As the operation of that principle in his own 
 
constitution had brought upon him eleven month's duresse, 
 he seems not to have been very anxious about it. To the 
 electoral assemblies, intervened between those who were al- 
 lowed 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 di- 
 rect 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 were to choose 
 the council, older and younger. As to the service of a cam- 
 paign in the army, which was a prerequisite to citizenship, 
 where direct taxes were not paid, he considers it quite as 
 despotic as any thing even in the British government; be- 
 cause the father who fights for his own liberty, he observes, 
 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 ac- 
 quire rights for the son, which the son, without any merit of 
 his own, shall exercise with and over posterity. Let the son 
 fight a campaign, 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 pre- 
 ceded it : i. e. to acquire immunities for itself; to pull down 
 that which it finds established, and to build up anew. This 
 is Paine'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 govern- 
 ment under which we live, there is an hereditary transmission 
 from father to son which is so natural and necessary, that no 
 form of government can destroy it. We are let in to a happy 
 state of society without having contributed an effort to pro- 
 duce it. Resting upon individual rights and exertions, the 
 rights and exertions of the present age, without reference to 
 those of the ages which have preceded it, are born to thie 
 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* 
 Tor the liberty we enjoy in the United States, we are in* 
 
102 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 debted to our ancestors. We have acquired nothing of k 
 ourselves : not a jot of it is our own. All that we have done, 
 is the effecting of a separation from the parent country : all 
 that we have achieved, is independence. 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 Briti h con- 
 stitution are, indeed, more wild amongst us, but it may be 
 questioned whether we have the solid portion of.it, that which 
 secures lite, liberty, and property, in equal perfection. Burr, 
 charged with treason, and tiled by the statute of Edward III, 
 would have hud a less vexatious, if not a more impartial trial 
 in London, than he had in the capital of Virginia. In Eng- 
 land the presses would not have conspired to terrify the pre- 
 siding judge, by detestable menaces and denunciations, into 
 a violation of the law, in order that the accused, right or 
 wrong, might be hanged, 1 hey did not, however, even with 
 us, succeed. The admirable patience and firmness of chief 
 justice Marshall enabled the law to triumph over the machi- 
 nations of the president, the outrages ot the press, and the 
 systematic violence of a party. 
 
 No notice was taken by the convention of Paine's speech, 
 Boissy D'Aaglas's constitution was adopted in Oct. 1795, but 
 not without a little depletion of blood. The convention had 
 passed a decree, that, at the first election under the new con- 
 stitution, two thirds of its present numbers should be return- 
 ed. This was to keep out the jacobins, who with and since 
 the fall of Robespierre, hau been driven irorn the convention. 
 Now as all outs want to get 2% and the principal jacobins 
 could not succeed without forcibly and victoriously resisting 
 
 ^ J Q 
 
 the decree, their bfeatures were organized, and a battle was 
 fought near the hall of the convention, .\fter blowing into 
 the air with cannon about two thousand of the insurgents, 
 #nd striking off the heads with the national razor, of we know 
 not how many more, the constitution went quietly into opera* 
 tion according to the decree. The convention was now for- 
 mally destroyed, and as Paine was never afterwards elected ? 
 the constitution of Boissy D'Anglas, terminated his public 
 functions in France, 
 
 With his speech, he presented to the convention his " Dis^ 
 sertation on the first Principles of Government," an octavo 
 pamphlet of eighteen pages. ' This little work, he observes, 
 I dio! intend to have dedicated to the people of Holland, who 
 ftbout the time that 1 began to write it, were determined to 
 Accomplish a revolution in their government, rather than (q 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 103 
 
 the people of France, who had long before effected that glo- 
 rious ohject." French principles and force had got into op- 
 pressed 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 Finance ; a sys- 
 tem which the United States have adopted : it was published 
 in April, 179$. 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, iri December, 1793, 
 passed a decree for the expulsion of all the members of it 
 who were foreigners by birth. Paine coming, as it was 
 thought, within the scope of its operations, was of course ex- 
 pelled. That decree was followed in the same month by one 
 for imprisoning every man in France, born in England. Un- 
 der this decree he was imprisoned. The cause of the attack on 
 president Washington is, as alleged by Paine, that being a 
 citizen of the United States, the president did not exert his 
 official influence with the French government to obtain his 
 liberation. This is the ground-work of sixty-four pages of 
 impotent invective and malicious slander. His premises and 
 conclusion are, that in becoming a member of the convention, 
 and a citizen of France, he did not forfeit his citizenship in 
 the United States, and that, therefore remaining a citizen, 
 and being of course entitled to protection as such, official 
 duty and personal gratitude required the interposition of the 
 American executive in his behalf. 
 
 His expulsion from the convention seems to favour his po* 
 sition, that he was not considered a citizen of France. His 
 imprisonment for being an Englishman, which immediately 
 succeeded, 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, stimu- 
 lated and headed by Robespierre, and that after the execu- 
 tion of Robespierre, the introduction of a new faction, a little 
 more moderate, and violence had for a moment ceased, he 
 was invited to resume his seat in the convention, and that he 
 did resume it. \ But Paine says ; - u J have always consider-* 
 
104 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ed 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 a member of a govern- 
 ment after a constitution is Jormed ; and I have uniformly 
 acted upon this distinction." (k) He was an adopted citizen 
 of France. But as many gentlemen amongst us, who have 
 never crossed the Atlantic, have been complimented, if it be 
 a compliment, with a similar adoption, the mere act of adop- 
 tion would make nothing against him, if the fraternal process 
 had stopped there. But he was not only an adoptev, citizen 
 of France : he went there in consequence of his adoption and 
 election, and he took the oath of allegiance to the French 
 republic Every member of the convention took it as a mat* 
 ter of course, and so did Paine If therefore in becoming a 
 citizen of France by adoption, and taking the oath of allegi- 
 ance, he could alienate his citizenship in the United States, 
 he ceased to be a citizen. Besides, his own argument is its 
 own refutation. He might, he affirms, be a " member of a 
 convention for making a constitution, without affecting his 
 right of citizenship in the country to which he belongs, but 
 not a member of a government after a constitution is form- 
 ed? If then after the constitution was formed, in the mak- 
 ing of which he had a hand, he was a member of the governr 
 mentj his citizenship in the United States, according to his 
 own doctrine, M^a^ a nullity. In order to take away there- 
 fore the very pretext for his attack on Washington, all that is 
 necessary, is to show that he ivas a member of the govern- 
 ment after the constitution was formed. The constitution of 
 Condorcet and Paine, was formed and presented in February 
 1793. Here therefore his functions ceased. If afterwards, 
 he was a member of the government, he admits that he for- 
 feited his right of citizenship in the United States. Now he 
 was not only a member of the government, when in Dec. 
 1793, ten months after the constitution was formed and pre- 
 sented, he was expelled from it by the decree, but after his im- 
 prisonment ; and we find him as late as July 1 795, making 
 a speech in the government after his own constitution was 
 destroyed, against another constitution. Again. He was not 
 a member of the convention for forming a constitution only ; 
 be was a member to all intents and purposes. He spoke on 
 J;he trial of the king ; he voted on the trial of the king, 
 
 fr) letter tP General Washington, p. 14, 
 
XIFB OF THOMAS PAINE. 135 
 
 that forming a constitution? He generally assisted in the 
 transaction of public business. 
 
 So much I have said merely to evince how erroneous his 
 arguments are even upon his own premises : and his pre- 
 mises were assumptions of false facts. No act of his in 
 France, no citizenship ; nothing that he could do could alien- 
 ate his allegiance from the United States. The article in 
 our national constitution, which he imperfectly quotes, has 
 no reference to situations like his. ' It applies exclusively to 
 " persons holding any office of profit or trust under the Unit- 
 ed States." He held no office of profit ; certainly none of 
 trust. Neither our national constitution nor our laws allow 
 of selt expatriation. In this regard both are precisely the 
 same as the constitution and laws of England. He who is 
 once a citizen, as Paine was, is always a citizen. He cannot 
 withdraw his allegiance. Our national government can al- 
 ways claim his services. It always owes him protection, and 
 he always owes it obedience. (/) 
 
 (/) Williams's case, tried before Chief Justice Ellsworth, is the only one 
 that has come before the United States courts. In 1792, Williams was 
 commissioned by the French Consul-General residing in America as a lieu- 
 tenant on board the Jupiter, a French seventy-four. The Jupiter sailed in 
 the autumn of the same year for Rochefort, where Williams was natura- 
 lized, renouncing his allegiance to the United States After his naturali- 
 zation, he was commissioned by the French Republic a second lieutenant 
 on board the French frigate, the Caront. He cormnueu in the commission 
 and service of France until the 27th of Feb 1797, when he was seized and 
 arrested for accepting a commission from the French Republic, to commit 
 acts of violence against the king of Great Britain, and his subjects with 
 whom we were at peace. Williams pleaded in justification, his naturali- 
 zation in France, and his renunciation 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 decided by two great prin- 
 ciples : 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 its 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 can- 
 not dissolve this compact, without the consent or default of the commu- 
 nity. There has been no consent no default. Default is not pretended. 
 Express consent is not claimed ; but it has been argued that the consent 
 of the community is implied by its policy its condition and its acts. In 
 countries so crowded with inhabitants, that the means of subsistence are 
 difficult to be obtained, it is reason and policy to permit emigration ; but 
 our policy is different ; for our country is but scarcely settled, and we have 
 no. inhabitants to spare. Consent has been argued from the condition 
 
106 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 release from prison. What was he ar- 
 rested 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 United States, as well as in Eng- 
 land. If Paine had been arrested merely because he was a 
 citizen of the United States, then, upon a due representation 
 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 under a decree passed against persons born in 
 England. Paine was born there. Could Washington have 
 said that he was not ? Could he have arrogantly insisted on 
 a repeal of the decree ? 
 
 As a matter of right he had no claim upon the interposi- 
 tion of our executive. As a point of expediency, of mercy, 
 or of sympathy, he had no title to it at all. In the first 
 place he had deliberately embarked in all the horrors of the 
 
 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 government 
 to be vigilant in restraining our own citizens from those acts which would 
 involve us in hostilities. The most visionary writers on this subject dp 
 not contend for the principle in the unlimited extent, that a citizen may at 
 any and at all times renounce his own, and join himself to a foreign country. 
 
 " CONSENT has been argued, from the acts of our government permit- 
 ting 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 order and happiness of civil society ; if he has resided here the ti 
 prescribed by law, we grant him the privileges of a citizen. We do no 
 enquire what his relation is to his own country ; we have not the means 
 of knowing, and the inquiry would be indelicate ; we leave him to judge o 
 that. If he embarasses himself by contracting contradictory obligations 
 the fault and the folly are his own ; but this implies no consent of the 
 government, that our own citizens should expatriate themselves. It is 
 therefore my opinion, that the facts which the prisoner offers to prove in 
 his defence are totally irrelevant j they can have no operation in law, and 
 the jury ought not to be embarrassed or troubled with them ; but by the 
 constitution 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. 
 
 " Yhe court sentenced him to pay a fine of 1000 dollars, and to suffer 
 four months imprisonment " 
 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 107 
 
 French revolution. He had written in England for France 
 he had endeavoured to effect a revolution in England in fa- 
 vour of France he had been elected a member of the con- 
 vention, and coolly and thankfully taken his seat he had 
 been adopted a citizen of and taken the oath of alU fiance to 
 France. Was he to be pitied when one of the inevitable 
 consequences of the revo'ulion came upon him? Was the 
 power of the United States to be employed, through the me- 
 dium of their executive, to extricate him from one of the na- 
 tural 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 accordingly complains of it. What, the free 
 republic of France, whose example he had held up to Eng- 
 land, guilty of despotism ! But it was the violence of Robes- 
 pierre ! And was not Robespierre's violence an effect of the 
 revolution ; of a lawless rourse, 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, \\riting as he did, 
 he did foresee it, he was unfit to live. During his imprison- 
 ment we had differences with England, which Mr. Jay, ho- 
 nourably to himself and greatly for the interest of his coun- 
 try, happily adjusted \\ as this a time for General Wash- 
 ington to use his influence with the rulers of France for the 
 liberation of a man so justly obnoxious to the British govern- 
 ment as Paine ? Who that knows any thing of the inter- 
 course between nation and nation will say that it was? What 
 would the British government have thought of our profes- 
 sions of triendship ; of our desire to be upon good terms 
 with them ? At that period too we also felt the effects of 
 the French revolution ; of those anarchial principles which 
 Paine had broached in his Rights of Man, and which he had 
 endeavoured to propagate all over Europe. Our government 
 was nearly, though nut quite deposed by French revolution- 
 ary agents. Our sovereignty had been usurped by a Frencli 
 minister. The president, impartially, ably, and with dignity 
 administering the government, was, in the official communi- 
 cations of that minister to him, grossly insulted. The most 
 opprobrious terms were assiduously culled from the language, 
 as if to try how patiently a good government could brook 
 contumely and insult. Vindicating its conduct upon the 
 principles of the law of nations, that minister said : " I do 
 not recollect what the worm-eaten writings of Grotius, Puf- 
 
108 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 fendorff, or Vattel say on the subject : I thank God I have 
 forgotten what these, hired jurisprudisfs have written upon 
 the rights of nations, at a period when all were enchained /" 
 France thanked 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 Washington have had for him ? Those of friendship ? 
 Impossible ! 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 pro- 
 cure for him from congress a provision for life. That the 
 national and two of the state governments did more than ade- 
 quately reward his revolutionary labours, is certain. They 
 made him for life independent in his pecuniary circumstances, 
 and that was surely paying him liberally for his trifling re- 
 volutionary labour; for writing Common Sense and the 
 Crisis, two pamphlets, both making not more than two hun- 
 dred and twenty pages. The real cause of the attack, if the 
 French rulers had not set him on, was our commercial treaty 
 with England. He lived and died at war with the govern- 
 ment 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 his calum- 
 nies against Washington. " The victory over the Hessians 
 at Princeton," he observes, " by a harassed and wearied par- 
 ty, is attended with such a scene of circumstances and supe- 
 riority 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 cha- 
 racter. In this, " it is time," he says, " to speak the undis- 
 guised language of historical truth." (m) It is no longer ne- 
 cessary, he thinks, to play the hypocrite. He then adds, 
 that " the successful skirmishes at the close of the campaign 
 of 177^, (n) make the brilliant exploits of General Washing- 
 ton's seven campaigns. No wonder we see so much pusilla- 
 nimity in the president (0) when we see so little enterprize in 
 the general." (Letter to Washington, p. 31,) Here are two 
 
 (m) 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 ths 
 time is now come to speak, as he calls it, the truth of Washington ! 
 
 (n) The capture of the Hessians. 
 
 (0) Alluding to the ratification of the British treaty. 
 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 109 
 
 opposite representations of the same action. In the one, 
 that of the Crisis, there was such "a superiority of general- 
 ship, 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 becomes an insignificant skirmish I 
 "Voltaire has remarked," he tell us, "that king William 
 never appeared to full advantage but in difficulties and in 
 action. The same remark may be made of General Wash- 
 ington, for the character suits him. There is a natural firm- 
 ness in some minds which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but 
 which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude ; and 
 I reckon it among those kinds of public blessings, which we 
 do not immediately see, that God hath blessed him with un- 
 interrupted health, and given him a mind that can even flou- 
 rish upon care." (Crisis, No. 1.) This was written during 
 the war. After he received his compensation-money from 
 congress, 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 exemplary virtue hath so eminently 
 contributed to establish. That the Rights of Man may be- 
 come as universal as your benevolence can wish, and that 
 you may enjoy the happiness of seeing the new world rege- 
 nerate 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 public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether 
 you are an apostate or an impostor ; whether you have aban- 
 doned good principles, or whether you everlmd any !" (Let- 
 ter to Washingron, p."34.)(/0 
 
 From vilifying Washington, he returned to his abuse of 
 the Christian religion. In October, 1796, he published the 
 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." 
 
 It appears throughout both the first and second parts of 
 
 (p) At the same time he wrote, but never printed, the following epi- 
 gram, which he gave to me soon after his arrival in New- York. 
 * Take from the mine the hardest, roughest stone, 
 It needs no fashion, it is WASHINGTON : 
 Bat if you chisel, let your strokes be rude, 
 And on his breast engrave ingratitude." 
 
110 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE* 
 
 the Age of Reason, that, as in government, his object was 
 not the maintenance, as a man of /letters, if such he consi- 
 dered himself, of a speculative point about which philoso- 
 phers in their elaborate investigations of abstruse subjects 
 may very harmlessly differ, but the propagation of licentious 
 doctrines amongst the lower 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 him- 
 self in the crude deistical opinions which he rudely diffused, 
 yet as he wrote not for reading and thinking men, could he 
 have had any other object than that of mingling; with his 
 wasteful anarchy in the affairs of government, a more detest- 
 able anarchy in the more solemn affairs of religion ? Our 
 well-being here, without considering the more weighty mat- 
 ter of hereafter, is so inseparable from, so identified with re- 
 ligion, that we have nothing to expect from a relaxation of 
 its high obligations, but robberies more vast, ruin more com- 
 plete, tyranny more intolerable, than the plunderings and 
 butcherings and despotisms of which France was for so ma- 
 ny years the hapless subject. What religion could be sub- 
 stituted of equal excellence with that which sways Christen- 
 dom, and mollifies the natural ferocity of man ? I am putting 
 the divinity of it out of the question, and considering it o 
 in reference to its benign influence upon society. I have 
 sociated with deists ; I have listened to the dogmas of deism, 
 and although priestly intolerance and persecution, the abuses 
 of the Christian religion, are principally the alleged causes 
 of their aversion from the one and their attachment to the 
 other, yet I have found them in spirit more intolerant and 
 persecuting, if possible, than any thing which distinguishes 
 the sufferings of the Hugonots, or the bloody reign of Mary. 
 Elihu Palmer, the deistical s pouter, was, in the small circle 
 of his church, more priestly, more fulminating, and looked 
 for more reverence and adoration from his disciples, than the 
 Lauds and Gardiners of England. Without the means, he 
 affected all the haughtiness of Wolsey. Professing to adore 
 reason, he was in a rage if any body reasoned with him. He 
 vieued himself as an oracle, whose sayings no one was to 
 question, Paine was equally a dogmatizer ; equally a deal- 
 er, in authority, which was himself. They who tested every 
 thing but their own opinions, suffered not their own opinions 
 to be tested. 
 
 In the year 1797, he published a " Letter tp the honour- 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. Ill 
 
 able 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, per- 
 haps, the choicest specimen. The letter repeats, in coarse 
 and indecent language, the ribaldry of his Age of Reason. 
 
 In January of this year the " Society of the Theophilan- 
 thropists," calling themselves " adorers of God and lovers of 
 Man," a knot of atheists and deists, was commenced in Pa- 
 ris. To these gloomy misanthropists, Paine, the high priest, 
 delivered a discourse, the object of which was to prove the 
 "existence of a 'superior' 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 dogmas. Athe- 
 ists, 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 
 they are, they have overlooked a principle, he says, which he 
 has discovered, and which alone, he is positive, introduces us 
 to a knowledge of the existence of God. This he calls a cir- 
 cumstance, and that circumstance is motion, which, he adds, 
 is not a property of matter, and therefore, not being a pro- 
 perty of matter, and yet existing, its existence proves the ex- 
 istence of God. This is the amount of his discourse ; of his 
 indubitable proof of the being of God ! To evince, therefore, 
 upon this old principle, which he advances as new, 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 ? 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, than nature is constantly in brisk motion, 
 decomposing and recomposing ; that the " dissolution of one 
 body, which we call death, is but the beginning of life and 
 animation in another," and that matter is never at rest. If 
 of the being of God, of which all existewce, all that we see 
 and know and feel, are so many demonstrations, we had no 
 better proof than Paine's elaborately obscure, weak, and im- 
 pious discourse, then would our condition here be indeed 
 
 miserable ; then should we have no dread of something her&- 
 afier; no hope of happiness beyond the grave. 
 
1 1$ XIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 In the same year he published a small tract, which he eri* 
 titled " Agrarian Justice." This is a proposition submitted 
 to all nations, for compelling 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 twentv-one should 
 receive fifteen pounds sterling, and ten pounds when arrived 
 at fifty, Of all the theories of the wretched innovators of 
 the present age, those miserable empiricks 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 advocates. Paine is of opinion that the 
 exaction would be just, and he grounds it upon the assump- 
 tion, 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 o\ves 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 state, to which society never can revert in prac- 
 tice. But passing over the inutility of the one, and the im- 
 practicability of the other, Paine's argument, on the suppo- 
 sition 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 contra- 
 dictions, he affirms, that as the earth cannot become individ- 
 ual property, those who have parcelled 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 community any 
 thing for the possession of that to which the community has 
 no title The community, 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 so- 
 vereignty, he would have found himself in the same dilemma, 
 for the COMMON is then gone; it is no lodger a common; it 
 is located ; it is the property of the government, and those 
 who wish to cultivate any portion of it for sustenance, must 
 purchase. He would give to all that which he denies to all 
 its parts, and therefore to all. The rightful acquisition of land 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 113 
 
 is contemporary with and inseparable from its cultivation, 
 which is antecedent to a community, as civilization, in what- 
 ever degree, always precedes government. There is in the 
 rude state which he has supposed, no community, no go- 
 vernment; every thing is in common, and yet there is no 
 common consent, no common rule of action, which means 
 government. In this condition, location is essential to culti- 
 vation and sustenance ; and as no one would bestow labour 
 upon that which he would be unable to secure to himself, 
 and which could not be secured to him ; cultivation and ac- 
 quisition are, in this imaginary state of things, necessarily 
 one and the same rightful act. 
 
 This year he also published (q) a " Letter to the people of 
 France, and the French Annies, on the event of the 1 8th 
 Fructidor" The 18th Fructidor [Sept. 4, 1797, in Chris- 
 tian language] introduced to Paris a fresh explosion, and 
 Paine's letter was intended to reconcile the armies, &c. to the 
 event. Boissy D'Anglas's constitution of 1795, the constitu- 
 tion of elders and youngsters, and of a directory of five, which 
 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 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 republic, a new revolution happened, in which, to 
 the total disregard of the constitution, Pichegru and his fel- 
 low 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 " ex- 
 traordinary measure, 1 ' as he himself terms it in the very first 
 page, although he admits that the measure, which he is vin- 
 dicating, was unconstitutional ! And as if to heighten the de- 
 gree of his own offence, and the atrocity of the government, 
 he pronounces upon the constitution which has been violated 
 a most extravagant panegyric. " A better organized consti- 
 tution, he says, never was devised by human wisdom. It is, 
 in its organization, free from all the defects to which other 
 forms of government are more or less subject." (r). This is 
 the constitution which destroyed the universal suffrage which 
 he and Condorcet had prescribed in theirs. This is the con- 
 
 (y) His Agrarian Justice, he states in the preface, wag written in tbe 
 winter of 1795-6. 
 (/) Pa S e l. 
 
 a 
 
] 14 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 stitution which makes a campaign in the army, one of th 
 innumerable qualifications of'dcitize?i ; 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 himself pusillanimously opposed in his speech to the 
 convention, in July \795* His encomiums on this violated 
 constitution, which in 1795* he opposed as a bad one, and 
 which in 1797, he declares is the best that " human wisdom 
 ever devised," are regular and systematic, 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 exe- 
 cutive of/we he is passionately in love. " In the first place, 
 he remarks, speaking of the directory of jive, shall the execu- 
 tive by election be an individual or a plurality ?"(s) 
 
 " 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 
 idiot. 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." (/) This is the reverse of the language, which in his 
 Rights of Man, he spoke to the people of England. There, 
 the constitution of the United States was the paragon of all 
 constitutions : it was the new system in contradistinction to 
 the old. There, the election of the president was sumptu- 
 ously described as embracing all excellence. But compared 
 with Boissy D'Anglas's constitution, 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 ques- 
 tion is, he observes, " what shall be the number of that plu- 
 rality ?" " Three are too few, either for the variety or the 
 quantity of business. The constitution has adopted jive, and 
 experience has shown that this number of directors is suffici- 
 ent for all the purposes, and therefore a greater number 
 would only be an unnecessary expense." (u) The number 
 
 () There was no question about a nev constitution. He is only endea- 
 vouring to show that that which is, is right. 
 
 (0 Page 6. In the latter remark he is undoubtedly correct. It is so 
 in the United States. 
 
 (u) Page 6. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 1 15 
 
 which France had hit upon, and which I agree with him, is 
 quite sufficient, he seems to think designed by nature for all 
 governments, 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 fingers and toes, pointing out to us, by this kindness, the 
 propriety of an executive directory of five, precisely as in 
 France, (v) If one sense, he continues, had been sufficient, 
 she would have given us no more : .an individual executive, 
 he therefore infers, is unnatural and unphilosophical, " indi- 
 viduality being exploded by nature. 1 ' Surely tyranny never 
 had a more fawning parasite, freedom a more decided enemy. 
 The efficacy of paper constitutions, as described by him in 
 the Rights of Man, was, in the proceeding against Pichegru 
 and his friends, not 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 com- 
 mittees of revolution and safety, there was a form of trial ; a 
 mockery indeed, and an outrage, but under the paper consti- 
 tution of Boissy D'Anglas, which it was supposed had ter- 
 minated summary proceedings and instant executions, Piche- 
 gru and his colleagues were banished from the council of five 
 hundred without even the ceremony of a trial. Where was 
 now the cogency and omnipotence of a paper constitution ? 
 Party and injustice had laid it aside, and Paine panegyrizes 
 the act ! Suspicion was sufficient even with him to authorise 
 a dispensation with all constitutional obligations. There 
 was no evidence of guilt ; none was produced ; none was 
 sought for. Nor was guilt, in his estimation, necessary; pre- 
 sumption, ill-grounded presumption, was enough. " The ob- 
 stinacy with which the conspiracy (he says) persevered in its 
 attacks upon the directory, in framing laws in favour qj emi- 
 grants and refractory priests* 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/' (w) 
 
 I feel great difficulty in repressing the indignation which 
 rises from reviewing the nefarious publications and conduct 
 of this man. Robespierre, he says, was a tyrant. Why? Be- 
 cause 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 doctrine of suspicion, <( there was no 
 
 (; Page/. (w) Page 14. 
 
1 16 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 time when I could think my life worth twenty-four hours,"(,r) 
 What difference was there between Robespierre and himself ? 
 Suspicion was enough with Robespierre; suspicion was 
 enough with Paine. Robespierre 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 Pi- 
 chegru and his associates were banished. Pichegru, he as- 
 serts, was guilty of a conspiracy against the state. In what 
 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 circumstances" Without accusation, then, 
 without trial, circumstances, susceptible of a thousand inter- 
 pretations, authorised the banishment of Pichegru, and the 
 destruction of the paper constitution ! Pichegru and his 
 banished associates were legislators. 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 puppets ; and if they erred 
 in opinion, is error of opinion criminal in a legislator ? And 
 banish them too without a trial ! Is this republicanism ? Is 
 this freedom ? In the early stages of the revolution, the 
 armed force, at the beck of the dominant party, overaw- 
 ed the legislative body. Boissy D'Anglas's constitution had 
 guarded against this dreadful evil, as far as a paper constitu- 
 tion 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 constitu- 
 tional limits, as instruments of their designs. This indica- 
 tion of a bloody purpose excited alarm. Paine justifies the 
 march of the troops ; Paine vindicates this atrocious violence 
 committed on the paper constitution. " Conspiracy, he ob- 
 serves, is quick of suspicion, and the fear which \hQ faction 
 in the council of five hundred manifested upon this occasion, 
 could not have suggested itself to innocent men. Neither 
 would innocent men have expostulated with the directory 
 
 (f) Letters to {be citizens of the United Statei. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 117 
 
 upon the case." " The leaders of the faction conceived that 
 the troops were marching against them, and the conduct 
 they adopted in consequence of it, was sufficient to justify 
 the measure, even if it had been so. From what other motive 
 than the consciousness of their own designs, could they have 
 fear ?"(y) The murderous sayings of Jeffreys to Sydney are 
 inferior in atrocity to this. Paine infers guilt from a merito- 
 rious act. The constitution 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 constitu- 
 tion. This fear, so natural, so commendable, so patriotic, 
 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 despo- 
 tism greater than this ? 
 
 His letter to the army was his last work in France. Wea- 
 ried with the republic, though obstinately bent on maintain- 
 ing his principles against his feelings, he now sighed to re- 
 turn to the United States, " whose election of the chief ma- 
 gistrate is almost as bad as the hereditary system." He 
 knew not indeed what to do with himself. He could not re- 
 turn 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 government, 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 safety, was the question. The ocean, 
 bearing proudly 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 li- 
 mited to the bastile of France, and compelled to endure all 
 its horrors. He had made arrangements, he says, to return 
 with Mr. Monroe, and that it was fortunate he did not, as 
 the vessel in which that minister returned, was " boarded by 
 a British frigate on her passage, and every part of her search-^ 
 ed, down even to her hold> for Thomas Paine."(z) Lnmedi- 
 
 GO Page 15. 
 
 (:) Letter 4 to the people of the United States, 
 
118 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ately after he went to Havre, in order to embark ; but as 
 several British frigates were cruizing 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 pre- 
 sidency, and he should have occasion to send a frigate to 
 France, he would give me an opportunity 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 ordered round to the Mediter- 
 ranean ; and as at that time the war was over, and the British 
 cruisers [were] called in, I could come any way. 1 then 
 agreed to come with Commodore Barney, in a vessel he had 
 engaged, 1 was again fortunate I did not, lor the vessel sunk 
 at sea, and the people were preserved in a boat " (a) 
 
 He continued in France from the year 1/97, the date of 
 his letter to the French army, to the year le0s, 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 his dress, and so notorious a sot, 
 that all men of decency in Paris avoided him. On the 30th 
 of Oct. 1 80^, he arrived at Baltimore, under the protection 
 of President Jefferson. The subjoined is an extract of Mr. 
 Jefferson's answer to Paine's request for permission to return 
 to the United States in a public 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 pre- 
 sent you with this letter, is charged with orders to the cap- 
 tain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate 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 for- 
 mer times ; in these it will be your glory to have steadily la- 
 boured, and with as much effect as any man living. That 
 you may live long to continue your useful labours, and reap 
 the reward in the thankfulness of nations, is my sincere pray- 
 er. Accept the assurances of my high esteem, and affectio- 
 nate attachment THOMAS JEFFKRSON." 
 Paine brought with him from Paris, and from her husband, 
 in whose house he had lived, Margaiet Brazier Bonneville, 
 and her three sons, Lewis, Benjamin, and Thomas. Thomas 
 has the features, countenance, and the temper of Paine. Ma- 
 darne Bonneville arrived at Baltimore a few days after her 
 
 (a) Letter 4 to the people of the United Stales. 
 
OF THOMAS PAINE. 119 
 
 paramour. From Baltimore he went to Washington, in order 
 to make his compliments to President Jefferson : he was 
 soon after followed hy Madame Bonneville and her sons. 
 His reception at Washington was cold and forbidding. 
 Even Mr. Jefferson received him with politic circumspection; 
 and such of the members of congress as suffered him to ap- 
 proach them, did so from motives of curiosity. Policy dic- 
 tated 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 would injure it ; hence he was 
 contemptuously neglected by them. His figure was indeed 
 much against him : it was that of a little old man, broken 
 down by intemperance, and utterly disregardful of personal 
 cleanliness. His intemperance he could not conceal, nor 
 had he, to all appearance, a wish to conceal it. He was 
 daily drunk with his favorite brandy, and every body saw or 
 heard of his intoxication. 
 
 Fearful as the leaders of the party were that he would in- 
 jure their popular prospects by publishing, his pen could not 
 be restrained. Sufficiently intrenched with popularity to 
 trample upon the constitution, to sanction political anarchy, 
 or to countenance irreligion, Mr. Jefferson had expressed 
 a wish that he would " continue his useful labours/' and, in 
 this instance grateful, he had resolved not to disappoint his ex- 
 pectations. Encouraged, therefore, by the president, coun- 
 tenanced by the presence of Bonneville's wife, and cheered 
 with his bottle, he commenced at Washington the publication 
 of half a dozen letters, addressed "to the citizens of the Unit- 
 ed States." These, except his letter to Samuel Adams, are 
 party, rude, malignant effusions. In one of them he re- 
 marks, 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 talents, drink too 
 many slings and drams in a morning to have any chance 
 with me."(6) This he published at Washington, where it was 
 notorious that he was in the constant practice of drinking 
 slings and drains, not only in the morning, but all the day 
 through. His letter to Samuel Adams was in reply to a cool 
 and cautious one which that gentleman, respected for the ser- 
 vices he had rendered his country, and interesting from tha 
 
 (b) Letter 4. 
 
120 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 loss of his sight, had written to him on the subject of the 
 Christian Religion. u When," he observes, " I heard that you 
 had turned your mind to a defence of infidelity, I felt my- 
 self much astonished and more grieved, that you had at- 
 tempted a measure so injurious to the feelings and so repug- 
 nant to the interest of the citizens of the United Star, s. Will 
 you excite among them the spirit of angry controversy ? I am 
 told that some of the newspapers have announced your in- 
 tention 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 enjoy- 
 ment of opinion, without the danger of persecution by civil or 
 ecclesiastical law." Paine's answer was returned through the 
 medium of the newspapers ! In this he counterfeits a friend- 
 ship for Mr. Adams, which he was incapable 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 tor publishing sooner than he had ori- 
 ginally intended, his Age of Reason, which, that his disciples 
 in the United States might be countenanced and encouraged, 
 he vindicates. 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 resolved 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 writing 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 ;?93. 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 expected the same fate. His election to the 
 national assembly was announced to him in London, on the 
 13th of Sept. 1/92. On the 15th of the same month, he 
 wrote his letter at Calais, addressed to Mr. Dundas. In Jan- 
 uary, 1793, the king was decapitated. In the summer of 
 the same year, Robespierre cut off heads in gross, and without 
 ceremony, In Dec. 1793, Paine himself was imprisoned. 
 Having witnessed all these catastrophes, but his own, which 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 121 
 
 lie anticipated, " I resolved, (he adds,) to begin my work." 
 Let us compare this with what follows. 
 
 In his preface to the Age of Reason, part second, is the 
 subjoined passage, which, in another place, and for another 
 purpose, 1 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 philoso- 
 phy had diffused, had been departed from." 
 
 Here, he had " determined" in the year 1790, to delay 
 the work no longer^ because the humane princip^s of the re- 
 volution, 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 begin my work," and he assigns very 
 different reasons 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 accounts of the same fact 
 could be more contradictory 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 be- 
 lieve, that he had something of humanity about him. 
 
 Having paid his compliments to Mr. Jefferson, and gra- 
 tified him by " continuing his useful labours," he left Wash- 
 ington for New-York, accompanied with Madame Bonne- 
 vilie and her sons : (c) he arrived, as I have mentioned in 
 the preface. He found his farm at New-Rochelle greatly 
 increased in value, notwithstanding the consumable part of 
 the mansion, had in the year 1790, been accidentally des- 
 troyed by fire. " Even in my worldly concerns, he observes, 
 I have been blessed. The little property I left in America 
 has been increasing 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." (d) In another place 
 
 (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 scrip- 
 ture in its true meaning. The key has been lost above four thousand 
 years, and we have found it. Then, said Paine, drily, it must have been 
 very rusty. 
 
 (</) Letier 4 to the citizens of the United States. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 he remarks : u My property in this country is now worth 
 six thousand pounds sterling, which put in the funds will 
 bring me 400/. sterling a year." (<?) Yet with all this pro- 
 perty, meanness and avarice would not permit him to re- 
 main at Lovett's hotel more than eight or ten days. During 
 his stay, he was visited by the labouring class of emigrants 
 from England, Ireland and Scotland, who had there admired 
 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 labour- 
 er would say ; drink with me, Mr. Paine ; another, drink 
 with me and he very condescendingly gratified them all. 
 The leaders of the party to which he had attached himself, 
 paid him no attention : he was studiously avoided by them. 
 But two or three persons of any thing like distinction pub- 
 lickly visited him, and seeing his vulgarity and love of li- 
 quor, 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 
 much hurt, it was given out that his fall was occasioned by 
 an apoplectic fit ! 
 
 In making his arrangements for a permanent residence 
 amongst us, he contemplated the abandonment of Madame 
 Bonneville, whom he had seduced from her husband in 
 Paris, and brought amongst strangers ! Besides his estate 
 
 o o o 
 
 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 the United States. Those who believed him, 
 thought well of that kindness in which his friend's wife and 
 her children had found refuge; but his cruel treatment of her 
 soon dissipated the delusion, and convinced all who knew 
 him, that to the crime of seduction, he was adding that of in- 
 humanity. (/) 
 
 (e) Letter to Thomas Clio Rickman, of London. See the London 
 edition, 1804, of his letters to the citizens of the United States. ' 
 
 The elder Bonneville, about fourteen, returned to his father in 
 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 123 
 
 From Lovett's he went to the house of Mr. Carver, far- 
 rier, in Cedar street, whom I have already mentioned; an 
 honest, faithful, industrious man, who gratuitously accom- 
 modate* i him for a few weeks. At Carver's he finally con- 
 cluded 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 couid. 
 
 But before his departure for New-Rochelle, the persons 
 who had paid him attention at Lovett's, angry at the neg- 
 lect of the higher orders, were anxious to testify their es- 
 teem for him by giving him a public dinner, if a sufficient 
 number could be prevailed with to be present. The intend- 
 ed honour was mentioned to Paine, who highly approved 
 of it, and manifested great solicitude for its accomplish- 
 ment. After many consultations 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, 
 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 importunity obtained between sixty 
 and seventy. The dinner was therefore given, and Paine 
 conducted from the table as mellow as he wished to be. (g) 
 
 Paris, in the year 1805. He detested Paine, and lad as he was, would 
 scarcely speak to him. Ah! he would often say, Paine is not so well 
 known in the United States as in Paris. lie has broken up the tran- 
 quillity 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. 
 
 (g) Paine, as he himself observes, had a taste and talent for poetry. 
 The following effusion of fancy, addressed to Mrs. Smith, lady of Sir 
 Robert, which he wrote at 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 sud- 
 denly 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 
 
 THE LITTLE CORiN Eli 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 female could jjot bear his 
 company. 
 
124 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 From Mr. Carver's, he went, in June, 1803, toNew-Ro- 
 chelle, and boarded on his farm with Purdy, leaving Ma- 
 dame Bonneville in the city. Unprotected 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. Purdy 's 
 family, who were very poor, Paine, Madame Bonneville, and 
 her children all ate together. Paine had a small room to 
 himself. His furniture was a miserable straw bed, on which 
 he slept, a small deal table, a chair, a Bible, and a jug of 
 spirituous liquors. He preferred brandy, but being too 
 dear in the country for his penurious spirit, he drank New- 
 England Rum. Sometimes the young Bonnevilles went to 
 school at New-Rochelle, but, generally, they rambled in, 
 
 The turrfets 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 gold. 
 But a storm that 1 felt not, had risen and rolled, 
 
 While rapt in a slumber I lay : 
 And when I looked 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 
 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 checquer'd with sunshine and shade. 
 J 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 
 \Vhen 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. 125 
 
 the fields, unheeded and almost unnoticed. Although Tom 
 was Paine's favourite, both were always dirty and shabbily 
 dressed, frequently without shoes 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, taking with him the two Bon- 
 nevilles, and leaving their mother in the city. Not chus- 
 ing 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 Bon- 
 nevilles, boarded, sometimes with Mr, Wilburn in Gold- 
 street, in v the city, but principally with Mr. Andrew A. 
 Dean, at New-Rochelle. Mrs. Dean, with whom I have 
 conversed, tells me that he was daily drunk at their house, 
 and that, in his few sober moments, he was always quar- 
 relling with her and disturbing the peace of the family. 
 She represents him as deliberately and disgustingly filthy ; 
 as chusing to perform the offices of nature in his bed ! It 
 is not surprising, therefore, that she importuned her hus- 
 band to turn him out of the house, but owing to Mr; 
 Dean's predilection for his political writings, her impor- 
 tunities were, for several weeks, unavailing. Constant do- 
 mestic disquiet very naturally ensued, which was increased 
 by Paine's peevishness and violence. One day he ran 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 inter- 
 position 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 an- 
 tagonist. 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 Bonnevilles were quite neglected, (h) 
 
 (h} 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 im- 
 piety, it would be the disgusting immorality, and the perpetual turbulence 
 of the man who wrote thenou They are printed from Paine's hand-writing. 
 The life of their author is the most powerful antidote ta their infidelity, 
 A man more honest, temperate, social, and just, could not in all proba- 
 bility have written theft. The reader, when perusing the lines, should 
 carry with him the ideas, that while writing them, Paine was, in aU 
 likelihood, drunk, and that he had undoubtedly been exciting husband 
 against wife, destroying family peace, wrangling with all his neighbonra, 
 cheating in his dealings all whom he could cheat, and living a Ufe <$* 
 
126* LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 From Dean's 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 heen a tyrant from the mo- 
 ment of their engagement. Derick left him with revengeful 
 thoughts. Being now alone, except the company of the two 
 Bonncvilles, of whom he took but little notice, fond as he 
 was of Tom, he engaged an old black woman of the name of 
 Beffy, to do his housework. Betty lived with him but three 
 weeks. She seems to have been as intemperate as himself. 
 Like her master, she was every day intoxicated. Paine would 
 accuse her of stealing his New-England rum, and Betty 
 would retort by calling him an old drunkard. Often, Mrs. 
 Deane informs me, would they both lie prostrate on the 
 same tioor, dead drunk, sprawling and swearing, and threat- 
 ening to fight, but incapable of approaching each other to 
 combat. Nothing but inability prevented a battle. 
 
 In the mean while Madame Bonneville was boarding in 
 the city of New-York on the faith of Paine, who, in No- 
 vember, was brought up on a warrant before the justices of 
 the justices' court, for the amount of her board. The sub- 
 joined minute is copied from the records of the court 
 
 "November 20, 1804. 
 James Wilburn, \ 
 
 vs. C Warrant, 50 dols. Paulding, Marshal. 
 
 Thomas Paine. > 
 
 Plain tiff, by Peter Paulding, demands 35 dols. for board- 
 ing Mrs. Bonneville, at defendant's request. 
 
 Defendant pleads non-assumpsit. 
 
 Adjourned till 1 1 o'clock to-morrow." 
 
 u November 91. 
 Same,} 
 
 vs. >. On adjournment, &c. 
 Same > 
 
 Pa i ties appear. 
 
 John Fellows, witness for plaintiff. 
 
 Nonsuit." 
 
 The court was ciowded to gaze at Paine, who exhibit* 
 no signs either of fear or shame. He denied the debt wit 
 incomparable assurance and intrepidity ; and as the plainth 
 Lad neglected to subpoena Madame Bonneville, to pro* 
 
 tinguisbed by seduction, by oppression, by beastly intoxication, and b 
 every species of imposition and injustice. 
 
 [We omit the verses, because they are low, indelicate, and blasphemou 
 
 LONDON EDITOR.] 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS .PAINE* 127 
 
 that he had promised her to pay her board, the scandalous 
 old man obtained a nonsuit. He afterwards, however, paid 
 Mr. Wilburn's demand. Probably a menace of public ex- 
 posure in the gazettes forced him, in this instance, to do 
 justice. 
 
 He now returned to his farm at New-Rochelle, taking 
 \vith him Madame Bonneville and her sons. On his arrival 
 he hired Rachel Gidney, a black woman, to cook for him. 
 Rachel made 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 dol- 
 lars, the amount of her wages. She got out a warrant, 
 on which he was apprehended, 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 ! (i) 
 
 (i) During Rachel's stay, Mr. Carver, an uneducated man, but a respect- 
 able citizen, made him a visit, which he describes to me in the following 
 communication. 
 
 " To MR. CHEETHAM. 
 
 " SIR, 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 acquaint- 
 ance with a minister of the gospel in this city, 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 : he willingly 
 agreed to my proposition, and in a few days after we set off for New Ro- 
 chelle. 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, was not worth five dollars. Mr. Paine, however, had 
 the politeness 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 newspapers : 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 turning them 
 over and over with his snuffy fingers, so that it astonished my companion, 
 
128 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Derick, who could neither forget nor forgive the ill usage 
 he had received from Paine, and who like him was revenge- 
 ful, atrociously conspired, 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. Deane, who has mentioned to me the circum- 
 stances, asked him where he was going with the musket ? 
 Derick replied, only to fie a Christmas-eve salute. He 
 proceeded towards Paine's, who lived hard by, and \\ho, 
 having a lighted candle in his room, was sitting near the ex- 
 posed window. In this situation a musket was fired 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 re- 
 turned to Dean's. He was apprehended, and tried for the 
 offence, but acquitted. Since Paine's death, he has often 
 said, Mrs. Deane tells me, (&) that he was sorry the musket 
 did not do execution, but without mentioning that he fired 
 it at Paine. 
 
 In February, 1805, he removed from New Rochelle to 
 the city, where he boarded with Mr. Carver six or eight 
 weeks. The two Bonneville's he left at school at New Ro- 
 chelle. Madame Bonneville was stationed in a miserable 
 garret in Liberty-street. From Carver's he returned on the 
 15th of May to his farm at New Rochelle. In August he 
 again visited the city, and lived with Mr. Carver a few 
 
 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 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. VVhy sir, said I to him, I though* 
 you professed to be a Christian ; 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, yours respectfully, 
 
 WILLIAM CARVER." 
 
 () My interviews with Mrs. Dean have been in the city, where sh( 
 was on a visit to her friends. I have since conversed with Mr. Deai 
 who corroborates all that has been communicated to me by his wife. 
 Dean is a sensible man, and a judicious observer. He is one of the jus- 
 tices of the peace for the county. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 He proposed to continue at Carver's, but owing to 
 illness in the family, he could not be accommodated. He 
 therefore went back to his farm at New Rochelle, and took 
 the two Bonnevilles from school to wait on him. Here ho 
 remained until the approach of winter, when he came to the 
 city, and lived at Glen's, an obscure house in Water street, 
 until March, 180o\(/) 
 
 During the summer of 1805, the pestilential fever raged 
 in the city of New York, which became nearly evacuated by 
 its inhabitants. The garret-residence of Madame Bonne- 
 viile, 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 pecu- 
 niary aid which Mr. Carver liberally and humanely afforded 
 her. Paine was acquainted 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 expence.ou his farm, and 
 unable, from the bad character which he had, to procure a 
 servant to attend him, he boarded, with the two Bonnevilles, 
 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 Welchtnan actually 
 turned him out. His increased 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 
 Welchrnan was obliged to drive him from his habitation. He 
 now, Mrs. Dean informs me, returned to their house, and 
 begged to be admitted for a short time, (m) Mrs. Dean 
 
 (/) 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, fur 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. 1 can- 
 not 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 rne 
 back. Paine resisted all her importunities: he kept the paper until the 
 morning, when he found, that instead of an order for clothing, it was a 
 bond, duly drawn, for seven hundred pounds. Quite enraged, he went to 
 Mrs. Dean's, and told her the story, by whom, and by Mr. Carver, it is 
 mentioned to me. 
 
 (///) lie had not paid a farthing for his former board at .Mr. Dean's, nor 
 had he when he died. 
 
130 LtFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 made a stout resistance, but at her husband's solicitation, 
 and on Paine's promise that he would not stay long, he was 
 permitted to enter the house. He brought with him a gallon 
 of New England rum, and in the evening got so drunk that 
 he fell from his chair, broke his nose, and sprinkled the room 
 with his 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 admis- 
 sion, having accommodated him one night before, and found 
 him exceedingly offensive. 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 was on the 2.9th 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 
 following 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. Carver is an unlettered man. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 " New York, Nov. 21, 
 " CITIZEN FRIEND, 
 
 " I take this opportunity to inform you that I am in want 
 of money, and should take it as a favour 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 a calculation of my expenditures on your account, 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 account. I expect, therefore, you will have the 
 goodness to pay me ; for you must recollect you was with 
 me almost the tvhole of the winter before last, for which you 
 only gave me four guineas. If I, like yourself, hud an inde- 
 
I 
 
 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 131 
 
 pendent fortune, I should not then require one cent of you ; 
 but real necessity, and justice to my family, thus prompts 
 me to urge payment from you. 
 
 " Your's, in friendship, 
 
 "WILLIAM CARVER. 
 "Ma. THONAS PAINE." 
 
 No. II. 
 
 " MR. CARVER, 
 
 " I received your letter of the 2 1st inst. and as there are 
 several mistakes in it I sit down to correct 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 mis-statement 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 board- 
 ed 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 sup- 
 per. At your house I had not the same convenience of a 
 room and 1 found my own liquor which I bought of John 
 Fellows, so that you were paid to the full worth of what I 
 had. As 1 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 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 find that they amount to one hundred 
 and fifty or sixty dollars, that I was 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 
 
 nrts. First, from the time I came from New Rochelle till 
 was taken ill and from thence till I came away Nov 3d I 
 low not exactly the time I came from New Rochello but I 
 can know bv writing to Mr. Shute. 1 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 whjcti 
 
 ! 
 
132 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 Coerlears 
 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 was to have her room. At your house I 
 found my ovvn 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 conie to when the weather 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 trouble to get it done ; the black wo- 
 man 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. 
 Somtimes the room became so dirty that people that cunie to 
 see me took notice 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 expenditures 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 expcnce, however, that you were at on my account was 
 the addition of one 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 every thing else 
 in common with the fare of the kitchen, so that unless I eat 
 more than any body else I was of no more ex pence 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 no- 
 thing further would suppose that I kept you out of a great 
 deal of property, and would not settle the account. Whereas 
 
LIFE Of THOMAS PAINE. 133 
 
 the case is, that I told you the last time you came for money, 
 and I gave you ten dollars, that I did not chuse to pay any 
 more, till the account 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 apoplexy. I find you came up in the 
 night and opened the little cupboard and took my wateh 
 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 desire that all com- 
 munication 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 
 hearte;d 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, (0) and, of every thing 
 else to which your name is there mentioned. 
 
 THOMAS PAINE," 
 
 " New-York, Nov. 25, '06," 
 
 No. Ill, 
 
 " MR. THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 " I received your letter dated the 25th ult. in answer to 
 mine dated Nov. 21, and after minutely examining its con-, 
 tents, I found that you had taken the pitiful ground of sub- 
 terfuge and lying for your defence. You say that you paid 
 me four dollars per week for your board and lodging, dur- 
 ing the time that you were with me, prior to the first of 
 June last; which was the day that I went by your order to 
 
 (n) A tavern in Little George Street. Paine gave his lettei to Walter 
 Morton, who took it to Muslin's and read it in the tap roon>. 
 
 (o) He afterwards " dispossessed" John Fellows, to whom he had be- 
 queathed something. I know not how many wills he inade, for he " dis- 
 possessed" his friends as often as he quarrelled with them, which waa 
 continually, 
 
134 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 bring you to York, from New-Rochelle. It is fortunate 
 for me, that I have a living evidence that saw you give me 
 four guineas and no more, in my shop, at your departure 
 at that time ; but you said yon \\ould have given nie more, 
 but that you had no more with you at present. You say, 
 also, that you found your own 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 demi- 
 john 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 supply of liquor for dinner and 
 supper? As tor what you paid Mr. Glen or any other per- 
 son, that 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 1 shall be viewed by my fellow citizens in that 
 contemptible light that they will view you in, after the pub' 
 lication of this my letter to you. (p) You ask me the ques- 
 tion, " 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 received, 
 and no more. I will ask you what consolation 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 oppose 
 your false remarks with plain truths. As the public will 
 see your letter as well as mine, they will 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, and from that to ten ; with additional charge if the 
 boarder should be sick for three months or upwards, { 
 
 (p) This is the first time the letter has been published. 
 
OF THOMAS PAINE. 135 
 
 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 
 hereafter. 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 num- 
 ber 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 dollars 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 
 departure she was discharged. Now, sir, how will you 
 go to prove that yourself, and Mrs. Palmer, and the ser- 
 vant girl are one r 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 ardent spirits, 
 those fits have frequently subjected you to falling. You 
 remember you had one of them at Lovett's Hotel, and fell 
 from the top of 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 gentleman'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 during the time your room 
 was full of different descriptions 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 complain 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 
 
136 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 this period of life, I should turn rogue for an old silver 
 watch. 
 
 "You go on and say, ' did you take anything else?' 
 Have you assumed the) character of a father 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 King, 
 one more will not choak you. Now, sir, I have to inform 
 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, 
 Avith 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 Tho- 
 mas Paine to America. Suppose I were to go to my native 
 country, England, and take another man's wile and three 
 children of his, and leave my wife and 1 amity in this coun- 
 try. What would be the natural conclusion in the minds 
 of the people, but that there was some criminal connexion 
 between the woman and myself? You have often told 
 me that the French woman above 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 ? 
 perhaps you can explain the matter. I believe you have 
 broken up the domestic tranquillity of several families, with 
 whom you have resided ; and I can speak by experience as 
 to my own. I remember you undertook to fall out with rny 
 former wife, and one of the foolish epithets you attempted 
 to stigmatize her with, was, that she origin-ally was only 
 in the character of a servant. Was this a judicious remark 
 of the ( Author of the Rights of Man ?' I well remember th< 
 reply she made you, which was that you had not rnucl 
 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 insinuating that my wife and son 
 have deprived me of my property. I call this pitiful em- 
 ployment for a man who calls himself a philanthropist* 
 When you tell me that Mrs. Palmer did the work belonging 
 to my family, you know the assertion to be false; which can 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 137 
 
 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 ok) acquaintance of your's and mine, called on me a few 
 days aijo. I asked him if he had been to see you? His 
 answer was, he had not, neither did he want to see you. (g) 
 He said, he believed that you had a 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 principle; and one reason that led us 
 to think as we do, is, that all your works are stuffed with 
 egotism. You say farther, that you were not treated friend- 
 ly 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 1 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-re wards, only the payment of my just 
 demand. 1 often told many of my friends, had you come to 
 this country, without one cent of property, then, as long 
 as 1 had one shilling, you should have a part. I declare 
 when I first saw you here, I knew nothing of your posses- 
 sions, or that you were worth four hundred per year, ster- 
 ling. I, sir, am not like yourself. I do not bow down to a 
 little paltry gold, at the sacrifice of just principles. I, sir, 
 am poor, with an independent mind, which perhaps renders 
 me more comfort, ttian your independent fortune renders 
 you. You tell me further, that I shall be excluded from 
 any thing, and every thing, contained in your will. All this 
 I totally disregard. 1 believe if it was in your power you 
 would go further, 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 being 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 concerning me. 
 
 
 (g) Admiral Landay, a French gentleman, who knew Paine in France, 
 and who was in the imval service of the United States, during the revo- 
 lution. 
 
138 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 1 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 gratitude 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 intel- 
 ligent friend ; he said it was a characteristic of the vileness 
 of your natural disposition, and enough to damn the repu- 
 tation 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 called 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 frequently told me and others, that you 
 were the complete ruin of their family, and that he des- 
 pised 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 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 had to become security for 
 you. 
 
 A respectable gentleman, (r) from New-Rochelle, call* 
 
 (r) Mr. Shute, who was afterwards a justice of the county. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 to see* me a few days past, and said that every body was 
 tired of you there, and no one would undertake to board 
 and lodge you. I thought this was the case, as I found you at 
 a tavern, (s) in a most miserable situation. You appeared 
 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 co- 
 lour of tanned leather, and you had the most disagreeable 
 smell possible; just like that of our poor beggars in Eng- 
 land. Do you not recollect the pains 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 remember a remark that I 
 made to you at that time, which was, that you put me in mind 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, who is said to be in this situation. 
 Many of your toe nails exceeded half an inch in length, and 
 others had t/rown 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 wondered how J 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 treated you like an infant one month old ? Have you 
 forgotten likewise, how you destroyed my bed and bedding 
 by fire, (t) 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 mis- 
 
 (*) Jones's, the Welchman. 
 
 (t) One day in winter, just after dinner, when he had drank rather more 
 than his usual potion of brandy, he overheated the brick, which wrapped up 
 in cloth, he was in the habit of putting to his feet when he lay down. The 
 brick communicated fire to the bed. The smell of fire led Mr. Carver to 
 his room, the door of which he broke open, an<l dragged Paine out of it. 
 Mr. Carver tells me tb.at five minutei longer would have terminated bie 
 existence. 
 
140 L-IFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 fortune, or said that you would recompense 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 situ- 
 ation, but I believe the only reason why you would not 
 comply with the request was, that you expected to have 
 more to pay, and not be so well attended ; you might think 
 nobody would keep a fire, as I did, in the kitchen, till 
 eleven or twelve o'clock at night, to warm tbitfgs 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 Frenchwoman, to the amount of about 
 thirty dollars; but as the man had no proof, and only de- 
 pended on your word, he was nonsuited, 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 
 parlour. 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 (u) that knew my situatioi 
 told you that you ought to buy a load of wood to burn 
 the parlour ; your answer was, that you should not sta; 
 above a week or two, and did not want to have the w< 
 to remove ; this certainly 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 
 
 (w) Mr, John Fellows. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 141 
 
 mask of hypocrisy and deception, under which you have 
 acted in your political as well as moral capacity of life. 
 There may be many grammatical errors in this letter. To 
 you I have no apologies to make ; but I hope the candid 
 and impartial public will not view them * with a critic'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 pic- 
 ture 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 remember- 
 ed, but they cannot be compensated with money: Paine 
 had not, however, in his heart, a place for gratitude ; and 
 as to the golden rule of justice, he disregarded it in practice. 
 To have set Mr. and Mrs. Carver at variance, and des- 
 troyed their peace for ever, by accusing the latter, in con- 
 junction 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 advanced to cover his own injustice, (v) 
 
 .Soon after the date of Mr. Carver's rejoinder, his de- 
 mand was paid by Paine, through Mr. John Fellows and 
 Mr. Walter Morton. 
 
 From Mr. Carver's, he went to live with the ingenious 
 Mr. Jarvis, portrait- painter, in Church street. Mr. Jarvis, 
 unmarried, kept what is called 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 common fame had previously represented it. His tem- 
 per was by nature sour, and age, with the buffets he had met 
 with in journeying through life, had made him exceedingly 
 peevish : yet, Mr. Jarvis says, he was perfectly manageable 
 by art, patiently and assiduously applied. He was easily 
 put into a passion ; he was easily calmed. He did not con* 
 
 (v) 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 impiety. 
 
 [The verses are utterly unfit for insertion. LONDON ED.] 
 
142 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 stantly 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 conversation, Mr. Jarvis sat 
 with him one night from twelve till three, doing all he politely 
 could to keep him sober. At three he left him at his hottle. 
 At four he returned to the room, and found him drunk on 
 the floor. Mr. Jarvis wished to raise him up, but Paine de- 
 sired to lie still. " I have the 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. M<- body is inert, 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 immor- 
 tality 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 nothing about it." "As 
 the soul (said Mr. Jarvis) will live hereafter, will it be con- 
 scious that it has lived now ?" 4 * 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 be- 
 fore 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 
 feiar 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 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 win- 
 dow ; look there ; (pointing 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 
 s my servant has ; he was egregiously immoral ; he had i 
 
 (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. 143 
 
 religious awe, and was not disposed to make use of the little 
 reason which he possessed. He has since beea converted. 
 He is now a regular attendant on his church. You see that 
 he is dressed well, and has a goodly appearance. 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. He saw, to use the 
 words of Mr. Jarvis, the fact, and it was unanswerable. 
 
 On another occasion he very seriously advised Mr. Jarvis 
 to get married, observing that the marriage institution is an 
 excellent one. " And why did not you get married ?"(#) 
 " Why, I thought, said Paine, that I had talents, and that if 
 I married 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 observes, was 
 to nastiness. He would eat his breakfast, if he could, with- 
 out 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 totally indifferent to his per- 
 son. Cleanliness, without 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 recommend- 
 ing marriage to others, it was profligate in him to deny, as 
 Mr. Jarvis understood 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 false- 
 hood. 
 
 Principally from his penurioub disposition, and, in some 
 regard, from the impertinent anonymous letters which were 
 
 (.t) On his arrival at New York, I rode out with him to General 
 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. Afver a while she said : ' I always threatened, if ever 1 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 Eng- 
 land ; were you ever married?" " I never answer," said Paine, in a very 
 surly manner, " impertinent questions." The general, with much of tfce 
 frankness, and all the language of a soldier, turned the conversation. 
 
144 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE* 
 
 addressed to him, he refused, 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. Several ano- 
 nymous letters were left for him at Mr. Jarvis's, while he 
 lived there, desiring his opinion ; whether, in baptism, im- 
 mersion was better than sprinkling, or sprinkling better than 
 immersion ? Advise them, said Mr. Jarvi.s, to use soap and 
 water. Paine did not perceive the point. 
 
 He usually took a nap after dinner, and would not be dis- 
 turbed 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. " 1 am very sorry," she said, " for that, for I 
 want 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 el- 
 bow, and then, with an expression 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" u Poh, poh, it is not 
 true. You were not sent with any such impertinent mes- 
 sage. Jarvis, make her go away. Pshaw, he would not 
 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 hands, 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 rne, evidently in the hope of concealing 
 facts ; and when, at last, I saw and interrogated him, his 
 communications were reluctant and scanty. The little in- 
 formation which I extorted from him, corroborates, how- 
 ever, that which had been incidentally mentioned to me by 
 two or three gentlemen who sometimes visited Paine, when 
 he resided at Hitt's. Both enable me to say, that having 
 less care taken of him than at 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 cham- 
 ber he received his night- visitors, and v\ould sometimes, 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 145 
 
 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 ex- 
 tenuate, none. to suppre-s 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. 
 Prom breakfast, he retired/ Hitt says, to his room, where 
 he remained until dinner. 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 
 would crawl to 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 witii whom I am in daily 
 habits of intercourse, did so from curiosity ; to learn whe- 
 ther he was dead or alive. Some editors complimented him 
 with their gazettes. These served him at once for a carpet 
 and a table cover. His room was full of dirt and con- 
 fusion. Hitt says that he 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 came 
 Paine to leave you ? W T hy, said he, " the dirty, drunken, 
 cross old devil, I would not let him stay any longer." This 
 was no doubt true. 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 reprehensibly 
 endeavoured to suppress the truth. 
 
 While at Hitt's, Paine corresponded with President Jef- 
 ferson. In every thing he was slovenly; and he was re- 
 gardless of all the principles and rules of honour. He laid 
 the president's letters ppen upon his table, where every body 
 who entered his room could read them. The substance 
 of one of them got into our gazettes. It related to our dif- 
 ferences rtith England, in regard to which, Mr. Jefferson 
 had, much to the satisfaction of Paine, very improperly 
 given an unfavourable opinion. Paine wrote paragraphs on 
 the same side of the question, for one of our jacobin ga- 
 zettes. In his newspaper essays, he was completely a 
 
 K 
 
146 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 mer- 
 chants !" (y) 
 
 At the same time, Madame Bonneville, utterly neglected 
 by Paine, was somehow procuring subsistence in the city. 
 Her son, Ben, was with her Tom was at New-Rochelle, 
 frequently at Mr. Dean's, and sometimes at Joshua Fow- 
 ler's. He was maintained on the credit, but not, I believe 
 at the request of Paine. His board is not yet paid for. 
 The persons who took the abandoned 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/. sterling, which, put into the funds, 
 would yield him 400/. sterling a year. Still, however he was 
 not satisfied. Avarice had either mastered his former pro- 
 fessions and disinterestedness, or those professions were de- 
 ceitful. " In a great affair, 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 of it, svere I conscious 
 that I looked for reward." (a) 
 
 But in January, 1808, while at Hitt's, he presented a 
 memorial to congress for compensation for accompanying 
 Col. Laurens in his mission to Paris, in the year 1781. (])) 
 This was a " great affair, where the happiness of man was 
 at stake," and yet he looked for u 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, 
 
 (y) He was always an advocate either of democratic anarchy, or of im- 
 perial despotism : there was no medium with him. " They talk, he said 
 to a friend of mine, of the tyranny of the emperor of France. I know 
 Buonaparte ; I have lived under his government, and he allows as much 
 freedom as I wish, or as 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 ? 
 
 (z) Preface to the London edition, 1804, of his Letters to th& citizens 
 of the United States. 
 
 (a) Letter 4 to the citizen of the United States. He has similar re- 
 marks in his Rights of Man. 
 
 See his memorial in the Appendix. 
 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 147 
 
 neither his wealth, of which he had boasted, nor his former 
 professions ot disinterested patriotism, to vvhich his memo- 
 rial ^ave the lie, would have prevented congress from ade- 
 quately compensating his services. But he had no claim, 
 as I have elsewhere shown, and as congress, in effect, re- 
 solved. 
 
 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 constitution of the United States : des- 
 cribes the former, if he allows that there is a constitution 
 in England, as every thing that is absurd and pernicious, 
 and represents the latter, the constitution of the United 
 States, as containing all possible excellence. But, in his 
 memorial to congress, he expresses a very different opinion. 
 Speaking of the services vvhich 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 indepen- 
 dence 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 forward and 
 establish the representative system of government, that was 
 the leading principle with me." (c) The middle sentence is 
 ill expressed, and ungrammatical, but its meaning will be 
 understood. He was an enemy to our government, because 
 it is modelled after the corrupt system of the English. 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? The new 
 was that of the United States, vvhich he had recommended 
 to England, but which in his opinion, when revolution was 
 not his object, was precisely the same as the constitution of 
 England. 
 
 He published while at Hitt's, but I know not when he 
 wrote, his u Examination of the passages in the New Testa- 
 ment, quoted from the Old, and called Prophecies, concern- 
 ing Jesus Christ, to which is prefixed, an Essay on Dream, 
 showing by what operation of the mind a dream is produced 
 
 (c) See his memorial in the Appendix. 
 
148 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 in sleep, and applying the same to the account of dreams 
 in the New Testament ; with an Appendix, containing my 
 private thoughts of a future state, and remarks on the con- 
 tradictory doctrine in the books of Matthew and Mark ;" an 
 octavo pamphlet of 65 pages. 
 
 The metaphysical part of this impious work is very wretch- 
 ed. The whole is indeed the feeblest of his productions. 
 It has been very ably and satisfactorily answered by Mr, 
 Colvin, of Baltimore. 
 
 From Hitt's, he removed early in February, 1808, 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 hardly, therefore, need to add, that drunk 
 every day, he was neither washed nor shaved, nor shirted 
 for weeks. He was so completely and notoriously nasty, 
 that he might well contend with the showman 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 accom- 
 pany him to the baths, to wash him, but to no purpose. 
 His crust of filth seemed to give him comfort. As an in- 
 ducement, 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 ap- 
 pearance gave him any uneasiness. He was truly an object 
 of compassion, for great as his offences were, he was a 
 human being. He had here one of his apoplexies, from 
 which it was supposed he could -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 contro- 
 versy with Silas Deane. (d) The object of the letter was 
 to induce the committee to report in favour of rewarding 
 ^ hat he had been pleased to term services rendered in Lau- 
 rens' mission to France, and he seems to have thought, 
 that he could accomplish his object by a no very dexterous 
 statement of many very palpable falsehoods. 
 
 On the 28th of the same month, the committee having 
 made no report, he addressed a letter to the speaker of the 
 
 (d) See the Appendix. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 149 
 
 house of representatives. (e) In this he says : It will be eonve" 
 nient to me to know what congress will decide on, because 
 it will determine me, whether after so many years of gene- 
 rous 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." 
 
 This is degenerating into a poor Hessian soldier, 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 six thousand 
 pounds sterling ; his four hundred pounds 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 " some other country," for reward, but " not 
 to England, unless there should be a revolution !" No, in* 
 deed, 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 committee, who had not yet reported, with 
 contempt. 4 If, he adds, my memorial was referred to the 
 committee of claims, for the purpose of losing it, it is un- 
 manly policy. After so many years of service, my heart 
 grows cold towards America /" 
 
 His heart grows cold towards America, because America 
 will riot 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 pa- 
 tience ! Hang him, said Paine, why does he talk to me about 
 Christian patience ? 
 
 One or two of his disciples took him away from the 
 tavern in Partition Street, as it were by force in July, 1808, 
 and prevailed with Mr. Ryder, at Greenwich, near the 
 State-Prison, to board him. I have found Mr. Ryder, who 
 is a cartman, sensible and communicative. He lives in 3. 
 
 (e) See AppendU, 
 (/) Appendix, 
 
150 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 small comfortable 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 enquired, said Mr Ryder, if 
 he were the man they called old Tom Paine? Mr. Sta- 
 ley answered, yes. Why, I don't know j I'll try him for 
 a week. He according 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, drunk- 
 en, morose old man, that I could do nothing with him. 
 Mr. Staley asked me if another dollar a week would o 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. Staley'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 irom me, 
 and make me a poor man. Eight were afterwards paid. 
 He lived at Ryder's until the 4th of May, i0s>, about 
 eleven months ; during which time, except the last ten 
 weeks, he got drunk regularly 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, and with much the same coaxing, for he hated soap 
 and water. I soon found that I could not keep and at- 
 tend 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 rarefy, he was good humoured, but his lan- 
 guage 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 
 lie do so? Why, said Mr. Ryder, smiling, 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. 151 
 
 ould say, " I pay you money enough, and you shall labour 
 
 rit" 
 
 In January, 1 809, 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 to him. 
 He mentioned this to Walter Morton, one of Paine's executors, 
 and it was agreed that he should be paid twenty dollars 
 a week for constant attendance 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, (g) He 
 wished to be interred in the cemetery of the Quakers. Sta- 
 ley laughed at him, and told him, that as his body was 
 nothing but matter, it was of no moment what became of it. 
 Paine thought differently. Nothing, on this subject, could 
 mitigate his apprehensions, or lighten the gloominess of his 
 mind. He desired Mr. Ryder to go to Mr. Willett Hicks, 
 a highly respectable Quaker gentleman, whose country seat 
 is in the neighbourhood, and to say that he wished to see 
 
 im. I have seen Mr. Hicks, who tells me that he called 
 
 n Paine on the lyth of March, according to his desire. 
 
 fter the customary salutations, Paine said, that as he was 
 " going to leave one place, it was necessary to provide ano- 
 her. I am now in my seventy- third year, and do not expect 
 o live long : I wish to be buried in your burying ground. 
 I could be buried in the Episcopal church, but they are so 
 arrogant ; or in the Presbyterian, but they are so hypocriti- 
 
 |;al !'' (/*) He added, that his lather was a Quaker, and 
 (g) His language in the Rights of Man, part 1, p. 53, Phil. 1797, very 
 11 accords with his conduct in the moments of his dissolution. " It may 
 erhaps be said, he there remarks, that it signifies nothing to a man what 
 s done to him after he is dead ; but it signifies much to the living." He 
 vas, however, full of solicitude about the disposition of his body after 
 leath. lie seemed to be afraid that it would have no resting place ; that 
 t would be exposed to offence, or be given to the winds. 1 know nqt 
 whether this be a weakness, for death-bed thoughts are no doubt very 
 lifferent from those of vigorous health. The soul, when about to depart, 
 has perhaps a natural and necessary concern for the body. 
 
 (h) Mr. Hicks does not exactly remember the epithet which he applied 
 to the Presbyterians, but it was one of reproach, ano^ as hypocritical is that 
 which he used to apply to them, I have supplied the omission of Mf 
 
 
' LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 though he did not think well of any Christian sect, he thought 
 better of the Quakers than of any other.,?') Mr. Hicks laid 
 his req-est before the committee v\ho have the superiutend- 
 ance ot 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, aftected him deeply 
 
 Mr. Hicks was so kind as to give me the following in his 
 own hand waiting. 
 
 <c In some serious conversation I had with him a short 
 time before his death, he said his sentiments respecting the 
 Christian religion were now precisely the same as they were 
 when he wrote the A^e of Reason." 
 
 Mr. David Gelston, collector of the customs of the port 
 of New-York, made him a visit early in April. He men- 
 tioned to Paine that he had a. letter for him from Mr. 
 Monroe, who was our minister in France when he was libe- 
 rated from imprisonment in Paris. Confined to his bed, 
 Paine desired that it might be read, and Dr. Maniev read 
 it. It appears, that besides hospitably and gratuitously 
 keeping him in his house near a year and a half after his 
 release from prison, which he had in a great measure pro- 
 cured, Mr. Monroe had generously lent him considerable 
 sums of money. The letter, which Dr. Maniev tells me 
 was equally elegant arid 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 ac- 
 knowledge the debt, as that, at some future day, his chiU 
 dren 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 wprd did he speak either then or 
 afterwards respecting it ! 
 
 Madame Bonueville lived at Greenwich, in the neigh- 
 bourhood, 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 
 manifested any affection. Tom. was sent from New-llo- 
 
 Hicks with the term. The positive assertion, that he could be buried in 
 the cemetery of either, was nothing but assertion. He had made no ap~ 
 plication. 
 
 ^i) I have this remark from Mr. Ryder. 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 153 
 
 chelle, tbe 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 evident, and ho 
 was so sensible of them hrmself, 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- 
 hood, he house uas rented by Madame Bonneville, for 
 Paine, who occupied the whole of it. The lady did not, 
 however, consent to do so until a nurse had been engaged, be- 
 ing i) n will ing 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 wab aware, 
 she says, of Paine's bad temper ; determined, however, to 
 take all the care of him she could, but not to bear ill treat- 
 ment. During the first three or four days his conduct was 
 tolerable, although he always quarrelled with Madame 
 Bonneville when she went into his room. About the fifth 
 day his language was offensive to Mrs. Hedden, who told 
 him she would instantly leave the house. Sensible of her 
 value as a nurse, and that in all probability no other person 
 would attend him, he made her satisfactory concessions, and 
 was afterwards civil. For the fii>t 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 Christ, he would find relief. 
 Jie made no reply. 
 
 About two weeks before his death, he was visited by the 
 Rev. Mr. Milledoliar, a Presbyterian minister of great elo- 
 quence, and the Rev. Mr. Cunningham. The latter gentle- 
 man said- : ' Mr. Paine, we visit you as friends and neigh- 
 bours. You have now a full view of death : you can- 
 not 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 
 piorning good morning." The Rev. Mr. Milledoliar at- 
 
154 - LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 tempted to address him, but he was interrupted with the 
 same language. When they were gone, he said to Mrs. 
 Hedden, 4 * 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 re- 
 tired. 
 
 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. 1 read, and he said nothing. 
 He was very feeble ; quite, to all appearance, exhausted. 
 Poor Man, how I felt for him ! How I wished that he was 
 a Christian ! He would be a day without speaking a word, 
 except asking te 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 
 was tortured, and which he impatiently bore. She was soon 
 gratified. On the 8th day of June, 1 80^, about nine in the 
 morning, he placidly and almost without a struggle died, 
 as he had lived, an enemy to the Christian religion. (7) He 
 was born in January, 1737 aged seventy-two years and 
 five months. 
 
 Dr. Manley's letter, which follows, will be read with in- 
 terest. 
 
 " Bbwningdale, New-York, Sept. 27, 1809. 
 ' SIR, 
 
 " Having lived in the neighbourhood of Mr. Paine, and, 
 in his last moments, attended him as his physician, I should 
 
 (/) 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 moie than ordinary fortitude her connubial misfortunes. She 
 left this world with an excellent character. She had much of that su- 
 preme happiness which is derived from unaffected sympathy with una- 
 voidable distress* 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 155 
 
 esteem myself much obliged, if you would be so kind as 
 to communicate to me in writing, to be incorporated into 
 his life, which I am preparing for the press, your obser- 
 vations on his temper and habits, the cause and nature 
 of his disease, the kind of persons by whom he was visited 
 during his illness, their general conversation with him res- 
 pecting his deistical works, his own remaiks, .-pinions, and 
 behaviour, when on his death bed, and generally, such in- 
 formation as in your judgment may interest the public. 
 " I am, Sir, your most obedient, 
 " Humble servant, 
 
 " JAMES CHEETHAM." 
 ( R. MANLEY." 
 
 " New-York, October 2, 1809. 
 " SIR, 
 
 " Your note of the 27th ult. has been duly received, and 
 I hasten in conformity to your wishes therein expressed, to 
 communicate the information I possess respecting its subject. 
 Though my opportunity has been great, you will no doubt 
 observe my knowledge to be very limited ; the reason of 
 which will be obvious to those who are in the least acquaint- 
 ed with the character of the man. Such as it may be, I 
 assure you it is much at your service, and if any part of it af- 
 ford matter for serious speculation to any portion of the 
 public, I shall feel a pleasure in having communicated it. 
 
 " I was called upon by accident to visit Mr. Paine, on 
 the 25th of February last, and found him indisposed with 
 fever, and very apprehensive of an. attack of apoplexy, as he 
 stated that he had that disease before, and at this time felt a 
 great decree 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 attendants, I was told, that 
 three or four days previous, he had concluded to dispense 
 with his usual quantity 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 neces- 
 
156 LIFfi OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 sary, I left him, with a promise that I would make him a 
 visit next day, when I expected to see his friends, and state to 
 them his situation. Accordingly I called and saw two of 
 his particular friends, (one of whom is an executor to his 
 estate) related to them his situation, and was requested to 
 pay him particular attention. From that time I considered 
 him as under my care, visited him frequently, and prescribed 
 for symptoms as they occured, 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 commencement 
 of my attendance, I observed that his feet were oedematous, 
 and his abdomen beginning to be distended with water, 
 which, with several other circumstances equally unequi- 
 vocal, indicated dropsy, and that of the worst description, 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 very extensive, continued 
 in a greater or less degree till the time of his death, pro- 
 ducing infinite pain from the constant application of the 
 cause which at first induced it. And here let me be permit- 
 ted to observe, (lest blame might attach to those whose bu-* 
 siness it was to pay particular attention to his cleanliness of 
 person) that it was absolutely impossible to effect that pur- 
 pose. Cleanliness appeared to make no part of his com-' 
 fort ; 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 confirmed dropsy, 
 attended with frequent cough, vomiting and hiccough, he 
 continued growing from bad to worse, till the morning of the 
 8th of June, when he died. Though I may remark, that 
 during the last three weeks of his life, his situation was such, 
 that his decease was confidently expected every day, his 
 ulcers having assumed a gangrenous appearance, being ex- 
 cessively 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 prog' ess : and wrjeu 
 we consider his former habits, his advanced age, the feeble-* 
 

 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE* 
 
 ness of his constitution, his constant practice of using ardent 
 spirits, ad libitum, till the commencement of his last illness, 
 so far from wondering that he died so soon, we are constrain- 
 ed to ask, how did he live so long ? 
 
 " Concerning his conduct during his disease, I have nofe 
 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 principally directed to 
 give the impression, that he was perfectly willing to leave 
 this world; and yet some parts of his conduct are with diffi- 
 culty reconcileable with this belief. In the first stages of 
 his illness, he was satisfied to be left alone during 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 
 principle 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 recollect 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 application to 
 the society of Friends, for permission that his corpse might 
 be deposited in their grave ground, and had reason to be- 
 lieve 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 his corpse should be matter of least concern 
 to him ; that those whom he would leave behind him would 
 see that he was properly interred ; and further, that it would 
 be of little consequence to me where I was deposited, pro- 
 vided 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 indiffer- 
 ent about his corpse as I appeared to be. During the latter 
 part of his life, though his conversation was equivocal, 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 curtain to be closed at any time ; and if, as it 
 would sometimes unavoidably happen, he was left alone, 
 he would scream and holla, until some person came to him; 
 
158 r LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 with- 
 out the assistance of an anodyne There was something 
 remarkable in his conduct about this period, (which com- 
 pris.-s about two weeks immediately preceding his death,) 
 particularly when we reflect that Thomas Paine was the 
 author of the Age of Reason. 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 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 whether she should read aloud, 
 (/) he assented, and would appear to give particular attention. 
 
 " I took occasion during the night of the 6th and 6th of 
 June, to test the strength of his opinions respecting revela- 
 tion. 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 words above mentioned, when, after a' consider- 
 able 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 deference : you have 
 never been in the habit of mixing in your conversation, 
 words of course : you have never indulged in the practice 
 of profane swearing : you must be sensible that we are ac- 
 quainted with your religious opinions as they are given to 
 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; 
 J want an answer as trom 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 
 
 (/) The book she usually read was Mr, Hobart's Companion for the 
 Altar, 
 

 
 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 159 
 
 but ceased to exclaim in the above manner. Again 
 I addressed him. " Mr. Paine, 'you have not answered 
 y 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 sub- 
 ject, though he lived, as I before observed, till the morning 
 of the 8th. 
 
 " Such conduct, under usual circumstances, I conceive ab- 
 solutely unaccountable, though with diffidence I would re- 
 mark, 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 
 question worthy of able consideration, whether excessive 
 pride of opinion, consummate vanity, and inordinate self- 
 love, might not prevent or retard that otherwise natural con- 
 sequence ? 
 
 " For my own part, I believe, that had not Thomas 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 num- 
 ber, there were not wanting those who endeavoured to sup* 
 port him in his deistical opinions, and to encourage him to 
 die " like a man," to '* hold fast his integrity," lest cnris- 
 tians, or, as they were pleased to term them, hypocritts, 
 might take advantage of his weakness, and furnish themselves 
 with a weapon, by which they might hope to destroy their 
 glorious system of morals. 
 
 " Numbers visited him from motives of benevolence and 
 Christian chanty, 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 fne^ 
 quently. 
 
 c< De mortals nil nisi bonum, is a maxim to which, tin- 
 der certain limitations, I do willingly subscribe; but in its 
 unqualified extent I have always viewed it as a highly erro- 
 neous rule of conduct ; and although it might have originated 
 in a heart overflowing with benevolence, yet it must be 
 
 
360 LIFE OF THO&AS 
 
 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, deduced 
 from depraved principle, which the benefit of society requires 
 should not be buried with the bones of their abettors. I 
 make this observation (otherwise unnecessary) lest my re- 
 marks may be attributed to unworthy motives : The task 
 of animadverting on the disposition and habits of persons 
 deceased, must always be disagreeable, because there are 
 no characters without their faults ; but in the present case it 
 is peculiarly so, since the utmost partiality will have infi- 
 nitely 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 admitted of none his 
 anger was easily kindled, and I doubt not that his resent- 
 ments were lasting. His vanity and self-love were so ex- 
 cessive, that to differ from him in opinion was, in his esti- 
 mation, to be deficient in common understanding ; and his 
 opposition to the doctrine of Christianity w ? as so rancorous, 
 that in the early part of his illness he would treat its profes- 
 sors 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 penuri- 
 ous 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 latter part of his life, he had his compan- 
 ions, though he seemed unfitted for sociability ; and 
 perhaps the reason why he affected company rather infe- 
 rior to himself in point of understanding and acquirement, 
 might be found in the peculiarities of his temper, whicfo 
 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 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 161 
 
 too severe, I can assure you, sir, that they are the result of 
 my serious convictions ; for during the whole course of his 
 illness, his petulence, vanity, and self-will were so excessive, 
 that I have been constrained frequently to remark, that he 
 of all others should, from motives of policy, have been in- 
 duced to keep terms with Christians, as his temper was such 
 as to preclude the possibility of his enjoying the sincerity of 
 friendship, and none but they (and the best of them too) 
 could possess charity sufficient to cover its manifold imper- 
 fections. 
 
 *' Yours, with due consideration, 
 
 JAMES R, MANLEY." 
 
 R. CHEETHAAf* 
 
 At nine o'clock of the morning of the jth of June, th3 
 day after his decease, he was taken from his house at Green- 
 wich, 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 seventy-two years 
 and five months." 
 
 Exclusive of Mr. Hicks, the Rev. Mr. Milledollar, 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 j it should seern, to urge him to persevere to 
 the end in his deistical opinions. What his admissions 
 would have been during those ' compunctious visitings of 
 nature* which he experienced, had it not been for the 
 whips and spurs of those persons, we cannot positively 
 That he manifested symptoms of repentance, some- 
 thing like an inward willingness to believe in Jesus Christ, 
 and yet an outward pride of obstinacy in denying that wil- 
 lingness 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. 
 Hedd n, 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 pas- 
 sive act : there was nothing in it either active or certain. It 
 was after this that Dr. Manley interrogated him. He paused. 
 
 L 
 
162 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 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 respecting the Christian religion. The lan- 
 guage of action is sincere. His fear of being alone is evi- 
 dence against his conversion. The last moments of Locke 
 and Addison were sweetly tranquil. 
 
 His association with low and disreputable persons, is 
 attributable to his attachment to ardent spirits, and his love 
 of personal distinction. Neither the one nor the other could 
 be gratified in respectable company. He looked for adora- 
 tion with as much constancy as he did for brandy. Since 
 over poor ignorant men he could tyrannize as much as he 
 pleased, and yet be looked up to by them with a sort of 
 reverential 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 hi& wife were sufficient 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 was unjust, never 
 thinking of paying for what he had contracted, and always 
 cherishing deadly 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 ingratitude, as 
 in the case of Mr. Monroe, he added mean and detestable 
 fraud. He was guilty of the worst 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 sin) pie, and therefore 
 despotic. Universal suffrage annual elections a legislature 
 
LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 163 
 
 i 
 
 onsisting of one assembly, and a plural executive, like the 
 executive directory of France, elected by universal suffrage, 
 
 ere its elements. It is not certain that judges, according 
 to his scheme, were to be elected 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 con- 
 troul it 
 
 Evidence of universal suffrage and annual elections we 
 have in his French constitution of 1793, as well as in all 
 his writings, except his letter to the people and armies of 
 
 ranee, on the subject of the constitution of Boissy d'Anglas. 
 
 is predilection for a plural executive is manifest in that work, 
 as well as in others. 
 
 In one of his letters to the citizens of the United States, 
 written at Washington, he says, referring to the constitu- 
 tion of the United States: "Many were shocked at the 
 idea of placing, what is called executive power, in the hands 
 of a single individual.^ " The executive part of the 
 federal government was made for a man, and those who 
 
 I consented, 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." () 
 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 proceedings. Our knowledge of the motions, speeches, 
 and opinions of the members, which is very limited, is prin- 
 cipally derived from Mr. Luther Martins report to the 
 legislature of Maryland, of which state he was a delegate. 
 But minute and elaborate as it is, there is nothing in it that 
 I recollect, to authorize even a conjecture, that there was 
 a single member favourable to a plural executive. The 
 only contest, as far as we understand it, 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 Pre- 
 sident ? Paine's intimation, I hat a plural executive was 
 warmly agitated and reluctantly yielded, is in all probability 
 one of his bold presumptions on assumed ignorance. Such 
 
 (/<) Letter 2. 
 
164 tTFE OF THOMAS PAIXE. 
 
 an executive, besides its absurdity, is in its nature a 
 tyranny. We are convinced that it is so by theory, and 
 we know that it is so in fact. Unavoidably factious, it 
 cannot but break up a nation into as many parties 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 powerfully operating, than any other check can 
 be.' 
 
 That which he considers as most powerfully checking 
 precipitancy of action, has no efficacy. The declaration of 
 rights of the French National Assembly, which was in truth 
 a constitution, had no coercive effect on the convention. 
 This " Single House," always passionate, as every single 
 house must be, never had time for cool deliberation. 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 
 favour of, would be not the least of absurdities. Under 
 the influence of universal suffrage and annual elections, 
 nothing could be attended to in a single bodied legislature, 
 but paltry strifes, victories, proscriptions, and oppres- 
 sion. Party -voters would be gratified, or party -repre- 
 sentatives would be dismissed ! The tyranny of an abso- 
 lute monarch must fall infinitely short of the tyranny of such 
 a government. 
 
 Formerly, Pennsylvania was at once oppressed and dis- 
 graced by a similar anarchy. Of this, Paine (p) was in all 
 
 (o) Rights of Man, part 2, works, vol. 2, p. 184, Phil. 1797. 
 
 (p) " In 1776, and 1777* there had been great disputes in congress 
 and the several states concerning a proper constitution for the several 
 states to adopt for their government. A convention in Pennsylvania had 
 adopted a government in one representative assembly, and Dr. Franklin 
 was president of that convention. The Doctor, when be went to 
 France, in 1776, carried with him the printed copy of that constitution, 
 

 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 165 
 
 probability the author. Mr. Adams has rescued the me- 
 mory of Franklin from the infamy of the act. But even in 
 Pennsylvania, full of democratic faction and anarchy as 
 that state always is, the single representative assembly, per- 
 petually despotic, became universally odious. Yet the con- 
 stitution was so constructed as to require a Senate ; but 
 the unorganized senate was - if possible more odd than the 
 organized assembly. Section 15 .of that constitution says: 
 " To the end that laws, before they are enacted, be more 
 maturely considered, and the inconvenience of hasty deter- 
 minations as much as possible prevented, all bills of a pub- 
 lic 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 cool, sensible, 
 and dignified senate had 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 without mature delibera- 
 tion ! Where how was it to deliberate ? In the senate 
 Ouse? No, bptjn taverns. Orderly? The whole system 
 and process was disorder. What could be expected in such 
 meetings but a tumult of the passions ? Conflicting dema- 
 ogues assembled the multitude in ale houses harangued 
 em tore the state to pieces in an ardent pursuit of 
 personal aggrandizement oppressed as they were victori- 
 us, and committed injustice as they were powerful. Such 
 as Paine's, constitution o Pennsylvania. It did not hpw- 
 
 ind it was immediately -propagated through France, that this was the 
 >lan of government of Mr Franklin. In truth it was not Franklin's, but 
 "imothy Matlork, James Cannon, Thomas Young, and Thomas Paine, 
 ;ere the authors of it. Mr. Turgot, the Duke de la .Rochefoucault, Mr. 
 /ondorcet, and many others, became enamoured with the conslitntion 
 )f Mr. Franklin, and in my opinion the two last owed their final an4 
 ital catastrophe to this bjinfi love." President Adams's Letter to S. 
 'erley, written June 19, JS09; seethe American Citizen of September 
 
 1809. 
 The conclusion of Mr; Adams is no doubt correct. Condorcet became 
 
 in advocate of a single representative assembly. He was gratified. 
 
 '"he convention was established ; and it is to the uncontrouled fury anil 
 Cranny of the convention that his death is attributable. May not; 
 'aine's constitution of Pennsylvania have been the cause of the tyranny 
 
 of Robespierre ? 
 
166 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 ever last long. In 1790, it was superseded 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, 
 
 [WE subjoin the following Letter, which appeared in the 
 Evangelical Magazine for June, 1816. It agrees in many 
 respects with Dr. Manley's account of the miserable state 
 of this old man's mind, upon his approaching dissolution, 
 In fact, it speakb in language more powerful to the Infidel 
 than the blast of an Archangel's trumpet, because it comes 
 from the lips of a man, who, during the career of infidelity, 
 had the audacity to bid defiance to the armies ot the living 
 God ! The wages of Sin is Death ! Mark the perfect and 
 the upright man the end of that m^n is Peace ! 
 
 ^ DEATH OF THOMAS PAINE, AUTHOR OF THE AGE OF 
 
 REASON, &C. 
 
 To the Editor. 
 Sir, 
 
 " I lately saw a letter from America, of which I was per- 
 mitted to make an abstract, which nothing less than a perfect 
 confidence in the integrity of the writer, and the authenticity 
 of the circumstances related, would induce me to offer for 
 insertion in your Miscellany, The narrator, a young female^ 
 

 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 16*7 
 
 resided in the family of a gentleman, a near neighbour of 
 the celebrated Thomas Paine, during his last illness, at 
 Greenwich, near New York ; who occasionally visited him, 
 and sent from his own table refreshments more adapted to 
 his comfort than those he usually enjoyed : and of these the 
 narrator, impelled by curiosity, or a better motive, requested 
 to be the bearer to his bed-side, although the air of his 
 chamber could scarcely be endured. The opportunities of 
 conversation which the performance of this humane office 
 afforded, authorized the writer's belief, that the poor suffer- 
 er exhibited another proof of Dr. Young's assertion, that 
 6 Men may live fools ; but fools they cannot die. ' The 
 letter proceeds to say, that she found him frequently writing ; 
 and believed, from what she saw and heard, that when his 
 pains permitted, he was almost always so engaged -, or in 
 prayer, in the attitude of which she more than once saw him 
 when he thought himself alone. One day he inquired of 
 her whether she had ever read his * Age of Reason ;' and 
 being answered in the affirmative, desired to know her 
 opinion of that book. She replied, that she was but a child 
 when she read it ; and he, probably, would not like to hear 
 what she thought of it. On which he said, if old enough to 
 read, she was capable of forming some opinion ; and that 
 from her he expected a candid statement of what that opin- 
 ion had been, She then acknowledged that she thought it 
 the most dangerous, insinuating book she had ever seen ; 
 that the more she read the more she wished to read, and the 
 more she found her mind estranged from all that is good ; 
 and that, from a conviction of its evil tendency, she had 
 burnt it, without knowing to whom it belonged. To this 
 Paine replied, that he wished all who had read it had been 
 as wise as she ; adding, If ever the Devil had an agent on 
 earth I have been one. At another time when she was in 
 his chamber, and the master of her family was sitting by 
 his bed-side, one of Paine's former companions came in ; 
 but, on seeing them with him, hastily retired, drawing the 
 door after him with violence, and saying, ' Mr, Paine, 
 you have lived like a man ; I hope you will die like one/ 
 Upon which Paine, turning to his principal visitor, said, 
 ' You see, sir, what miserable comforters I have !' An 
 unhappy female, who had accompanied him from France, 
 lamented her sad .fate ; observing, ' For this man I have 
 given up my family and friends, my property, and my reli- 
 
168 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 gion ; judge then of my distress, \\ hen he tells m,e that the, 
 principles he has taught me will not bear me out.' 
 
 kt AMICUS." 
 
 In addition to the above, we can observe, that the fe- 
 male to whom it alludes, is now in London, and. willing to 
 attest the truth of the above statement, to any carjdicl 
 inquirer. LONDON ED.] 
 

 APPENDIX. 
 
Ill 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 FROM THE JOURNALS OF CONGRESS. 
 
 FIRST SESSION TENTH CONGRESS. 
 
 In the House of Representatives of the 
 United States, th of February, 1808. 
 
 Mr. Clinton presented a representation of Thomas Paine, 
 ting various services performed by him for the United 
 tates, during the revolutionary war with Great Britain ; 
 d praying that congress will take the barne into consi- 
 ration and grant him such compensation therefore, as to 
 eir wisdom and justice shall seem meet. 
 The said representation was read and referred to the com- 
 mittee of claims. 
 
 [No report made during this session.} 
 
 SECOND SESSION TENTH CONGRESS. 
 
 December 1 5th 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. 
 
 On the first 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.] 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION. 
 
 3 1st May, 1809- 
 
 On motion of Mr. Lyon, 
 
 Ordered, That the representation of Thomas Paine, of 
 the city of New- York, presented on the fourth 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 and repre- 
 sentation of Thomas Paine, referred the fifteenth De* 
 cember last, 
 
 February 1, 1SQ9. ! flead, aad ordered to lielon 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 was appointed by Congress to nego- 
 ciate a loan \yith the French government, for the benefit of 
 the United States ; that he aided in effecting the important 
 object of his mission, and thus voluntarily rendered an essen- 
 tial service to the country, for 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, endeavoured to procure, 
 from proper sources, such information as would guide them 
 in making an equitable decision upon the case. The jour- 
 nals of congress, under the former confederation, were dili- 
 gently examined, but nothing was therein found, tending to 
 shew that Mr. Paine was in any manner connected with 
 the mission of Colonel Laurens. It appears that on the 
 eighteenth day of October, 1783, 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 compensa- 
 tion for his services, while acting as secretary to Colonel 
 Laurens. A letter from the vice-president, in answer to 
 one addressed 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 information, and 
 
 
173 
 
 from his own knowledge. That Mr. Paine embarked with 
 Colonel Laurens from the United States for France, may 
 be admitted ; but it does not appear that he was employed 
 by the government, or even solicited by any officer thereof, 
 to aid in the accomplishment of the object of the mission, 
 uith which Colonel Laurens was intrusted, or that he took 
 any part whatever after his arrival in France in forwarding 
 the negociation ; your committee are therefore of opinion, 
 that the memorialist has not established the fact of his 
 having rendered the service for which he asks to be compen- 
 sated. 
 
 On the 26th of August, 1785, congress, by a resolution, 
 declared that Thomas Paine was entitled to a liberal grati- 
 fication from the United States for his unsolicited and con- 
 tinued labours in explaining and inforcing the principles of 
 the late revolution; and on the third of October following, 
 the board of treasury were directed to take order for paying 
 Mr. Paine three thousand dollars for the considerations men* 
 tioned in the above resolution. This sum it appears Mr. 
 Paine received on the eleventh of October, 1785. That 
 Mr. Paine rendered great and eminent services to the Unit- 
 ed States, during their struggle for liberty and indepen* 
 dence, cannot be doubted by any person acquainted 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 de- 
 cide. 
 
 The following resolution is offered to the House : 
 Resolved, That Thomas Paine have leave to withdraw hb 
 memorial, and the papers accompanying the same. 
 
 NEW-YORK, January 2), 1808. 
 To the honourable the representatives 
 
 of the United States. 
 
 The purport of this address is to state a claim I feel my* 
 self entitled to make on the United States, leaving it to their 
 representatives in congress to decide on its worth and its 
 merits. The case is as follows : 
 
 Towards the latter end of the year 1780, the continental 
 money had become so depreciated, a paper dollar not being 
 
174 APPENDIX. 
 
 more than a cent, that it seemed next to impossible to con- 
 tinue the war 
 
 As the United States were then in alliance with France, 
 it became necessary to make France acquainted with our 
 real situation. 1 therefore drew up a letter to Count Ver- 
 gennes, stating undisguisedly 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 annually during the war. 
 
 I shewed the letter to M. Marbois, secretary to the 
 French minister. His remark upon it was, 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 endeavour to do something about it in 
 congress. 
 
 Accordingly, congress appointed Colonel John Laurens, 
 then aid to General Washington, to go to France and make 
 representation of our situation for the purpose of obtaining 
 assistance. Colonel 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 with 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, which 1 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 borrowed in Holland on the security of France. 
 We s'ailed from Brest in the French Resolve Frigate, the 
 first of June, and, arrived at Boston the ^5th August, bring- 
 ing with us two millions and a half in silver, and convoying 
 a ship and a brig laden with clothing and military stores. 
 The money was transported in sixteen ox teams to the na- 
 tional bank at Philadelphia, which.enabled the army to move 
 to York town to attack, in conjunction with the French army 
 under Rocharnbeau, the British army under Cornwallis. 
 As I never had a cent for this service, I feel myself entitled, 
 as the country is now in a state of prosperity, to state the 
 case to congress. 
 
APPENDIX. 175 
 
 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 myself happy in the know- 
 ledge of it. It is however, proper to me to add, that the 
 mere independence of America, were it to have been fol- 
 lowed by a, system of government modelled after the cor- 
 rupt system of the English government, it would not have 
 interested me with the unabated ardour it did. It was to 
 bring forward and establish the representative system of go- 
 vernment, 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 the revolution : And I fol- 
 lowed the same principle 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 
 chairman of the committee who brought in the resolve. If 
 congress should judge proper to refer this memorial to a 
 committee, I will inform that committee of the particulars 
 of it. 
 
 I have also to state to congress, that the authority of the 
 )ld congress was become so reduced toward 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 
 
 rver uniformly. 
 
 After the failure of the five per cent, duty, recommended 
 congress to pay the interest of a loan to be borrowed in 
 
 tolland, I wrote to Chancellor Livingston, then minister 
 or foreign affairs, and Robert Morris, minister of finance, 
 
 id proposed a method for getting over the whole difficulty 
 it once, which was by adding a continental legislature to 
 
 mgress, who should be empowered to make laws for the 
 
 r nion, instead of recommending them. As the method 
 >roposed met with their full approbation, I held myself in 
 reserve to take the subject up whenever a direct occasioa 
 occurred. 
 
176 APPENDIX. 
 
 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 misconstruction 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 acknowledgment they 
 pleased. 
 
 The state of New- York made me a present of a farm, 
 which, since my return to America, I have found it neces- 
 sary 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 re- 
 ceived benefits from me, which they accepted, 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 woul.l 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 personal interest in 
 the cause he took up, that of independence and the esta- 
 blishment of the representative system of government, and 
 who sought neither place nor office after it was established, 
 that persevered in the same undeviating principles as I have 
 done for more than thirty years, and that in spite of difficul- 
 ties, dangers and inconveniencies, of which 1 have had my 
 share. 
 
 THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 NEW- YORK, Feb. 14, 1808. 
 Citizen Representatives , 
 
 In my memorial to congress of the twenty-first of January r 
 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 chair- 
 man of the committee 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 par- 
 
 * To Mr. Shute, in 1806, but as Mr. Shule died shortly after, and his 
 xvidbw found it to be an inconvenience, Paine, at her solicitation, took it 
 back. 
 
 
APPENDIX. 177 
 
 ticulars of it. It has relation to my conduct in the af-, 
 fair of Silas Deane and Beaumarchais. The case is as 
 follows. 
 
 When I wa appointed secretary to the committee for 
 foreign affairs all the papers of the secret committee, none 
 of which had been seen hy congress, came into my hands. 
 I saw by the correspondence of that cornmitttee with persons 
 in Europe, particularly with Arthur Lee, that the stores 
 which Silas Deane and Beaumarchais pretended 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 (Stor- 
 mont) was at Paris, the court of France wished it not 
 to be known, and therefore proposed that " a small quan- 
 tity of tobacco or some other produce should be sent to the 
 Cape, (Cape Francaise) to give it the air of a mercantile 
 transaction, repeating over and over again that it was for 
 a cover only, and not for payment, as the whole remittance 
 was gratuitous." See Arthur Lee's letters to the secret 
 committee. See also B. Franklin's. 
 
 /Knowing these things, and seeing that the public were 
 deceived and imposed upon by the pretensions of Deane, 
 I took the subject up, and published three pieces in Dun- 
 lap's Philadelphia paper, headed with the title of "Common 
 Sense to the Public on Mr. Dean efs affairs." John Jay 
 was 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 is Mr 
 Dunlap's paper of December twenty -nine. 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 withdraw. 
 
 As soon as I was gone, John Pen, ,of North Carolina, 
 moved that " Thomas Paine be discharged from the office 
 of secretary to the committee for foreign affairs," and prating 
 Gonverneur Morris seconded the motion, but it was lost 
 
 M 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 when put to the vote, the states being equally divided. I 
 then wrote to congress requesting a hearing, and Mr. Lau- 
 rens made a motion for that purpose which was negatived . 
 The next day I sent in my resignation, saying, that " as I 
 cannot consistently with my character as a freeman submit 
 to be censured unheard ; therefore, to preserve that charac- 
 ter and maintain that Tight, 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 myself as a 
 clerk to Owen Bid die of Philadelphia, till the legislature of 
 Pennsylvania appointed me clerk of the general assembly. 
 But I still went on with my publications on Deane's affairs, 
 till the fraud became so obvious, that congress were ashamed 
 of supporting him, and he absconded. He went from Phi- 
 ladelphia to Virgina, 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 Laurens, Well ! we were all 
 duped, and I among the rest. 
 
 As the salary I had as secretary to the committee of fo 
 reign affairs was but small, being only eight hundred dol- 
 lars a year, and as that had been fretted down by the depre- 
 ciation 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 re- 
 ferred to a committee of which Eibridge Gerry was chair- 
 man. 
 
 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 
 affair or your salary. They will indemnify you, said he, 
 without it. The case is, there are some motions on the 
 journals of congress, for censuring you with respect to 
 Deane's affair, which cannot now be recalled, because they 
 have been printed. Therefore, will bring in a report that 
 will supesede them without mentioning the purport of your 
 letter. 
 
 This, citizen representatives, is an explanation of the 
 
APPENDIX. 197 
 
 resolve of the old congress. It was an indemnity to me for 
 some injustice done me, for congress had acted dishonour- 
 ably to me. However, I prevented Deane's fraudulent de- 
 mand being paid, and so far the country is obliged to me, 
 but I became the victim of mv integrity. 
 
 I preferred stating this explanation to the committee, 
 rather than to make it public in my memorial to congress. 
 
 THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 
 NEW- YORK, PARTITION STREET, 
 
 No. 63, FEB. 28, 1808. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 I addressed a memorial to congress dated January, twen- 
 ty-one, which was presented by George Clinton, junior, and 
 referred to the committee of claims. As soon as I knew to 
 what committee it was referred, 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 mentioned I would 
 do in my memorial, since which I have heard nothing of the 
 memorial or of any proceedings upon it. 
 
 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 peri- 
 lous 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 revo- 
 lution. 
 
 My 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 
 
 oj the house of representatives. 
 
180 . APPENDIX. 
 
 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 proceedings upon it. 
 
 I know not who the committee of claims are, but if they 
 are men of younger standing than " the times that tried 
 mens souls" and consequently too young to know w ? hat the 
 condition of the country was at the time I published Com- 
 mon 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 information on those subjects, so also can Mr. 
 Smilie, who was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature 
 at the times I am speaking of. He knows the incon- 
 veniences I was often put to, for the old congress treated 
 me with ingratitude. They 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 respecting a 
 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 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 Ame- 
 rica. 
 
 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 
 committe of claims to bring in their report, and that con- 
 gress would decide upon k. 
 
APPENDIX, 181 
 
 SENATE CHAMBER, MARCH 23, 1808. 
 SIR, 
 
 From the information I received at the time, I have 
 reason to believe that Mr. Paine accompanied Colonel 
 Laurens on his mission to France, in the course of our 
 revolutionary war, for the purpose of negociating 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 can- 
 not assert it from my own actual knowledge. 
 I am with great respect, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 GEORGE CLINTON. 
 
 David Holmes, Esquire. 
 
 T, 
 
 'he 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 concern, SEND GREETING : 
 
 KNOW YE, That the annexed is a true copy of the will 
 of THOMAS. PAINE, deceased, as recorded 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, in the year of our 
 Lord one thousand eight hundred and nine, and of our 
 Independence the thirty-fourth. 
 
 SILVANUS MILLER. 
 
1S2 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE last will and testament of me, the subscriber, 
 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 ^ate of 
 New- York, author of the work entitled ( ommon Sense, 
 written in Philadelphia in 1775, and published in that 
 city the beginning of January, 1776, which awaked 
 America to a Declaration of Independence, on the fourth 
 of July following, which was 'as fast as the work could 
 spread through such an extensive country ; author al*o of 
 the several numbers of the American Crisis^ " thirteen in 
 all," published occasionally during the progress of the 
 revolutionary war the last is on the peace: author also 
 of the Rights of Man, parts the first and second, written 
 and published in London, in 791 and 9 ( 2 ; author also 
 of a work on religion, Age of Reason, part the first and 
 ' second. " N. B. I have a third part by m in manus- 
 Script, and an answer to the Bishop of Llandaff;" author 
 pj also of a work, lately published, entitled Examination 
 a of the passages in the New Testament quoted from the 
 S Old, and called Prophecies concerning Jesus Christy 
 o and shewing there are no prophecies of any such person; 
 ^ author also of several other works not here enumerated, 
 4< Dissertations on first principles of government " 
 " Decline and fall of the English system of finance " 
 " Agrarian Justice, &c. &c make this my last will and 
 testament, that is to say : I give and bequeath to my 
 executors herein after appointed, Walter Morton and 
 Thomas Addis Ernmet, thirty shares I hold in the New 
 York Phoenix Insurance Company which cost me 1470 
 dollars, they are worth now upwards or '500 dollars and 
 all my moveable effects and also the money that may be 
 in rny trunk or elsewhere at the time of my decease pay- 
 ing thereout the expences of my funeral, JN TRUST as to 
 the said shares, moveables and money for Margaret Bra- 
 zier Bonneville, wife of Nicholas Bonneville, of Paris, for 
 her own sole and separate use, and at hei own disposal, 
 notwithstanding her coverture, As to my farm in. New- 
 Rochelle, I give, devise, and bequeath the same to my 
 paid executors Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet 
 and to the. survivor of them, his heirs and assigns forever, 
 
APPENDIX. 183 
 
 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 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 hereinafh r directed. 
 I give to my friends Walter Morton, of the New York 
 Phoenix Insurance Company, and Thomas Addis Emmet, 
 counsellor 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 of the 
 money arising from said sale, and I give the remainder of 
 the money arising from that sale, one half thrreof to Clio 
 fiicktftun, of High or Upper Mary-la- Bonne street, Lon- 
 don, and the other half to Nicholas Bonneville of Paris, 
 husband of Margaret B, Bonneville aforesaid : and as 
 to the south part of the said farm, containing upwards of 
 one hundred acres, in trust to rent out the same or other- 
 wise put it to profit, as shall be found most adviseable, 
 and to pay the rents and profits thereof to the said Mar- 
 garet B. Bonneville, in trust for her children, Benjamin^ 
 Bonneville and Thomas Bonneville, their education and c* 
 maintenance, until they come to the age of twenty-one ^ 
 years, in order that she may bring them well up, give o 
 them good and useful learning, and instruct them 
 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 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 empower my said executors 
 to sell and dispose of the same, and I direct that the 
 money arising from such sale be put into stock, either in 
 the United States bank stock or New- York Phoenix in- 
 surance company stock, the interest or dividen-ls 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 
 
184 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 his or their coming of age. I know not if the society of 
 people called quakers admit a person to be buried in their 
 burying ground, who does not belong 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 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 Insurance 
 Company, and Thomas Addis Emmet, f counsellor at 
 
 * A Scotchman by birth. He is a clerk in the Phenix company 5 
 was a steady companion of Paine before his illness, but paid him no 
 visit for a week before his decease. 
 
 *r The respectability of Mr. Emmet's family is better known in Eu- 
 rope than in the United States. He was one of those gentlemen who 
 considered his country as oppressed, and was 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* 1 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 invade Ireland to liberate her from op- 
 pression, but to oppress her more. That he is a friend to freedom is 
 true ; but surely this ought not to be considered as an offence in Eng- 
 land, 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 admitted 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 deserves 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 au amiable wife, and nine promis- 
 ing 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 actions, must respect it when making a will. Unless 
 professionally, Mr. Emmet, 1 believe had no intercourse with Paint 
 
APPENDIX. 185 
 
 law, late of Ireland, and Margaret B. Bonneville, execu- 
 tors and executrix to this my last will and testament, re- 
 questing them the said Walter Morton and Thomas Addis 
 Emmet, that they will give what assistance they conveni- 
 ently can to Mrs. Bonneville, and see that the children 
 be well brought up. Thus placing confidence in their 
 friendship, I herewith take my final leave of them and of 
 the world. I have lived an honest and useful life to man- 
 kind ; my time has been spent in doing good ; and I die 
 in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my 
 Creator God. Dated this eighteenth day of Janry. in 
 the year one thousand eight hundred 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. [L.S.] 
 
 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 utility of 
 Magazines, no place, no date, Philadelphia, 
 1775, (supposed) - - 5 do. 
 
 Useful and entertaining hints on the internal 
 riches of the colonies, Pennsylvania Maga- 
 zine, Phil. 1775 6. do. 
 
 Reflections on the Death of Lord Give, 
 Pennsylvania Magazine, (not seen). 
 
186 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 New Anecdotes of Alexander the Great, 
 
 Penn. Mag. 1775 3 octavo. 
 
 Common Sense, Phil. Jan. 1776 - 47 do. 
 
 Epistle to the Quakers, Phil, 1776 S do. 
 
 The Crisis, Sixteen Numbers, from Dec. 23, 
 
 1776, to Dec. 9, 1783, total pages 144 do. 
 Letter to the Abbe Raynal, Phil. 1782 - 55 do. 
 Public Good, being an Examination 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 Republican, 
 
 Paris, 1791. - 4 do. 
 
 Rights of Man, Parti. London, 1791. 98 do. 
 
 Letter to Abbe Seyes, 1791 2 do. 
 
 Rights of Man, Part II. London, 1792 1S2 do. 
 
 Letter to Henry Dundas, London, June 6, 
 
 1792 - 11 do. 
 
 Letter to Lord Onslow, London, June 17, 
 
 1792 4 do. 
 
 Letter to Onslow Cranley, commonly called 
 
 Lord Onslow, London, June 21, 1792 - 3 do. 
 Address to the Addressers, London, July, 1792 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 elec- 
 tion to the Convention,) Paris, Sept. 25, 
 
 1792 - 3 do. 
 
 Letter to the Attorney-General of England, 
 
 on the prosecution against him, Paris, 
 
 Nov. 11, 1792 2 do. 
 
 Reasons for preserving the Life of Louis XVL 
 
 Paris, Jan. 1793 - * 6 do. 
 
 Age of Reason, Part I. Paris, 1754 <* 96 duo. 
 
 Dissertations on first Principles of Govern* 
 
 ment, Paris, 1794 * 18 octavo. 
 
 Speech delivered in the Convention against 
 
 the Constitution of 1795 - 8 do. 
 
 Agrarian Justice, Paris, 179(5 S do. 
 
 Decline and Fall of the English System qf 
 
 Finance, Paris, 1796 - - 99 do. 
 
 
APPENDIX. 187 
 
 Letter to George Washington, Paris, 176 76 octavo. 
 Age of Reason, Part II. Paris, 1796 - 199 duo. 
 Letter to the Hon. Thomas Erskine, on the 
 
 Prosecution of Williams, Paris, 1797 - 24 octavo 
 Letter to the People and Armies of France, 
 
 on the Events of the 18th Fructidor, Paris, 
 
 IT97 52 do. 
 
 Discourse to the Theophilanthropists, Paris, 
 
 1797 6 do. 
 
 Letters to the Citizens of the United 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, essays for 
 our newspapers, some of which were decidedly 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," whfcb I 
 have taken into his Life. 
 
 W. Pople, Printer, 67, Chancery Lane, Loiidoa. 
 
Just published, 
 
 BY A. MAXWELL, 
 BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR. 
 
 ON THE PRESENT DISTRESSES OF THE COUNTRY* 
 AND SUITABLE REMEDIES. 
 
 BY WILLIAM HARRIS, 
 
 Author of " HINTS ON TOLERATION/' and " AN INQUIRY 
 INTO THE TOLERATION ACT." 
 
 Price 3s, 6d. 
 
PROPOSALS 
 
 FOR PRINTING BY SUBSCRIPTION, 
 A 
 
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 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, 
 
 Administration of the Sacraments, $c. 
 ACCORDING TO THE USE. 
 
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 WITH THE 
 
 EPISTLES AND GOSPELS,AND THE WHOLE BOOK OF PSALMS. 
 BY THOMAS YEATJblS. 
 
 CONDITIONS OF THE WORK. 
 
 1. The work to be printed in an Octavo form, with a new and 
 elegant type, cast on purpose, and on a superior Paper. 
 
 gv The price to Subscribers is One Guinea : the money to be 
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 where such gentlemen as chuse to honour the work with 
 their patronage, are requested to send in their names and 
 address, and by whom the copies will be delivered on 
 the completion of the work. 
 
 PROSPECTUS OR ADDRESS. 
 
 THE author having- in his possession an elegant MS. 
 copy of the Liturgy of the Church of England, in 
 Hebrew, of unquestionable merit, originally done for a 
 Society of converted Jews, founded by WILLIAM WAIN- 
 FLEET E, Bishop of Winchester, and founder of Mag- 
 dalen College, Oxford, is desirous that such a learned 
 work should be published, not only as a literary 
 curiosity, but also as a most interesting article at the 
 present period, when the Book of Common Prayer of the 
 Church of England is appearing in so many and various 
 languages of Europe and Asia, that a pure Hebrew 
 Version of it, so long wanting, should now be supplied, 
 both as a useful help to students of Theology, de- 
 sirous of attaining a more perfect knowledge of the 
 Hebrew tongue : and also in regard of its very probable 
 benefit in producing in the minds of the more learned 
 amongst the Jews a more liberal opinion of the Chris- 
 tian Church, and particularly of the Church of England, 
 whose Doctrines, and other Rites and Ceremonies, they 
 may be the better enabled to inquire into and examine 
 for themselves ; and, by the Divine blessing, be the 
 more readily disposed to embrace the Christian Faith. 
 
 Should this proposal meet with the approbation and 
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 of the undertaking, the author intends to deposit the 
 original Copy in some public Library, for any future 
 purposes. 
 
 LONDON, isis. 
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