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 ^^^ T 
 
 CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 119TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH-DAY 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS PAINE 
 
 AT 
 
 CINCINNATI, 
 
 JANUARY 29, 1856. 
 
 PUBLISHED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RESOLUTIONS, 
 
 BY THE COMMITTEE OP ARRANGEMENTS; 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 VALENTINE NICHOLSON A CO 
 
 1856. 
 
 PRICE, 1 O C E "V T « . 
 
®l)c Ipaiue ifcstiual. 
 
 CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 119TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH-DAY 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 AT 
 
 CINCINNATI, 
 
 JANUARY 29, 1856. 
 
 PUBLISHED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RESOLUTIONS, 
 
 BY THE COMMITTEE OP ARRANGEMENTS: 
 
 CINCINNATI: 
 
 VALENTIN'S NICHOLSON & CO. 
 
 1856. 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Committee of Arrangements, for the celebration of 
 tlie 119th anniversary of the Birth-day of Thomas Paine, 
 the Author-Hero of the Revolution, congratulate the liberal 
 and enlightened portion of their fellow-citizens on the success 
 which has attended this effort to do justice to a great man's 
 memory. 
 
 The Invitation of the Committee to the Political and Reli- 
 gious friends of Thomas Paine, to join in celebrating his 
 Birth-day, met with a noble response. We were cheered by 
 harmonious feelings and liberal contributions. Men of lib- 
 eral sentiments, though widely separated in their opinions 
 on political, social, and religious questions, joined heartily in 
 a great ovation to the memory of an Honest Man, who, fear- 
 lessl}^ and conscienciously did a noble work for Humanity. 
 
 The result was, one of the largest and most enthusiastic 
 celebrations ever known in our city. It was ushered in Avith 
 the firing of artillery, from the hills which overlook Cincin- 
 nati, and from the neighboring city of Newport, on the Ken- 
 tucky bank of the Ohio river. 
 
 The meeting, which enjoyed and applauded the Oration, 
 Addresses, and Music, was, probably, the largest that ever 
 assembled on such an occasion. Greenwood Hall, the 
 great hall of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute, was densely 
 
 m 
 
 f^^'iZOxO 
 
iv The Paine Festival. 
 
 filled, and hundreds could not obtain admission ; although 
 two other celebrations were in progress at the same hour in 
 the vicinity — that at the Turners' Hall, wdiere the addresses 
 were in the German language ; and one in the neighboring 
 city of Newport, Kentucky. 
 
 The Committee have much pleasure in presenting to the 
 public, in a permanent form, this record of a public event, 
 which, they trust, marks the dawn of a new era of Intelli- 
 gence in the appreciation of Worth, and of Courage, and 
 Liberality in the expression of our obligations to Public 
 Benefactors. 
 
 It maybe proper to say that, in extending invitations to the 
 speakers, no restriction was made, and no pledge required. 
 Each was left to the free, consciencious performance of his 
 individual duty, and is aloiie responsible for the sentiments 
 advanced. The spirit of the occasion w^as one of Freedom 
 and Toleration. 
 
 The Committee would express their thanks to all who have 
 in any w^ay contributed to the Great Moral Triumph, which 
 has been achieved in this Celebration ; and would encourage 
 the friends of Free Thought to renewed exertions. 
 
THE 
 
 PAINE FESTIVAL. 
 
 The music of the United States' Military Band, from the 
 Government Barracks at Newport, Ky., welcomed an over- 
 flowing audience of ladies and gentlemen to Greenwood 
 Hall, which was appropriately decorated for the occasion. 
 
 Isaac E. Hedges, Esq., on taking the Chair, as President 
 of the Festival, addressed the assembly as follows: 
 
 ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT: 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : — 
 I have been unexpectedly called upon to preside on this occasion ; 
 but while I acknowledge my inability to fill the chair with the fit- 
 ness the occasion demands, yet I am not disposed to decline the 
 duties and responsibilities of such a position. 
 
 I congratulate you my fellow-citizens, of every clime and nation, that 
 a day has dawned upon us, when we can assemble in such vast 
 numbers, to commemorate the noble sentiments of one, who stood 
 out in bold relief before the foes of Human Rights, whether they were 
 Kings, Potentates, or Priests. We meet, not to worship men, but great 
 principles. We are not idolaters, or man-worshipers; but we bow 
 humbly, and reverence great truths and holy principles, wherever 
 they are found. 
 
 I have no sacrifices to make. They have long since been offered. 
 The natural tendency of my mind has long since led me to look be- 
 yond the boundaries of sectarianism, and the popular creeds of the 
 
vi The Paine Festival. 
 
 day; and having early read the ^'Rights of Man," by the Im- 
 mortal Paine, I learned to consider it my duty and my privilege 
 to embrace the truth wherever my reason found it, — and fearlessly 
 proclaim it, whether it was in harmony with, or in opposition to, 
 orthodoxy. 
 
 Let us ever cherish the generous spirit that inspired our Great 
 Champion of Human Rights, whose very soul oould not be confined 
 to a single state or country, but leaped over oceans to find new 
 fields for its philanthropic emotions. Let us ever prove faithful to 
 the trust, secured to our possession by his untiring zeal in the cause 
 of our own glorious country, that the " Crisis " that once tried 
 men's souls may never again recur. 
 
 May the Sun of Liberty, whose dawn was heralded in the morn 
 of the American Revolution by Thomas Paine, continue its 
 onward march, until it shall arrive at a fixed and eternal meridian I 
 
 Music. — National Airs, by the Band. 
 
ORATION. 
 
 BY T. L. NICHOLS, M.D. 
 
 Mr. President — Ladies and Gentlemen : — I have accepted 
 with pleasure and with pride, the honorable position your committee 
 has assigned rae. It might have been entrusted to one better able to 
 do justice to the demands of this occasion; but the honor could not 
 have been conferred upon any one who would appreciate it more 
 highly, or who could feel more anxiety to perform worthily the 
 sacred duty of rescuing from the darkness of ignorance, the blight 
 of bigotry, and the calumnies of creed-bound sectarians, the fame of 
 a man, who has done more than to ^' fill the measure of his country's 
 glory ; " one who has been a hero and a martyr in the cause of 
 civil and religious liberty throughout the world. 
 
 I respond cordially, therefore, to the summons to address you on 
 this occasion, and to the sentiments expressed in the preamble and 
 resolutions, inviting you to join in this celebration ; and I, a 
 stranger here, congratulate you upon the liberality, freedom, and 
 justice, which have prompted your noble response to that invita- 
 tion. 
 
 I congratulate Cincinnati, Queen City of the West, that she has 
 the mind and heart, the manly courage and nobility of soul, to 
 render this tribute of justice to one of the great unappreciated heroes 
 of humanity. I congratulate the Great West upon the spirit of 
 freedom that breathes over her prairies, and flows onward with her 
 
 7 
 
8 The Patne Festival. 
 
 rivers. I congratulate the country that embosoms this glorious home 
 of plenty and of liberty. I congratulate the universal humanity that 
 there is an America, and a G-reat AVest, and a queenly city here, 
 and a people, so free, so intelligent, so generous and heroic, as thus 
 to celebrate this anniversary, to vindicate the truth of history, and 
 help to right the wrongs of half a century. 
 
 It is right, that the examples of courage, genius and philanthropy 
 in the past, should be held in remembrance for the emulation and 
 gratitude of the present and the future. 
 
 It is true, and it is a part of my duty to make it manifest to all 
 who hear me, that the life and writings of Thomas Paine prove 
 him to have been a hero, a philosopher, and a philanthropist, and 
 worthy of our admiration and gratitude. 
 
 It is true, as will abundantly appear, that his eminent and une- 
 qualed services, in the cause of American Independence, and of 
 Civil and Religious Liberty, entitle Lim especially to the honor and 
 gratitude of every American ; and it was, therefore, rightly and 
 nobly resolved to celebrate, here and now, the 119th Anniversary 
 of the Birth-day of the Author-Hero of the Revolution — the vindi- 
 cator of the rights of man, and the champion of Civil and Religious 
 Liberty, Thomas Paine ; whose Common Sense awoke the Ame- 
 rican people to the Declaration of Independence ; whose Crisis, in 
 the times that tried men's souls, gave vigor to our arms ; who 
 asserted and defended the Principles of Republican Liberty in both 
 hemispheres ; who was the uncompromising foe of all despotisms, 
 and the unwavering friend of Freedom and Humanity. 
 
 Most heartily do I respond to this appeal ; most cheerfully will 1 
 present to you all that is needed to sustain it — the simple facts of 
 the Life of that Honest Man, whose birth upon our planet was a 
 blessing to humanity, and rendered illustrious and memorable the 
 
 DAY WE celebrate. 
 
 Thomas Paine, son of an English Quaker, was born at Thetford, 
 England, January 29, 1737. A man of the people, he received only 
 the common rudiments of an English education, and at the age 
 of thirteen was taken from school to assist his father, in his trade 
 of staymaker. 
 
The Paine Festival. 
 
 A desire for a more active and adventurous life led him, shortly 
 after, to ship on board a British privateer, the celebrated ship 
 ^' The Terrible," commanded by Captain Death. But his father, 
 fearing to lose his son, and being opposed to wars, as a part of his 
 religious faith, made such an appeal to his youthful feelings, as 
 induced him to return home, and lay aside, for a time, his warlike 
 and adventurous projects. 
 
 But his monotonous and distasteful labor was so ill-suited to his 
 active spirit, that he subsequently joined the privateer. King of 
 Prussia, and made a cruise ; of the incidents of which he has left 
 no record. 
 
 Of the heart-life of this man we have no history. There are, 
 however, a few facts which open that life to the imagination of the 
 sympathetic reader. He was married in 1759, at the age of 22 
 years, and settled at Sandwich, pursuing his trade. His wife died 
 at the end of the first year of their marriage. In this love and this 
 loss, we have the key to much of his later life. It was a shock 
 from which he seems never to have recovered. If in his later years 
 he seemed a cynic, those who have so loved and suffered, know 
 how to forgive. 
 
 At the age of twenty-four he was appointed to a place in the 
 excise, which he held for thirteen years. During this time he 
 married again ; but it was an unhappy marriage of convenience ; or 
 rather of duty and gratitude. He married the daughter of a 
 deceased friend, and took charge of his family and business. This 
 uncongenial and fruitless bond was, after a few years, severed by 
 mutual consent. So far as is known, Paine lived through his life, 
 like so many other human benefactors — loveless and childless. 
 Severed from ties of family, they adopt the race, and give to huma- 
 nity those talents and exertions which else might have been, more 
 happily perhaps, but less usefully, expended in the narrow circle of 
 a home. The ages of the past have been ages of sacrifice, and the 
 world's saviors have borne their crosses, and their crowns have been 
 crowns of thorns. 
 
 In 1774, at the age of 37, flying from the scene of so much uu- 
 happiness, Paine went to London. Here he turned his attention 
 
10 The Paine Festival, 
 
 to scientific pursuits, and among the philosophers with whom he 
 became acquainted, was Dr. Franklin, whose eminent practical 
 sagacity recognized his fitness for the new world ; and he accordingly 
 advised him to try his fortunes in America. He followed this 
 advice, and his destiny, and came to Philadelphia, where he first 
 secured employment as editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, for 
 which he wrote some pleasant essays and poems. 
 
 Thus, in the prime and vigor of his early manhood, chas- 
 tened in the school of adversity, unperverted and uncorrupted by 
 either a religious or scholastic education; a self-taught, self-made 
 man, he found himself a citizen of the New World, at the outbreak 
 of the American devolution. His scientific and literary pursuits 
 had introduced him to the society of Franklin, Rush, Barlow, and 
 other eminent men, and he joined in their discussions on the con- 
 dition of the colonies, and their relations to the mother country. 
 
 To appreciate the work which Thomas Paine was now destined 
 to perform, we must remember the state of afi'airs at that period. 
 The idea of liberty and independence had come to but few of the 
 foremost minds of that age. The great mass of the American 
 colonists, both the people and their leaders, were thoroughly loyal, 
 and strongly attached to Great Britain. They believed in the 
 Divine Bight of Kings ; the sacredness of hereditary rule, and in 
 the obligations of loyalty. But there was also a feeling of sturdy 
 determination to maintain their constitutional rights. In this state 
 ©f things, in 1776, taking counsel with the leaders of the Repub- 
 lican movement, Thomas Paine burst upon the country with his 
 "Common Sense." It was a trumpet peal, which awoke the 
 Colonies to the thought of independence, and prepared them for the 
 contest in which it was won. He taught the people that freedom 
 and security were the true objects of government, and that the 
 simplest form, by which these ends could be attained, was the best ; 
 that " of more worth is one honest man to society, and in the sight 
 of God, than all the crowned rufl&ans that ever lived." 
 
 With the religious faith and feeling which characterize all his 
 works, he says : 
 
 " The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as 
 
The Paine Festival. 11 
 
 if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the per- 
 secuted in future years^ when home should afford neither friendship 
 nor safety." 
 
 And after the most cogent arguments in favor of independence, 
 and a free government, he closes with this noble and eloquent 
 appeal : 
 
 '' 0, ye that love mankind ! ye that dare oppose, not only tyranny 
 but the tyrant, stand forth ! Every spot of the old world is over- 
 run with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. 
 Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her 
 like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. Oh ! 
 receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind." 
 
 The eifect of this pamphlet, '^ Common Sense" is, probably, with- 
 out a parallel in human literature. The first emotion it produced 
 was terror — the next feeling was conviction, and then came an 
 enthusiasm for its principles that resulted in the Declaration of 
 Independence. Contemporary testimony is unanimous on this 
 point. The friends of liberty were cheered onward ; those who 
 wavered were made firm, and thousands were converted. ^' Com- 
 mon Sense " was the knell of European despotism, and the tocsin 
 of American liberty. 
 
 Paine did not only write for freedom, but volunteered as a soldier 
 in the continental army, — giving this personal testimony to the 
 sincerity of his principles. In this position he became the guest of 
 Washington, and the friend of Lafayette and the principal officers 
 of the American army — with many of whom he lived on terms of 
 intimacy to the close of his life. 
 
 But the struggle of the Revolution was long and severe ; and 
 there were times when the bravest might well lose courage and the 
 most sanguine despair. It was not enough to arouse the spirit of 
 the country — it required to be sustained. The people were soon 
 tired of the war. The militia, drafted for brief terms of service, 
 and unused to the hardships of the camp, were leaving the army. 
 Our cities were occupied by the enemy ; his ships filled our harbors 
 and bays, and the frontiers swarmed with his savage allies. In 
 this day of darkness and despair, Thomas Paine came to the rescue. 
 
12 The Paine Festival. 
 
 It was not Washington, nor the Adamses, nor Franklin, nor Jeffer- 
 son ; the men we call, and rightly call, the Fathers of the Republic, 
 who were chosen as the instrument of Providence, in this emer- 
 gency, but the calumniated Thomas Paine. His " Crisis" went 
 forth to the country like the clarion peal of victory, in the midst of 
 disaster and defeat. It opens with the inspiration of genius, and its 
 first sentence is the sound of a trumpet which will reverberate 
 through all time : 
 
 ^^ These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier 
 and the sunshine patriot will, m this crisis, shrink from the service 
 of his country ; hut he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and 
 thanks of man and woman." 
 
 The disheartened soldier, who was leaving the army, turned back 
 and renewed his enlistment ; the farmer left the plough in the fur- 
 row; the mechanic, his unfinished work on the bench. Men and 
 means gathered around the Standard of Liberty. Members of the 
 Continental Congress returned to their post of duty. The Crisis 
 was read to every corporal's guard in the army ; and courage and 
 confidence succeeded to terror and despair. 
 
 A man of the people, Thomas Paine knew how to appeal to the 
 popular heart. Sincere and earnest in his devotion to Liberty, he 
 inspired others with the same zeal. His appeals were prompted by a 
 higher feeling even than patriotism— by the principles of Justice, 
 and the dictates of Humanity. 
 
 " Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods/' he 
 says, in this remarkable production, " and it would be strange indeed, 
 if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated. '^ 
 
 '^ I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength 
 by distress, and grow brave by reflection." 
 
 " We live in a large world, and have extended our ideas beyond 
 the limits and prejudices of an Island. We hold out the right hand 
 of fellowship to the universe." 
 
 It was in this spirit that Thomas Paine incited and led on the 
 Revolution, which owes as much to his single pen, as to the swords 
 of all its heroes. At every stage of that great struggle, he wrote a 
 new number of the Crisis, which was distributed to the army and 
 
The Paine Festival. 13 
 
 country. Well has lie been denominated the " Author-Hero " of 
 the Revolution ; and well might Jefferson bear testimony to the 
 fact, which bigots have almost made the world forget, that Thomas 
 Paine " had done as much as any man living, to establish the Free- 
 dom of America." During the war, he served, also, as Secretary of 
 the Committee on Foreign Affairs, of the Continental Congress; as 
 Clerk of the Legislature of Pennsylvania; he volunteered to be 
 one of a party to burn the British fleet in the Delaware ; and he 
 accompanied Mr. Laurens to France, and aided to secure a loan of 
 ten millions livres, and a present from the French Crown, of six 
 millions. 
 
 For these great and inestimable services, he received, in 1785, the 
 thanks of Congress ; and a pecuniary remuneration of $3,000. The 
 State of Pennsylvania voted him five hundred pounds currency ; and 
 the State of New York granted him a farm of three hundred acres, 
 at New Rochelle. This may have been enough to satisfy the simple 
 tastes of Thomas Paine, but scarcely enough to evince the gratitude 
 of a magnanimous nation. In his case, our Republic has not been 
 merely ungrateful; but it has permitted religious bigotry and pro- 
 scription to cover with ignominy, the name of one who deserves 
 both honor and gratitude. 
 
 The war was over, and Paine turned his attention to the arts of 
 peace. He invented an Iron Bridge, and went to France and Eng- 
 land to secure patents in those countries. This project, which had 
 but a moderate success, seems to have been a means by which Pro- 
 vidence led him to new fields of labor in the cause of Freedom and 
 Humanity. It was the period of the French Revolution, which 
 followed the American. Its principles were attacked with eloquent 
 sophistries by Edmund Burke, but Thomas Paine defended them by 
 publishing, in 1791, in England, bearding the British Lion in his 
 den, his immortal work, ''The Rights of Man.'^ 
 
 In this work he asserted the great principles of Human Liberty ; 
 eternal, impregnable, and as fresh to-day as in all the cycles of the 
 past. He overthrew the basis of hereditary power, by showing that 
 man never could have the right of binding or controlling his pos- 
 terity by institutions, or governments, or creeds, or laws. 
 
14 The Paine Festival. 
 
 He defined the natural rights of man, as those which always ap- 
 pertain to him, in right of his existence. Life, itself, brings to every 
 being the right of seeking his own happiness, or the greatest enjoy- 
 ment of that life, which can be exercised without injury to the equal 
 rights of others. 
 
 Thus every civil right rests on natural right. Society and govern- 
 ment are for the guarantee and protection of every natural right ; 
 none are surrendered ; but only, as a matter of convenience, in 
 certain cases, delegated to others. 
 
 " Public good/' he says elsewhere, in his Discourse on Govern- 
 ment, " is not a term opposed to the good of individuals ', on the 
 contrary, it is the good of every individual collected. It is the good 
 of all, because it is the good of every one.'' 
 
 It is this principle I have tried to bring to the comprehension 
 of those who are placing institutions above humanity ; and who 
 would have every individual suffer, for the general good. 
 
 Paine understood the true basis of Human Society, or of what- 
 ever government or regulation.it requires, in the affections or attrac- 
 tions of the Human Soul — those Attractions which, as Fourier has 
 said, are proportional to Destinies. 
 
 ^'The wants and affections of man," he says, "impel him to 
 form societies." 
 
 " Formal government makes but a small part of civilized life." 
 
 " The more perfect civilization is, the less occasion has it for gov- 
 ernment, because the more does it regulate its own affairs, and 
 govern itself." 
 
 'All the great Laws of Society are Laws of Nature." 
 
 " Man has no authority over posterity in matters of personal right. 
 All hereditary government is, in its nature, tyranny." 
 
 ^' All delegated power is trust— and all assumed power is usurpa- 
 tion." 
 
 Such are some of the fundamental principles, announced in Paines' 
 treatise on "The Rights of Man;" principles which have a wider 
 application, it may be, than he suspected — principles which are 
 universal and unchangeable — because true ; for there are axioms in 
 social and political science, as in mathematics. 
 
The Paine Festival. 15 
 
 No man ever comprehended the Age in which he lived, and the 
 great thought and work of that Age, better than did Thomas Paine, 
 and no man has given clearer evidence of genius or inspiration. 
 Thus he says : 
 
 " The present Age will hereafter merit to be called the Age of 
 Reason, and the present generation will appear to the future as the 
 Adam of a New World." 
 
 " An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers 
 can not ; it will succeed, where diplomatic management will fail ; it 
 is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor the Ocean, that can arrest its 
 progress ; it will march on the horizon of the world, and it will 
 conquer." 
 
 Such was this man's faith in principles ; such his consciousness 
 of the power of truth ; for he believed that — 
 
 '^ Such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all 
 it wants, is the liberty of appearing." 
 
 Has any man, in any Age, given utterance to a more sublime 
 faith ? 
 
 And these principles, stated with great clearness, and supported 
 by a power of illustration that rendered them irresistible, are radical, 
 fundamental, and universal. They are the basis of all right ; and 
 opposed to every wrong. The most advanced reformer of this day 
 does no more than to extend, to a wider and more comprehensive 
 sphere, the application of the principles of the " Rights of Man," 
 as stated, and in the statement demonstrated, by Thomas Paine. It 
 was this work that excited Mary Wollstonecraft to write her noble 
 *' vindication of the Rights of Woman." And these principles, the 
 basis of the Declaration of American Independence, and its claim to 
 the great rights of ^' Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," 
 have only to be carried out to their legitimate ultimations, to accom- 
 plish for Humanity that integral and Universal Freedom which is 
 the condition of Progress, Development, Harmony and Happiness. 
 Political independence and reforms in Government did not satisfy 
 his principles or his philanthropy. Paine was a Socialist. He pressed 
 upon legislators the duty of securing to all men the means of 
 happiness ; of protecting the rights of honest poverty against the 
 
16 The Paine Festival. 
 
 usurpations and plunderings of wealth ; and while his writings 
 against superstition and priestcraft, brought upon him the hatred of 
 sectarians, his Essay on Agrarian Justice offended the wealthy and 
 aristocratic. But Paine, like every other man who is in advance of 
 his own- age, must look for justice to posterity. 
 
 The publication of the Rights of Man in England, brought upon 
 Paine the prosecution of the Crown ; but while he was waiting the 
 result of a trial, he was informed by an embassy from France, that 
 he had been elected, with several other distinguished personages, a 
 citizen of the French Republic, and also by the citizens of Calais, 
 a member of the National Convention. Called to this new field of 
 labor, he left England, and published an address accepting the honor 
 of citizenship, and the post of Representative. He was a member 
 of the Convention, in that stormy period; he voted and spoke in 
 favor of the trial of Louis XVI., but his humanity revolted at the 
 idea of unnecessary bloodshed, and he earnestly opposed the execu- 
 tion of the King, and asked, as a favor to America, that he might 
 be permitted to come to this, country, and end his days in peace. 
 This brave effort to save a human life, and the life of a King, caused 
 his own imprisonment, in the reign of terror, and his own condem- 
 nation to the guillotine, from which he providentially escaped. I say 
 l)TOvidentially, for such was his own belief. 
 
 We come now to a consideration of that portion of the life and 
 work of this extraordinary man, which has doomed him to the 
 calumnies and execrations of the ignorant and fanatical ; but which, 
 when truly examined, will be considered as honorable and useful as 
 any portion of his career. He had been the instrument of Provi- 
 dence, in the birth of the Great Republic ; he had struck a blow 
 at Hereditary Rule, and the Divine Rights of Kingly Despotisms 
 in Europe, from which they can never recover. He had now another 
 war to wage with intolerance, bigotry, and religious proscription and 
 persecution. 
 
 Thomas Paine was a religious man. Born a Quaker, while free 
 from sectarian creeds, he inherited a spiritual impressibility. He 
 was a man of intuitions. In our day he would be called a Spirit- 
 ualist — he would be claimed as a Medium. 
 
The Paine Festival. 17 
 
 This is not mere assertion — his writings contain abundant evi- 
 dence of all I assert. First, of what I term his mediumship, or 
 susceptibility to spiritual impressions, I quote a paragraph from the 
 Age of Reason, in which he says : 
 
 *' There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts ; those 
 that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking, 
 and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord. I have 
 always made it a rule to treat those voluntary visitors with civility, 
 taking care to examine, as well as I was able, if they were worth 
 entertaining ; and it is from them that I have acquired about all 
 the knowledge I possess.'' 
 
 Mr. Paine had his religious convictions, and he was faithful to 
 them. He intended to write a work on religion, to devote to it his 
 matured powers, and to publish it toward the close of his life, mak- 
 ing his dying testimony an evidence of the sincerity of his opinions. 
 But the Reign of Terror, that inversion of the Revolution, whose 
 internal history has never yet been truly written, by making his 
 death probable at any time, hastened this work. He could not leave 
 the world without bearing his testimony ; consequently, in France, 
 with the guillotine flashing death upon him ; with his friends falling 
 on the right and the left, and his own life in imminent peril, he 
 sat down to compose the " Age of Reason.'' Let us take his own 
 solemn declaration of the motives of that work. The people of 
 France, he says, oppressed for ages by religious superstition and 
 despotism, were rushing into the opposite extreme of a blank athe- 
 ism. Paine wrote the Age of Reason, to prove the existence of a 
 God and immortality ; and I know of no work extant, in which 
 these two articles of his creed are more powerfully and convincingly 
 sustained. 
 
 He wrote the first part of the Age of Reason, including the criti- 
 cisms on the Old and New Testament, without a Bible or Testament 
 to refer to ; hurried by the prospect of the threatening guillotine; 
 and six hours after it was finished, he was arrested. He gave the 
 manuscript into the hands of Mr. Barlow, on his way to prison, 
 that it might not be lost. If there ever was a dying testimony, 
 this is one, for his death seemed inevitable. 
 
18 The Paine Festival. 
 
 Eleven months of imprisonment was terminated by the death of 
 Robespierre, and his own restoration to his seat in the convention. 
 
 In his earlier works, Paine had advocated Keligious Liberty as a 
 right of Humanity. In the " Hights of Man,'^ he says ; 
 
 " The first act of man, when he looked around, and saw himself 
 a creature which he did not make, and a world furnished for his 
 reception, must have been devotion, and devotion must ever continue 
 sacred to every individual man, as it appears right to him." 
 
 Elsewhere he says: 
 
 ^' Religion is man bringing to his maker the fruits of his heart, 
 the offering of his adoration. It is the equal right of all, to do 
 this in his own way, and the grateful tribute of every heart is 
 acceptable to the Almighty.'' 
 
 These are the words of the Infidel, Thomas Paine. But in the 
 ^^Age of Reason" he defines his own belief; in that book he says : 
 
 " I believe in one God, and no more ; and I hope for happiness 
 bejT-ond this life." 
 
 " I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe 
 otherwise. They have the same right to their belief as I have in 
 mine. But it is necessary to the liappiness of man, that he he men- 
 tally faithful to himself'' 
 
 The literature of the world does not contain a more beautiful 
 declaration of tolerance of the opinions of others, and the duty of 
 fidelity to our own. 
 
 " I trouble not myself," he says, ^' about the manner of future 
 existence. I content myself with believing, even to positive convic- 
 tion, that the power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in 
 any form or manner he pleases, either with or without this body ; 
 and it appears more probable to me that I shall continue to exist 
 hereafter, than that I should have had existence, as I now have, 
 before that existence began." 
 
 " The consciousness of existence is the only conceivable idea we 
 can have of another life — and the continuance of that consciousness 
 is immortality." 
 
 But he did not believe the Bible, you say. So much of it he be- 
 lieved; all of it, he certainly did not. He says of the Old Testament : 
 
The Paine Festival. 19 
 
 " It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and 
 brutalize mankind ; and, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I 
 detest every thing that is cruel.'' 
 
 And holding to this belief, he had no power, as an honest and 
 most consciencious man, to conceal it from his fellow-men. Thomas 
 Paine was not only no hypocrite, but he was no selfist, time-server, 
 or coward. He knew his work, and he did it. He said : 
 
 ^' When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of 
 his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not be- 
 lieve, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime." 
 
 But if Paine did not believe in all that is contained in the Bible, 
 he did believe in, and most truly reverenced, the \Vord of God. 
 Here is his own statement : 
 
 ^' The Word of God is the Creation we behold, and it is 
 in this word, which no human inventors can counterfeit or alter, 
 that God speaketh universally to man." 
 
 Elsewhere he says : 
 
 " The creation we behold is the real and ever existing word of 
 God, in which we can not be deceived. It proclaims his power; it de- 
 monstrates his wisdom ', it manifests his goodness and benevolence." 
 
 And he wrote his " Age of Reason," the most abused, perhaps, 
 of all human productions, with this noble purpose : 
 
 " To relieve and tranquilize the minds of millions, and free them 
 from hard thoughts of the Almighty." 
 
 A noble purpose; a sublime faith; a consciencious endeavor; 
 what can we ask more ? 
 
 Thomas Paine was a man of great honesty of purpose, as well as 
 freedom of thought. He did what he believed to be right, acting 
 under a noble sense of duty, and caring little for consequences to 
 his person or reputation. In this he was an example to all reform- 
 ers — a resolute, heroic character, whom those who hate must still 
 respect. His sentiment, in the Rights of Man, respecting the 
 squandering of public money, is a lesson which too many of our 
 politicians need to study. He says : 
 
 '' Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous 
 consciousncR', of honor. It is not the produce of riches only, but 
 
20 The Paine Festival. 
 
 tho hard earnings of labor and poverty. It is drawn from the bit- 
 terness of want and misery. Not a beggar passes, or perishes in 
 the street, whose mite is not in that mass/' 
 
 Few men have seemed so unselfish as Paine. He was poor, and 
 though a small copy -right on " Common Sense" would have enriched 
 him, he gave it to the legislatures of the several States. He made 
 a donation of each number of the Crisis to the cause. He refused 
 large sums for his " Rights of Man," that it might be circulated in 
 cheap editions, throughout Great Britain. He never pressed his 
 claims upon the country for his unequally and almost wholly unre- 
 quited services. The three thousand dollars given by Congress was 
 a remuneration for sacrifices, and it was left to the State of New 
 York, to provide, by her moderate but sufficient bounty, for the 
 wants of his declining years. 
 
 In regard to the character of Thomas Paine, we have the follow- 
 ing testimony from Joel Barlow, a gentleman of high position and 
 distinguished talent. Mr. Barlow says he was " one of the most be- 
 nevolent and disinterested of, mankind. He was one of the most 
 instructive men I have ever known ; charitable to the poor, beyond 
 his means, and a sure protector and friend to Americans in distress 
 in foreign countries. 
 
 "As to his religious opinions, as they were those of probably 
 three-fourths of the men of letters of the last Age, and of nearly 
 all those of the present, I see no reason why they should form a 
 distinctive character in him." 
 
 I am not inclined to claim for him this undistinctive character. 
 
 Paine is distinguished — nobly and heroically distinguished from 
 nearly all the men of letters, in that age and this, by his conscience 
 and courage. He saw and knew as well as we see now, that had he 
 concealed his religious convictions in deference to popular senti- 
 ment, he would have been honored and applauded, instead of 
 defiimed and calumniated. Had he bowed to the church, or even 
 kept silent, a mantle of charity would have been spread over any 
 human errors or weaknesses, and his name would have been heard 
 in every blast of the trump of fame, and swelled in capitals in 
 every Fourth of July oration. Had he been a politic, a worldly, a 
 
The Paine Festival. 21 
 
 selfish, a dishonest man, he would have done this : but he was too 
 unselfish, too honest, too faithful to his interior convictions, his 
 sense of duty, and the leadings of Providence to shrink from his 
 work, though it might lead to ignominy and martyrdom. 
 
 Outlawed by the British Grovernment, whose cruisers covered the 
 seas, and who searched for him in vessels in which it was supposed 
 he had taken passage, Mr. Paine returned with difiiculty to the 
 United States, in 1802. Outlawed by the priesthood, and pious 
 people of this country, he lived in New York and its vicinity seven 
 years, in comparative obscurity and isolation, suficring in age, dis- 
 ease, and loneliness, all the calumnies that a fanatical malice could 
 heap upon him, and an ingratitude, for which it belongs to us to make 
 a tardy, but sincere reparation. He died at the age of 72, in a firm 
 belief in the principles he had held through his life, and, of conse- 
 quence, in the assured hope of a blessed immortality beyond the grave. 
 
 Such was the life, and such the character and doctrines of this 
 man. Had he been less honest, less philanthropic, less entitled to 
 the admiration and gratitude of mankind, the whole world would 
 have sung his praises ; and we should not have been required to 
 demand of a creed-darkened age, Justice to the Memory op 
 Thomas Paine. 
 
 And there shall be justice, honor, and immortality to the memory 
 of this man, when the names of some to whom Peans are now shout- 
 ing, shall be lost in oblivion. When the tyrants and despots ot 
 mankind are no more feared ; when king-craft and priest-craft are 
 no more honored ; when usurpation and oppression, bigotry and 
 superstition, the frauds of the crafty and the plunderings of the 
 powerful, no longer spread ignorance, poverty, vice, and misery over 
 the earth, then will free, enlightened men do justice to the memory 
 of Thomas Paine. And no true justice can be done to him, until 
 we come to the realization of the principles he taught. We honor 
 a conqueror, when the conquest is achieved. We celebrate a triuinpli 
 when the victory is won. The heroes of American Independence, 
 who were satisfied with that achievement, have received the honors 
 awarded by a grateful country. But the greater work, and the 
 nobler ambition of this man of principles, is yet to be accomplished. 
 
22 The Paine Festival. 
 
 It is the future that will witness his triumph, and from the future 
 will come his full reward. 
 
 It was not enough for him that America was free — he asked the 
 freedom of universal man. It was not enough that victory perched 
 upon the starry banner of the new republic; wherever the flag of free- 
 dom was unfurled, there was his post of duty. His country was the 
 world; his sympathies were with the oppressed of every land ; his great 
 heart would have given freedom, hope, and happiness to all mankind. 
 
 "When man shall be free from the rule of despots and des- 
 potic institutions ; free from the chains of superstition and the 
 terrors of religious proscription ; free from the creeds, and bigotries, 
 and fanaticism of the ages of ignorance and credulity ; free from 
 intolerance, injustice, and oppression of every kind, then will the 
 life, and thought, and character of Thomas Paine be understood, and 
 his memory duly honored. 
 
 Let us do our duty as bravely, as earnestly, as unselfishly, as 
 unflinchingly as he did his. Let us honor the memory of this 
 heroic man by living the principles he taught; by resisting every 
 oppression and injustice, and ceasing to be oppressive and unjust. 
 It is by giving vitality to the principles of a man that we pay the 
 the highest honor to his memory. 
 
 The time is coming when the true reformers of mankind shall be 
 honored as they deserve. America will repent of her ingratitude. 
 She will rise above the mists of error that have obscured her 
 vision. Free from the bondage of a foreign yoke, she will throw 
 ofi" the shackles that fetter her mind and heart ; and when she has 
 comprehended a true, integral freedom, that recognizes every right of 
 humanity, she will be ready to do the justice we demand. The his- 
 torian who writes for that future will record the services of Thomas 
 Paine. On the roll of fame which that future shall emblazon, no 
 name of the past shall brighten with a clearer luster, in the constella- 
 tion of heroic benefactors, his star shall shine, immortal as his Principles. 
 
 '^ And the " Common Sense" of mankind shall triumph in the 
 '^ Crisis" of this great contest for universal freedom ; and Thomas 
 Paine shall find justice, when an ^^ Age of Reason" shall inau- 
 gurate the ^' Rights of Man ! " 
 
ADDRESS OF F, HASSAUREK, ESQ. 
 
 Mr. President — 
 
 A LITTLE flock of snow begins to roll from the top of the moun- 
 tain ; rolling, it augments and waxes greater and greater, till it 
 becomes that formidable mass, which precipitates itself into the dale, 
 sweeping along with it the animals of the forest and the shepherd of 
 the Alps, breaking off the heaven-kissing oak and the mighty rock, 
 burying finally the cottages at the foot of the mountain, and carrying 
 death to the unfortunate peasant, who was not aware of the danger, 
 which rapidly hastened to his ruin. And yet this tremendous, 
 irresistibly destroying mass was, in its beginning, a little flock of 
 snow. 
 
 Such is the course of Truth. Solitary and alone, it may live for 
 centuries in the minds of a few. The prejudices of the masses are 
 aroused against it. A hundred times it may be put down by the 
 brutal force of despotism or succomb to the slanders, calumnies, and 
 persecutions of ignorance and bigotry. Unfortunate will be the fate 
 of those who dare to proclaim it to a benighted world. But, sir, 
 like that little flock of snow, it waxes and waxes — it gains one inch 
 of ground after the other, it enlightens the heads and electrifies the 
 hearts of men, till it becomes an irresistible power, sweeping every 
 thing before it, and annihilating the impotent knaves who undertake 
 to resist it. Lies may triumph a thousand times — it is not forever — 
 truth will and must prevail. The chariot of history is forward 
 bound, and forward it goes in spite of all delays, crushing the holy 
 or unholy hands of those who try to take hold of its spokes. 
 
 We are assembled here to-night, to witness the mighty progress 
 of truth. There was a time, not long ago, when the name of Thomas 
 Paine was only heard, if some priestly bigot used it in a sermon, to 
 
 23 
 
24 The Paine Festival. 
 
 cover it with cursing, slander, and abuse. There was a time, when 
 the friends of Thomas Paine had to go to a private room and to close 
 the doors behind them, if they intended to celebrate his birth-day. 
 There was a time, when it was considered an evidence of the utmost 
 depravity, to sympathize with his views and principles. There was 
 a time, when in a city like Cincinnati, you would not have found a 
 dozen, or perhaps not half a dozen of men, who had the moral 
 courage to avow that they were Paine men. But, sir, I say it with 
 a rejoicing heart, this time has ^Dassed away. Amidst the night of 
 superstition we see the morning dawn of the "Age of Reason." 
 
 The times have changed. We now see the birth-day of Thomas 
 Paine celebrated by a vast and respectable concourse of people. 
 We hear the roaring of the cannon, echoing a national salute on that 
 solemn occasion. We see thinking men of all classes, willing to do 
 justice to the memory of a man, to whom this republic is indebted 
 more than to any other for its liberty. We see many who do 
 warmly sympathize with the principles of that noble Apostle of 
 Freedom, whose motto it has been, " the woj^ldis my country^ to do 
 good my religion." 
 
 Sir, it is with feelings of gratitude, that every friend of this 
 country should remember the name of Thomas Paine. You all 
 know that even in the year 1775, but a few men in the colonies 
 thought of independence, and even those few did not dare to speak 
 out their sentiments. The people in general did yet adhere to the 
 crown, notwithstanding the wrongs they had suffered from it ; they 
 were proud to be citizens of Great Britain, and only to maintain 
 their rights as such, they had taken up arms against the mother 
 country. But still they tried every means to bring about a recon- 
 ciliation. Still they relied on the fairness of the king and did not 
 dream of dissolution. But, sir, when the last petition of Congress 
 was even refused an answer by the crown ; when a foreign legion 
 was enlisted to force the colonists to an unconditional surrender ; 
 then a general terror pervaded their minds — nobody knew what steps 
 to take, what course to pursue. Amidst this general confusion and 
 helplessness, a little pamphlet appeared, which, like a sudden light- 
 ning, flashed up in the minds of the people, and at once pointed out 
 
The Paine Festival. 25 
 
 the only way on which they had to resolve for the maintenance of 
 their safety, the preservation of liberty, and the acquisition of happi- 
 ness and grandeur. Till now they were Britons — this pamphlet 
 with the irresistible power of truth, taught them to be Americans. 
 This immortal pamphlet was the '^Common Sense" of Thomas Paine. 
 Its consequence was the Declaration of American Independence. 
 
 And, Sir, when at the end of the year 1776, the American army 
 was defeated at Long Island ; when General Washington was forced 
 to retreat to New York, leaving Fort Washington and Fort Lee in 
 the hands of the enemy ; when even the most courageous began to 
 falter, when company after company disbanded, and the people were 
 about to give up all hopes of final success ; at that dark hour of trial 
 a little tract appeared headed "The Crisis/' signed " Common 
 Sense" and beginning with those memorable words : " These are 
 the times that try men's souls" And so wonderful was the effect 
 of that tract, that the old enthusiasm was instantly revived. The 
 deserting soldiers hastened back to their colors, the disbanded legis- 
 lators of New York assembled again, and a new strength of resistance 
 pervaded the people. The effect of that tract was the defeat of the 
 British army. And whenever the battle's fortune changed, when- 
 ever the soldiers began to flinch, Thomas Pajne wrote another 
 number of the " Crisis," thus inflaming the patriots to new deeds of 
 heroism. So we can justly say, 
 
 Without the pen of Thomas Paine, 
 Washington's sword had fought in vain. 
 
 But, Sir, not only with the pen did he render services to the 
 country of his choice, to liberty and to mankind ; he also took the 
 musket on his shoulder, enlisted himself into the army and 
 fought the battles of freedom. And not only his life did he offer 
 on the altar of American Independence, not only the emanations of 
 his genius did he extend to the people, for he never took payment for 
 any of his writings ; yea, his money also, if he had some, was ready 
 whenever material aid was needed. At the height of financial dis- 
 tress, when it was remarked in the Legislature of Pennsylvania by 
 one of the members, that it would be best to give up the war, if 
 
26 The Paine Festival. 
 
 there was no money to carry it on ; Thomas Paine, he then being 
 Clerk of that body, ojDcned a subscription, which he headed himself 
 by subscribing his entire salary. This generous example was fol- 
 lowed, and $300,000 were realized, by which a bank could be created 
 and the exigencies of the moment defrayed. Such were the merits 
 of Thomas Paine. Such was his character. Such deeds, Sir, should 
 entitle him to a high place in the hearts of all, that are true to 
 freedom. 
 
 Why is it then, that the name of such a man is cursed with 
 villainous abuse and slander ? Why is he treated with such an 
 ingratitude ? Why do even historians, affecting impartiality, ignore 
 Lis name as much as they absolutely can ? Why are there no pro- 
 cessions, invitations, and illuminations on his birth-day ? Why are 
 his merits unknown to a people on whom he bestowed but infinite 
 blessings ? 
 
 It is because he has written the " Age of Reason." And what is 
 the Age of Reason ? Why, it is the truth ! But, Sir, how can the 
 truth be welcome to those, loho feed on lies ? If men should follow 
 their own reason and stand on their own feet, instead of using 
 mental and moral crutches, what would become of authorities ? 
 
 By liis " Age of Reason," Thomas Paine has offended a class of 
 men, to whom nothing is so dangerous as reason, who fear n.othing 
 but the truth. And, Sir, because they could not refute the argu- 
 ments of his work, they blackened the character of the author, they 
 soiled his honor with calumny and invented lies, to disgrace his 
 memory. 
 
 This is the old policy of priestcraft. They slander those whom 
 they can not refute. If you prove them an undeniable truth, they 
 will call you a thief. If you show them an undisputable historical 
 fact, bearing testimony against their ambitious and avaricious aims, 
 they will charge you with having committed a forgery. If you 
 expose their contradictions and the absurdity of their teachings, 
 they will call you a murderer. They will never go into your argu- 
 ments ; no. Sir, they will try to kill you off morally, and to soil the 
 most unimpeachable character, by the spots of calumniation. 
 
 These are the tactics of the Church in its warfare against its 
 
The Paine Festival, 27 
 
 enemies. For this reason, the struggle against error, superstition, 
 and bigotry is so hard a one, because the Church uses every means, 
 be it as dark as it may be, to discourage those who engage in it. The 
 Church will not be satisfied to ruin your reputation; no, Sir, your 
 business must be injured, your earnings impaired, and, if possible, 
 your fortune destroyed. These are the tactics of those who pretend 
 to be followers of the man, who, dying on the cross, tendered for- 
 giveness to his enemies. 
 
 And now. Sir, I ask you whether, instead of cursing the infidel, 
 you ought not to esteem the man, that has the moral courage to face 
 those persecutions, and in spite of them to persevere in what he 
 believes to be right ? Oh! if I would go to Church, notwithstanding 
 my infidelity, if I would wring the hands, elevate the eyes and cry : 
 *' 0, Lord ! what a sinner I am ! " then all would be right. Then 
 the Church would have no objection against me. But because I say 
 what I think, because I do not conceal ray sentiments, I must be 
 exposed to abuse and persecution. What is the gist of that ? The 
 gist of it is, that, not true men are wanted, but hypocrites. AVhether 
 you believe or not, no body cares for, if you only affect to believe. 
 You may think what you please, but you must not tell it. You 
 may entertain what ideas you choose, but you must not damage the 
 holy trade of the Church, by expressing them. 
 
 Can such a state of things last forever ? 
 
 No, Sir, it can not. 
 
 Let some fifty or hundred years be elapsed, and posterity will 
 laugh at our follies. For in the more enlightened centuries which 
 will come, mankind will smile at our delusions, as we smile at the 
 mythological fiibles of the ancient Egyptians, Romans, or Greeks. 
 Posterity will be astonished at the idea that men, living in the age 
 of the telegraph and of steam, could have believed that G od needed 
 six days to make the world out of nothing, and that he rested on 
 the seventh. That he, the all-merciful, condemned a whole, yet 
 unborn race, because their grand-ancestor had eaten an apple ; that 
 he, the most benevolent, gave the first man a command, whose viola- 
 tion he, who knows every thing, must have foreseen ; that he, the 
 Almighty, had no other means to redeem mankind from the con- 
 
28 The Paine Festival. 
 
 sequences of his own severe judgment, than to kill his own son for 
 an offence, which another had committed ; that this son was borne by 
 a mother who remained virgin after having been delivered of a 
 child ; that some three or five loaves of bread and a few fishes were 
 sufficient to feed several thousand men, women, and children, and 
 yet to gather twelve baskets full of remainders ; that the walls of 
 Jericho fell at the sound of Joshua's trumpets ; that Elias rode to 
 heaven in a fiery coach. Yes, Sir, posterity will smile at the cre- 
 dulity of millions of adults who, though they were in full possession 
 of their senses, could believe in such absurdities. 
 
 Believe ! Do they really believe ? This is an important ques- 
 tion. I venture to say, Mr. President, though it may be an auda- 
 cious assertion, that not one half of those whom you may find 
 visiting the churches, paying high rent for their pews, and affecting 
 such a zealous piety, that they are always ready to throw stones on 
 the " dark-hearted '^ infidel, as they call him ; that not one half of 
 these men, Mr. President, do really believe themselves, what they 
 charge us with not believing. • 
 
 We live in the age of hypocrisy. It is much more easy to wor- 
 ship the prejudices of public opinion, than to oppose them. It is 
 more comfortable to be with the great mass, than with a persecuted, 
 slandered minority. It is more easy to conceal our inmost thoughts 
 and sell our convictions, than to openly proclaim them before the 
 eyes of the world. There is one great want in the ordinary man — 
 it is the want of moral courage. Thus, wrong is sanctioned ; thus 
 even many a thinking man shrinks at the idea of seceding from the 
 broad and regular course of custom, and hence he flatters prejudice 
 and bows to superstition, so that he might not be made an outcast 
 of society, anathematized by those dark powers, who affect to rule 
 the minds and consciences of men. 
 
 But there is yet another, and I believe the main reason, to which 
 the power of superstition is to be ascribed. You will find it in the 
 relations of business and trade. It is one of the exigencies of a well 
 conducted house, firm, or concern, that its owner belong to some 
 orthodox Church. It is sometimes far more profitable for him to be 
 frequently seen in the house of the Lord by his congregated brethren, 
 
The Paine Festival. 29 
 
 than to insert his card into the columns of a newspaper. The 
 physician wants patients, the lawyer clients, the merchant customers ; 
 why should they not profit by the occasion of acquiring a whole 
 stock of the desired patronizers, by becoming members of a Christian 
 congregation. It is not Jehovah j they worship ; it is the golden 
 calf. 
 
 Christ was sold for thirty pieces of silver ; and, Sir, there are men, 
 calling themselves Christians, and being acknowledged as such, who 
 would sell him for a dime ! They are wandering books of account, 
 having a ledger in the place of their brains, and a fire-proof iron safe 
 in the place of their hearts. Religion is nothing to them, but an 
 account, whose Dr's by far overbalance its necessary Cr's, and so, as 
 they have to pay for rent, gas, clerk, stock, taxes, etc., they pay 
 the fees of membership and the rent of a pew in their respective 
 churches. 
 
 There are none of that class here this evening. They would not 
 visit such a celebration, not even for the sake of curiosity. They 
 affect a holy horror, and utter with elevated eyes — '^ I thank thee, 
 God, that I am not like other men ! '^ 
 
 But, Sir, if there are so many who don't believe what they pre- 
 tend, you will ask me, who does ? There are many who do. But 
 why ? Because they have never investigated. They never reflected. 
 They took it for granted that what they believed was true, and so 
 they never happened to trouble their minds with doubt. They pre- 
 fered to follow the broad path of custom, instead of thinking for 
 themselves. There are thousands, I am sure, who only lacked the 
 impulse inducing them to meditation. Had they had that impulse, 
 they would be with us in fact, or, at least, in sympathy. 
 
 But who should give that impulse ? The Press ? Is the Press at 
 liberty to speak out its sentiments ? It is not. Now, suppose the 
 editors of all the city papers were infidel-s, as in my private opinion 
 they really are ; suppose they were all Paine men, who fully en- 
 dorsed the sentiments of this meeting, could they come out to-morrow 
 and tell it to their readers ? Could they report that there was an 
 enthusiastic meeting, which did justice to the memory of a great, 
 but villified and slandered man ? Could they defend the merits of 
 
30 The Paine Festival. 
 
 that man against his blinded or bigotted assailants ? No, Sir, they 
 could not, and even if they would, they would expose themselves to 
 the hatred and persecution of an almighty clergy ; they would expose 
 themselves to the slings and arrows of prejudice and fanaticism; they 
 would lose a majority of their subscribers — each being afraid of being 
 suspected as an infidel, should he take an infidel paper; they would 
 lose their job and advertising patronage, and thus soon ruin their 
 business and peril their existence. 
 
 Thus, the Press, kept in such a state of dependence, is forced 
 hypocritically to disguise its own sentiments ; it can not express its 
 real views, but must ignore the truth and yield to injustice. En- 
 tertaining, perhaps, the same opinions which are expressed by this 
 meeting, it can not dare to say so. Such is the power of prejudice 
 and superstition; such is the power of the Church in a country 
 where no union of Church and State is said to exist. 
 
 It is said that we enjoy liberty of conscience. Yes, Sir, it is so, 
 if we belong to the regular old line " Christianity .'' But not if we 
 are ^* bolters.^' You may be the most honest and upright man, a 
 tender father and a virtuous husband ; you may be a benefactor to 
 the poor and a counselor of the oppressed ; you may have bestowed, 
 like Thomas Paine, infinite blessings upon your country, and on 
 humanity. If you have not the right kind of religion, if you dare 
 to think in your own way, instead of bringing your mind to a 
 priestly foundry and letting it be molded into the form of a creed, 
 you will be hated, slandered, and persecuted. 
 
 But, Sir, night can not last forever. Once the sun must rise. 
 And a sun will rise, whose light will banish all the reverend owls 
 and bats, who can do their preying work in darkness only. Sooner 
 or later, mankind will come to the conclusion that priests are an 
 unnecessary evil ; that they have brought but mischief and misery 
 into the human family ; that they have sown the seeds of discord 
 between men and men ; exciting bloody wars and cruel persecutions 
 merely for the purpose of satisfying their lusts, their avarice, and 
 ambition ; that they have carried on an incessant warfare against 
 truth and reason, kindling the wood-piles and inventing the tortures 
 of the inquisition; that they always have stood on the side of des- 
 
The Paine Festival. 31 
 
 potism, proiiing the human mind to submission and servility ; that 
 they have delayed the progress of the human race, by keeping up 
 ignorance and superstition; that they have upset virtue and justice 
 and sanctioned hypocrisy. 
 
 When mankind will come to that conclusion, vrhen the bright 
 sunshine of truth will have dispersed the clouds of error and decep- 
 tion, then, Mr. President, the 29 th of January will be remembered 
 as the birth-day of one of the noblest martyrs of the holy cause of 
 Freedom. 
 
 To do good icas his religion ! Can there be any nobler, any 
 higher, any shorter creed, than this ? It needs no costly edifices of 
 worship ; it needs no fanatical priests, it needs no pews nor sextons. 
 An intelligent mind and a well-meaning heart, is all it requires. To 
 do good was his religion ! Aye, ye bigots, who stand outside of 
 this hall, pointing at the windows and cursing the so-called infidels 
 that are assembled here, can you say, with your hearts excited by 
 hatred, bigotry, and passion, and inflamed by the spirit of persecu* 
 tion, can you say that your religion consists in doing good ? No, 
 you can not. Well, then, learn from the man whose memory you 
 blacken, that true religion^ which you entirely lack, notwithstand- 
 ing your creeds, churches and priests. Mark his words — 
 
 "He that can not reason is a. fool, 
 He that will not reason is a bigot, 
 He that dares not reason is a slave." 
 
 The ball is in motion and will not stop. A time will come when 
 the memory of Thomas Paine, instead of being cursed by ignorant 
 fanaticism and malicious bigotry, will be blessed by an enlightened 
 and intelligent posterity. A time will come when the Birth-day of 
 Thomas Paine will be observed as a national holiday; a time 
 will come when those principles for which Paine has struggled 
 with indefatigable perseverance and untainted disinterestedness, will 
 achieve their final victory over the enemies of freedom ; a time will 
 come, when no persecution for opinion's sake will disgrace the human 
 family ; when you will not be exposed to malice and slander, because 
 you do not believe, what a man with a long, black coat, a solemn 
 
82 The Paine Festival. 
 
 countenance and a white cravat, commands you to believe ; a time, 
 "when there vi^ill be no reflections of hatred cast upon you, because you 
 choose to make use of your own reason, instead of submitting to t-he 
 authority of an old Jewish book, full of contradictions, absurdities 
 and immoralities ; a time will come, when a man will not be pro- 
 scribed, because he happened to be born on the other side of the 
 Atlantic ocean ; a time will come, when a human being will not be 
 made a slave, because the skin of his parents was a little darker 
 than that of those who affect to be his masters. 
 
 When this time will have arrived, an enlightened mankind, I 
 repeat it, will bless the memory of the author of the " Rights of 
 Man." 
 
 MUSIC: 
 
 "THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER," 
 
 BY :i^HE BAND. 
 SINGING: 
 
 GERMAN SONG, 
 
 BY THE UNION CHOIR. 
 
 The opening Address of the President, the Oration of 
 Dr. Nichols, and the Address of Mr. Hassaurek, were 
 greeted with frequent, general, and hearty applause. Dr. 
 Nichols then, in behalf of the committee, reported the fol- 
 lowing Resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : 
 
The Paine Festival. 33 
 
 FURTHER PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 After the delivery of the Oration, the Marseilles was played 
 with admirable effect, by the United States military band, of the 
 government barracks at Newport, Kentucky ; and an able and 
 eloquent address delivered by Frederick Hassaurek, Esq., 
 Editor of the German ^' HocJiwcechier ; " after which Dr. Nichols, 
 in behalf of the committee, reported the following resolutions, which 
 were unanimously adopted : 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 Resolved, That the genius, integrity, and philanthropy, the de- 
 votion to principles, and the unequaled services of Thomas Paine, 
 in the cause of American Independence and the Rights of Man, 
 entitle him to national honors, and ^^ the love and thanks of man and 
 woman." 
 
 Resolved, That we commend to all Reformers, Educators, and 
 Legislators the study of the Principles of Civil and Religious Liberty 
 contained in the writings of Thomas Paine, viz : that freedom and 
 security in the exercise of every right, and in the pursuit of hap- 
 piness, are the great objects of society and government ; and that 
 religious belief, like every involuntary and spontaneous act of the 
 human mind, should be free, under the only rightful limitation of 
 freedom — its exercise not infringing upon the equal right of 
 another. 
 
 Resolved, That every usurpation of power, by monarch, oligarchy, 
 priesthood, or majority, is a despotism; that every government, 
 
M The Paine Festival. 
 
 law, institution, or custom is tyrannical, which interferes with the 
 natural rights of man, and hinders individual prosperity and hap- 
 piness. 
 
 Resolved, That the individual man is sovereign over all his insti- 
 tutions ; that we accept and reaffirm the great principle asserted by 
 the author of the ^^ Ptights of Man," that men have no right to bind 
 posterity, with constitutions, governments, laws, institutions, creeds, 
 systems, or customs : therefore it is the ever sacred and indestruc- 
 table right of every human being to choose for himself, as if such 
 things had never existed, that form of government, society, and 
 religion, which commends itself to his reason, and promises to 
 promote his individual happiness ) such right being exercised with 
 a due regard to the equal right of every other individual. 
 
 Resolved, That we distinguish between the Christianity which is 
 the representative expression of the moral virtue, and physical, and 
 mental achievement of civilization, and the Christianity of blind 
 superstition, clashing creeds, bigotted sects, and ignorant and intol- 
 erant fanatics, which has filled the world with persecution and 
 bloodshed, and opposed every advance in science ; which fetters the 
 limbs, darkens the mind, and hardens the heart of humanity ; which 
 is a stumbling block in the path of progress, and the great e^mbodi- 
 ment of error, intolerance, and despotism. 
 
 Resolved, That we can respect the sincerity, if not the wisdom, 
 of every honest belief; that we desire, in the assertion of our rights, 
 to trespass upon no right of another ; that we can tolerate every 
 thing but intolcrence ; and war only with the despotisms, which 
 war against the rights of man. 
 
 Resolved, That we earnestly recommend to our fellow-citizens 
 everywhere the celebration of this anniversary, until men shall 
 become enlightened, tolerant, and brave enough to do Justice to 
 THE Memory of Thomas Paine. 
 
 J. S. Boyden, Esq., moved the following additional resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this assembly are due to the com- 
 mittee of arrangements ; the contributors of '' material aid;" and to 
 the military volunteers who have paid the honors of a national salute 
 
The Paine Festival. 85 
 
 to a nation's benefactor ; to the President and officers of this meet- 
 ing ; to the orators of the day ; to the Union Choir and United States 
 military band, of Newport, Ky., for their liberty-inspired and inspir- 
 ing music ; and to the independent press, which has given, or may 
 give, publicity to our proceedings. 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be presented to Major 
 Heintzleman, U. S. A., for a national salute. 
 
 Resolvedj That the proceedings, addresses, and resolutions of this 
 celebration be published, in a durable form, for general distribution, 
 and as a memorial of this anniversary. 
 
 Music. — National Airs, by the Band. 
 

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