{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_37701/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_37701","id":"gutenberg_37701","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37701","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: History - British","Category: History - European","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Politics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE\n\nWITH A HISTORY OF HIS LITERARY, POLITICAL\n\nAND RELIGIOUS CAREER IN AMERICA\n\nFRANCE, AND ENGLAND\n\nBy Moncure Daniel Conway\n\nTo Which Is Added A Sketch Of Paine By William Cobbett\n\nVOLUME I. (of II)\n\n1893\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.\n\nIn the Preface to the first edition of this work, it was my painful duty\nto remark with severity on the dissemination of libels on Paine in a\nwork of such importance as Mr. Leslie Stephen's \"History of English\nThought in the Eighteenth Century.\" The necessity of doing so was\nimpressed on me by the repetition of some of Mr. Stephen's unfounded\ndisparagements in Mr. O. B. Frothingham's \"Recollections and\nImpressions.\" I have now the satisfaction of introducing this edition\nwith retractations by both of those authors. Mr. Frothingham, in a\nletter which he authorizes me to use, says: \"Your charge is true, and I\nhasten to say _peccavi_ The truth is that I never made a study of Paine,\nbut took Stephen's estimates. Now my mistake is clear, and I am willing\nto stand in the cold with nothing on but a hair shirt Your vindication\nof Paine is complete.\" Mr. Frothingham adds that in any future edition\nof his work the statements shall be altered. The note of Mr. Leslie\nStephen appeared in The National Reformer, September 11, 1892, to which\nit was sent by a correspondent, at his desire; for it equally relates\nto strictures in a pamphlet by the editor of that journal, Mr. John M.\nRobertson.\n\n\"The account which I gave of Paine in the book upon the Eighteenth\nCentury was, I have no doubt, erroneous. My only excuse, if it be an\nexcuse, was the old one, 'pure ignorance.' I will not ask whether or how\nfar the ignorance was excusable.\n\n\"Mr. Conway pointed out the error in an article contributed, I think, to\nthe Fortnightly Review at the time. He has, no doubt, added, since then,\nto his exposure of my (and other people's) blunders, and I hope to\nread his book soon. Meanwhile, I must state that in consequence of the\n_Fortnightly_ article, I altered the statements in the second edition\nof my book. I have no copy at hand [Mr. S. writes from the country] and\ncannot say what alterations precisely I made, though it is very possible\nthat they were inadequate, as for certain reasons I was unable to attend\nproperly to the revision. If a third edition should ever be required, I\nwould go into the question more thoroughly. I have since that time\nread some letters upon Paine contributed by Mr. Conway to the _New York\nNation_. I had seen the announcement of his new publication, and had\nmade up my mind to take the first opportunity of going into the question\nagain with Mr. Conway's additional information. I hope that I may be\nable to write Paine's life for the Dictionary of National Biography, and\nif so, shall have the best opportunity for putting on record my final\njudgment It will be a great pleasure to me if I find, as I expect to\nfind, that he was greatly maligned, and to make some redress for my\nprevious misguided remarks.\"\n\nIt is indeed to be hoped that Mr. Stephen will write the Life in the\nDictionary, whose list of subjects for the coming volume, inserted in\nthe _Athenaeum_ since his above retraction, designates Thomas Paine as\nan \"infidel\" writer. Mr. Stephen can do much to terminate the carefully\nfostered ignorance of which he has found himself a victim. In advance of\nhis further treatment of the subject, and with perfect confidence in his\njustice, I here place by the side of my original criticism a retraction\nof anything that may seem to include him among authors who have shown a\nlack of magnanimity towards Paine.\n\nThe general statement (First Preface, p. xvi) must, however, remain; for\nrecent discussions reveal a few unorthodox writers willing to throw, or\nto leave, \"a traditionally hated head to the orthodox mob.\" On the other\nhand, some apology is due for this phrase. No orthodox mob is found.\nHere and there some halloo of the old Paine hunt is heard dying away\nin the distance, but the conservative religious and political press,\nAmerican and English, has generally revised the traditional notions, and\nestimated the evidence with substantial justice. Nearly all of the\nmost influential journals have dealt with the evidence submitted; their\narticles have been carefully read by me, and in very few are the old\nprejudices against Paine discoverable. Were these estimates of Paine\ncollected with those of former times the volume would measure this\ncentury's advance in political liberty, and religious civilization.\n\nMy occasionally polemical treatment of the subject has been regretted\nby several reviewers, but its necessity, I submit, is the thing to be\nregretted. Being satisfied that Paine was not merely an interesting\nfigure, but that a faithful investigation of his life would bring to\nlight important facts of history, I found it impossible to deal with\nhim as an ordinary subject of inquiry. It were vain to try and persuade\npeople to take seriously a man tarred, feathered, pilloried, pelted. It\nwas not whitewashing Paine needed, but removal of the pitch, and release\nfrom the pillory. There must first of all be an appeal against such\nsentence. And because the wrongs represented a league of prejudices, the\npleadings had to be in several tribunals--moral, religious, political,\nsocial,--before the man could be seen at all, much less accorded the\nattention necessary for disclosure of the history suppressed through his\ndegradation. Paine's personal vindication would still have required only\na pamphlet, but that it was ancillary to the historic revelations which\nconstitute the larger part of this work. A wiser writer--unless too wise\nto touch Paine at all--might have concealed such sympathies as those\npervading this biography; but where sympathies exist the reader is\nentitled to know them, and the author subjects himself to a severer\nself-criticism if only in view of the vigilance he must excite. I have\nno feeling towards Paine inconsistent with recognition of his faults and\nerrors. My vindication of him has been the production of evidence that\nremoved my own early and baseless prejudices, and rendered it possible\nfor me to study his career genuinely, so that others might do the same.\nThe phantasmal Paine cleared away, my polemic ends. I have endeavored\nto portray the real Paine, and have brought to light some things\nunfavorable to him which his enemies had not discovered, and, I believe,\ncould never have discovered.\n\nThe _errata_ in the first edition are few and of slight importance. I\nwish to retract a suggestion made in my apology for Washington which I\nhave discovered to be erroneous. It was suggested (vol. ii., pp. 173\nand 382) that Washington's failure to answer Paine's private letter of\nSeptember 20,1795, asking an explanation of his neglect while he\n(Paine) was in prison and his life in peril, may have been due to its\ninterception by Pickering (who had by a suppression of documents sealed\nthe sad fate of his predecessor in office, Edmund Randolph). I have,\nhowever, discovered that Paine's letter did reach Washington.\n\nI would be glad if my own investigations, continued while preparing\nan edition of Paine's works, or any of my reviewers, had enabled me\nto relieve the shades with which certain famous names are touched by\ndocumentary facts in this history. The publication of those relating to\nGouverneur Morris, while American Minister in France, was for personal\nreasons especially painful to myself. Though such publication was not\nof any importance to Paine's reputation, it was essential to a fair\njudgment of others--especially of Washington,--and to any clear\ncomprehension of the relations between France and the United States at\nthat period. As the correspondence between Gouverneur Morris and the\nFrench Minister concerning Paine, after his imprisonment, is in French,\nand the originals (in Paris) are not easily accessible to American and\nEnglish readers, I have concluded to copy them here.\n\nA Paris le 14 fevrier 1794 26 pluviose.\n\nLe Ministre plenipotentiaire des Etats Unis de l'Amerique pres la\nRepublique francaise au Ministre des Affaires Etrangeres.\n\nMonsieur:\n\nThomas Paine vient de s'addresser a moi pour que je le reclame comme\nCitoyen des Etats Unis. Voici (je crois) les Faits que le regardent. Il\nest ne en Angleterre. Devenu ensuite Citoyen des Etats Unis il s'y\nest acquise une grande celebrite par des Ecrits revolutionnaires. En\nconsequence il fut adopte Citoyen francais et ensuite elu membre de la\nConvention. Sa conduite depuis cette Epoque n'est pas de mon ressort\nJ'ignore la cause de sa Detention actuelle dans la prison du Luxembourg,\nmais je vous prie Monsieur (si des raisons qui ne me sont pas connues\ns'opposent a sa liberation) de vouloir bien m'en instruire pour que je\npuisse les communiquer au Gouvernement des Etats Unis.\n\nJ'ai l'honneur d'etre, Monsieur,\n\nVotre tres humble Serviteur,\n\nGouv. Morris.\n\n\nParis, 1 Ventose l'An 2d. de la Republic une et indivisible.\n\nLe ministre des Affaires Etrangeres au Ministre Plenipotentiaire\ndes-Etats Unis de l'Amerique pres la Republique Francaise.\n\nPar votre lettre du 26 du mois dernier, vous reclames la liberte de\nThomas Paine, comme Citoyen americain. Ne en Angleterre, cet ex-depute\nest devenu successivement Citoyen Americain et Citoyen francais. En\nacceptant ce dernier titre et en remplissant une place dans le corps\nlegislatif, il s'est soumis aux lois de la Republique et il a renonce de\nfait a la protection que le droit des gens et les traites conclus avec\nles Etats Unis auraient pu lui assurer.\n\nJ'ignore les motifs de sa detention mais je dois presumer qu'ils sont\nbien fondes. Je vais neanmoins soumettre au Comite de Salut public\nla demande que vous m'avez adressee et je m'empresserai de vous faire\nconnaitre sa decision.\n\nDEFORGES.\n\nThe translations of these letters are on page 120, vol ii., of this\nwork. No other letters on the subject between these Ministers are\nknown. The reader may judge whether there is anything in the American\nMinister's application to warrant the opening assertion in that of\nDeforgues. Morris forwarded the latter to his government, but withheld\nhis application, of which no copy exists in the State Archives at\nWashington.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\nAt Hornsey, England, I saw a small square mahogany table, bearing at\nits centre the following words: \"This Plate is inscribed by Thos. Clio\nRickman in Remembrance of his dear friend Thomas Paine, who on this\ntable in the year 1792 wrote several of his invaluable Works.\"\n\nThe works written by Paine in Rickman's house were the second part of\n\"The Rights of Man,\" and \"A Letter to the Addressers.\" Of these two\nbooks vast numbers were circulated, and though the government prosecuted\nthem, they probably contributed largely to make political progress in\nEngland evolutionary instead of revolutionary. On this table he set\nforth constitutional reforms that might be peacefully obtained,\nand which have been substantially obtained And here he warned the\n\"Addressers,\" petitioning the throne for suppression of his works:\n\"It is dangerous in any government to say to a nation, _Thou shalt not\nread_. This is now done in Spain, and was formerly done under the old\ngovernment of France; but it served to procure the downfall of the\nlatter, and is subverting that of the former; and it will have the same\ntendency in all countries; because Thought, by some means or other, is\ngot abroad in the world, and cannot be restrained, though reading may.\"\n\nAt this table the Quaker chieftain, whom Danton rallied for hoping to\nmake revolutions with rose-water, unsheathed his pen and animated his\nRound Table of Reformers for a conflict free from the bloodshed he had\nwitnessed in America, and saw threatening France. This little table was\nthe field chosen for the battle of free speech; its abundant ink-spots\nwere the shed blood of hearts transfused with humanity. I do not wonder\nthat Rickman was wont to show the table to his visitors, or that\nits present owner, Edward Truelove--a bookseller who has suffered\nimprisonment for selling proscribed books,--should regard it with\nreverence.\n\nThe table is what was once called a candle-stand, and there stood on it,\nin my vision, Paine's clear, honest candle, lit from his \"inner light,\"\nnow covered by a bushel of prejudice. I myself had once supposed his\nlight an infernal torch; now I sat at the ink-spotted candle-stand to\nwrite the first page of this history, for which I can invoke nothing\nhigher than the justice that inspired what Thomas Paine here wrote.\n\nThe educated ignorance concerning Paine is astounding. I once heard an\nEnglish prelate speak of \"the vulgar atheism of Paine.\" Paine founded\nthe first theistic society in Christendom; his will closes with the\nwords, \"I die in perfect composure, and resignation to the will of my\nCreator, God.\" But what can be expected of an English prelate when an\nhistorian like Jared Sparks, an old Unitarian minister, could suggest\nthat a letter written by Franklin, to persuade some one not to publish\na certain attack on religion, was \"probably\" addressed to Paine.\n(Franklin's \"Writings,\" vol. x., p. 281.) Paine never wrote a page that\nFranklin could have so regarded, nor anything in the way of religious\ncontroversy until three years after Franklin's death. \"The remarks\nin the above letter,\" says Sparks, \"are strictly applicable to the\ndeistical writings which Paine afterwards published.\" On the contrary,\nthey are strictly inapplicable. They imply that the writer had denied a\n\"particular providence,\" which Paine never denied, and it is asked, \"If\nmen are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it?\" Paine's\n\"deism\" differed from Franklin's only in being more fervently religious.\nNo one who had really read Paine could imagine the above question\naddressed to the author to whom the Bishop of Llandaff wrote: \"There\nis a philosophical sublimity in some of your ideas when speaking of\nthe Creator of the Universe.\" The reader may observe at work, in this\nexample, the tiny builder, prejudice, which has produced the large\nformation of Paine mythology. Sparks, having got his notion of Paine's\nreligion at secondhand, becomes unwittingly a weighty authority for\nthose who have a case to make out. The American Tract Society published\na tract entitled \"Don't Unchain the Tiger,\" in which it is said: \"When\nan infidel production was submitted--probably by Paine--to Benjamin\nFranklin, in manuscript, he returned it to the author, with a letter\nfrom which the following is extracted: 'I would advise you not to\nattempt unchaining the Tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen\nby any other person.'\" Thus our Homer of American history nods, and a\ntract floats through the world misrepresenting both Paine and Franklin,\nwhose rebuke is turned from some anti-religious essay against his own\nconvictions. Having enjoyed the personal friendship of Mr. Sparks, while\nat college, and known his charity to all opinions, I feel certain that\nhe was an unconscious victim of the Paine mythology to which he added.\nHis own creed was, in essence, little different from Paine's. But how\nmany good, and even liberal, people will find by the facts disclosed\nin this volume that they have been accepting the Paine mythology\nand contributing to it? It is a notable fact that the most effective\ndistortions of Paine's character and work have proceeded from unorthodox\nwriters--some of whom seem not above throwing a traditionally hated head\nto the orthodox mob. A recent instance is the account given of Paine in\nLeslie Stephen's \"History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century.\"\nOn its appearance I recognized the old effigy of Paine elaborately\nconstructed by Oldys and Cheetham, and while writing a paper on the\nsubject (Fortnightly Review, March, 1879) discovered that those libels\nwere the only \"biographies\" of Paine in the London Library, which (as I\nknew) was used by Mr. Stephen. The result was a serious miscarriage of\nhistorical and literary justice. In his second edition Mr. Stephen adds\nthat the portrait presented \"is drawn by an enemy,\" but on this Mr.\nRobertson pertinently asks why it was allowed to stand? (\"Thomas Paine:\nan Investigation,\" by John M. Robertson, London, 1888). Mr. Stephen,\neminent as an agnostic and editor of a biographical dictionary, is\nassumed to be competent, and his disparagements of a fellow heretic\nnecessitated by verified facts. His scholarly style has given new lease\nto vulgar slanders. Some who had discovered their untruth, as uttered\nby Paine's personal enemies, have taken them back on Mr. Stephen's\nauthority. Even brave O. B. Frothingham, in his high estimate of Paine,\nintroduces one or two of Mr. Stephen's depreciations (Frothingham's\n\"Recollection and Impressions,\" 1891).\n\nThere has been a sad absence of magnanimity among eminent historians and\nscholars in dealing with Paine. The vignette in Oldys--Paine with his\n\"Rights of Man\" preaching to apes;--the Tract Society's picture of\nPaine's death-bed--hair on end, grasping a bottle,--might have excited\ntheir inquiry. Goethe, seeing Spinoza's face de-monized on a tract, was\nmoved to studies of that philosopher which ended in recognition of\nhis greatness. The chivalry of Goethe is indeed almost as rare as his\ngenius, but one might have expected in students of history an historic\ninstinct keen enough to suspect in the real Paine some proportion to\nhis monumental mythology, and the pyramidal cairn of curses covering his\ngrave. What other last-century writer on political and religious issues\nsurvives in the hatred and devotion of a time engaged with new problems?\nWhat power is confessed in that writer who was set in the place of\na decadent Satan, hostility to him being a sort of sixth point of\nCalvinism, and fortieth article of the Church? Large indeed must have\nbeen the influence of a man still perennially denounced by sectarians\nafter heretical progress has left him comparatively orthodox, and\nretained as the figure-head of \"Freethought\" after his theism has been\nabandoned by its leaders. \"Religion,\" said Paine, \"has two principal\nenemies, Fanaticism and Infidelity.\" It was his strange destiny to be\nmade a battle-field between these enemies. In the smoke of the conflict\nthe man has been hidden. In the catalogue of the British Museum Library\nI counted 327 entries of books by or concerning Thomas Paine, who in\nmost of them is a man-shaped or devil-shaped shuttlecock tossed between\nfanatical and \"infidel\" rackets.\n\nHere surely were phenomena enough to attract the historic sense of a\nscientific age, yet they are counterpart of an historic suppression of\nthe most famous author of his time. The meagre references to Paine by\nother than controversial writers are perfunctory; by most historians he\nis either wronged or ignored. Before me are two histories of \"American\nSlavery\" by eminent members of Congress; neither mentions that Paine\nwas the first political writer who advocated and devised a scheme of\nemancipation. Here is the latest \"Life of Washington\" (1889), by another\nmember of Congress, who manages to exclude even the name of the man\nwho, as we shall see, chiefly converted Washington to the cause of\nindependence. And here is a history of the \"American Revolution\" (1891),\nby John Fiske, who, while recognizing the effect of \"Common Sense,\"\nreveals his ignorance of that pamphlet, and of all Paine's works, by\ndescribing it as full of scurrilous abuse of the English people,--whom\nPaine regarded as fellow-sufferers with the Americans under royal\ndespotism.\n\nIt may be said for these contemporaries that the task of sifting out the\nfacts about Paine was formidable. The intimidated historians of the\nlast generation, passing by this famous figure, left an historic vacuum,\nwhich has been filled with mingled fact and fable to an extent hardly\nmanageable by any not prepared to give some years to the task. Our\nhistorians, might, however, have read Paine's works, which are rather\nhistorical documents than literary productions. None of them seem to\nhave done this, and the omission appears in many a flaw in their works.\nThe reader of some documents in this volume, left until now to slumber\nin accessible archives, will get some idea of the cost to historic truth\nof this long timidity and negligence. But some of the results are more\ndeplorable and irreparable, and one of these must here be disclosed.\n\nIn 1802 an English friend of Paine, Redman Yorke, visited him in Paris.\nIn a letter written at the time Yorke states that Paine had for some\ntime been preparing memoirs of his own life, and his correspondence,\nand showed him two volumes of the same. In a letter of Jan. 25, 1805,\nto Jefferson, Paine speaks of his wish to publish his works, which will\nmake, with his manuscripts, five octavo volumes of four hundred pages\neach. Besides which he means to publish \"a miscellaneous volume of\ncorrespondence, essays, and some pieces of poetry.\" He had also, he\nsays, prepared historical prefaces, stating the circumstances under\nwhich each work was written. All of which confirms Yorke's statement,\nand shows that Paine had prepared at least two volumes of autobiographic\nmatter and correspondence. Paine never carried out the design\nmentioned to Jefferson, and his manuscripts passed by bequest to Madame\nBonneville. This lady, after Paine's death, published a fragment of\nPaine's third part of \"The Age of Reason,\" but it was afterwards found\nthat she had erased passages that might offend the orthodox.\nMadame Bonneville returned to her husband in Paris, and the French\n\"Biographical Dictionary\" states that in 1829 she, as the depositary of\nPaine's papers, began \"editing\" his life. This, which could only have\nbeen the autobiography, was never published. She had become a Roman\nCatholic. On returning (1833) to America, where her son, General\nBonneville, also a Catholic, was in military service, she had personal\nas well as religious reasons for suppressing the memoirs. She might\nnaturally have feared the revival of an old scandal concerning her\nrelations with Paine. The same motives may have prevented her son from\npublishing Paine's memoirs and manuscripts. Madame Bonneville died at\nthe house of the General, in St. Louis. I have a note from his widow,\nMrs. Sue Bonneville, in which she says: \"The papers you speak of\nregarding Thomas Paine are all destroyed--at least all which the General\nhad in his possession. On his leaving St. Louis for an indefinite time\nall his effects--a handsome library and valuable papers included--were\nstored away, and during his absence the store-house burned down, and all\nthat the General stored away were burned.\"\n\nThere can be little doubt that among these papers burned in St. Louis\nwere the two volumes of Paine's autobiography and correspondence seen\nby Redman Yorke in 1802. Even a slight acquaintance with Paine's career\nwould enable one to recognize this as a catastrophe. No man was more\nintimately acquainted with the inside history of the revolutionary\nmovement, or so competent to record it. Franklin had deposited with him\nhis notes and papers concerning the American Revolution. He was the only\nGirondist who survived the French Revolution who was able to tell their\nsecret history. His personal acquaintance included nearly every great or\nfamous man of his time, in England, America, France. From this witness\nmust have come testimonies, facts, anecdotes, not to be derived from\nother sources, concerning Franklin, Goldsmith, Ferguson, Rittenhouse,\nRush, Fulton, Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, the Adamses, Lees,\nMorrises, Condorcet, Vergennes, Sieves, Lafayette, Danton, Genet,\nBrissot, Robespierre, Marat, Burke, Erskine, and a hundred others. All\nthis, and probably invaluable letters from these men, have been lost\nthrough the timidity of a woman before the theological \"boycott\" on the\nmemory of a theist, and the indifference of this country to its most\nimportant materials of History.\n\nWhen I undertook the biography of Edmund Randolph I found that the great\nmass of his correspondence had been similarly destroyed by fire in New\nOrleans, and probably a like fate will befall the Madison papers, Monroe\npapers, and others, our national neglect of which will appear criminal\nto posterity. After searching through six States to gather documents\nconcerning Randolph which should all have been in Washington City, the\nwriter petitioned the Library Committee of Congress to initiate some\naction towards the preservation of our historical manuscripts. The\nCommittee promptly and unanimously approved the proposal, a definite\nscheme was reported by the Librarian of Congress, and--there the matter\nrests. As the plan does not include any device for advancing partisan\ninterests, it stands a fair chance of remaining in our national\n_oubliette_ of intellectual _desiderata_.\n\nIn writing the \"Life of Paine\" I have not been saved much labor by\npredecessors in the same field They have all been rather controversial\npamphleteers than biographers, and I have been unable to accept any of\ntheir statements without verification. They have been useful, however,\nin pointing out regions of inquiry, and several of them--Rickman,\nSherwin, Linton--contain valuable citations from contemporary papers.\nThe truest delineation of Paine is the biographical sketch by his friend\nRickman. The \"Life\" by Vale, and sketches by Richard Carlile, Blanchard,\nand others, belong to the controversial _collectanea_ in which Paine's\nposthumous career is traceable. The hostile accounts of Paine, chiefly\nfound in tracts and encyclopaedias, are mere repetitions of those\nwritten by George Chalmers and James Cheetham.\n\nThe first of these was published in 1791 under the title: \"The Life\nof Thomas Pain, Author of 'The Rights of Men,' with a Defence of his\nWritings. By Francis Oldys, A.M., of the University of Pennsylvania.\nLondon. Printed for John Stock-dale, Pickadilly.\" This writer, who\nbegins his vivisection of Paine by accusing him of adding \"e\" to his\nname, assumed in his own case an imposing pseudonym. George Chalmers\nnever had any connection with the University of Philadelphia, nor\nany such degree. Sherwin (1819) states that Chalmers admitted having\nreceived L500 from Lord Hawksbury, in whose bureau he was a clerk,\nfor writing the book; but though I can find no denial of this I cannot\nverify it. In his later editions the author claims that his book had\nchecked the influence of Paine, then in England, and his \"Rights of\nMan,\" which gave the government such alarm that subsidies were paid\nseveral journals to counteract their effect. (See the letter of\nFreching, cited from the Vansitart Papers, British Museum, by W. H.\nSmith, in the _Century_, August, 1891.) It is noticeable that Oldys, in\nhis first edition, entitles his work a \"Defence\" of Paine's writings--a\ntrick which no doubt carried this elaborate libel into the hands of many\n\"Paineites.\" The third edition has, \"With a Review of his Writings.\"\nIn a later edition we find the vignette of Paine surrounded by apes.\nCobbett's biographer, Edward Smith, describes the book as \"one of the\nmost horrible collections of abuse which even that venal day produced.\"\nThe work was indeed so overweighted with venom that it was sinking into\noblivion when Cobbett reproduced its libels in America, for which he\ndid penance through many years. My reader will perceive, in the earlier\nchapters of this work, that Chalmers tracked Paine in England with\nenterprise, but there were few facts that he did not manage to twist\ninto his strand of slander.\n\nIn 1809, not long after Paine's death, James Cheetham's \"Life of Thomas\nPaine\" appeared in New York. Cheetham had been a hatter in Manchester,\nEngland, and would probably have continued in that respectable\noccupation had it not been for Paine. When Paine visited England\nand there published \"The Rights of Man\" Cheetham became one of his\nidolaters, took to political writing, and presently emigrated to\nAmerica. He became editor of _The American Citizen_, in New York. The\ncause of Cheetham's enmity to Paine was the discovery by the latter that\nhe was betraying the Jeffersonian party while his paper was enjoying\nits official patronage. His exposure of the editor was remorseless;\nthe editor replied with personal vituperation; and Paine was about\ninstituting a suit for libel when he died. Of Cheetham's ingenuity in\nfalsehood one or two specimens may be given. During Paine's trial\nin London, for writing \"The Rights of Man,\" a hostile witness gave\ntestimony which the judge pronounced \"impertinent\"; Cheetham prints it\n\"important\" He says that Madame de Bonneville accompanied Paine on his\nreturn from France in 1802; she did not arrive until a year later.\nHe says that when Paine was near his end Monroe wrote asking him to\nacknowledge a debt for money loaned in Paris, and that Paine made no\nreply. But before me is Monroe's statement, while President, that for\nhis advances to Paine \"no claim was ever presented on my part, nor is\nany indemnity now desired.\" Cheetham's book is one of the most malicious\never written, and nothing in it can be trusted.\n\nHaving proposed to myself to write a critical and impartial history\nof the man and his career, I found the vast Paine literature,\nhowever interesting as a shadow measuring him who cast it, containing\nconventionalized effigies of the man as evolved by friend and foe in\ntheir long struggle. But that war has ended among educated people.\nIn the laborious work of searching out the real Paine I have found\na general appreciation of its importance, and it will be seen in the\nfollowing pages that generous assistance has been rendered by English\nclergymen, by official persons in Europe and America, by persons of\nall beliefs and no beliefs. In no instance have I been impeded by any\nprejudice, religious or political. The curators of archives, private\ncollectors, owners of important documents bearing on the subject, have\nwelcomed my effort to bring the truth to light. The mass of material\nthus accumulated is great, and its compression has been a difficult\ntask. But the interest that led me to the subject has increased at\nevery step; the story has abounded in thrilling episodes and dramatic\nsurprises; and I have proceeded with a growing conviction that the\nsimple facts, dispassionately told, would prove of importance far wider\nthan Paine's personality, and find welcome with all students of history.\nI have brought to my task a love for it, the studies of some years,\nand results of personal researches made in Europe and America:\nqualifications which I countless than another which I venture to\nclaim--the sense of responsibility, acquired by a public teacher of long\nservice, for his words, which, be they truths or errors, take on life,\nand work their good or evil to all generations.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I. EARLY INFLUENCES\n\nThe history here undertaken is that of an English mechanic, of Quaker\ntraining, caught in political cyclones of the last century, and set at\nthe centre of its revolutions, in the old world and the new.\n\nIn the church register of Euston Parish, near Thetford, England, occurs\nthis entry: \"1734. Joseph Pain and Frances Cocke were married June\n20th.\" These were the parents of Thomas Paine. The present rector of\nEuston Church, Lord Charles Fitz Roy, tells me that the name is there\nplainly \"Pain,\" but in the Thetford town-records of that time it is\nofficially entered \"Joseph Paine.\"\n\nPaine and Cocke are distinguished names in the history of Norfolk\nCounty. In the sixteenth century Newhall Manor, on the road between\nThetford and Norwich, belonged to a Paine family. In 1553 Thomas Paine,\nGent., was, by license from Queen Mary, trustee for the Lady Elizabeth,\ndaughter of Henry VIII., by Queen Anne Bullen. In St. Thomas Church,\nNorwich, stands the monument of Sir Joseph Paine, Knt, the most famous\nmayor and benefactor of that city in the seventeenth century. In St.\nJohn the Baptist Church is the memorial of Justice Francis Cocke (d.\n1628). Whether our later Joseph and Thomas were related to these earlier\nPaines has not been ascertained, but Mr. E. Chester Waters, of London,\nan antiquarian especially learned in family histories, expressed to me\nhis belief that the Norfolk County Paines are of one stock. There is\nequal probability that John Cocke, Deputy Recorder of Thetford in 1629,\npretty certainly ancestor of Thomas Paine's mother, was related to\nRichard Cock, of Norwich, author of \"English Law, or a Summary Survey\nof the Household of God upon Earth\" (London, 1651). The author of \"The\nRights of Man\" may therefore be a confutation of his own dictum: \"An\nhereditary governor is as inconsistent as an hereditary author.\" One\nThomas Payne, of the Norfolk County family, was awarded L20 by the\nCouncil of State (1650) \"for his sufferings by printing a book for the\ncause of Parliament.\" Among the sequestrators of royalist church livings\nwas Charles George Cock, \"student of Christian Law, of the Society\nof the Inner Temple, now (1651) resident of Norwich.\" In Blomefields\n\"History of Norfolk County\" other notes may be found suggesting that\nwhatever may have been our author's genealogy he was spiritually\ndescended from these old radicals.\n\nAt Thetford I explored a manuscript--\"Freeman's Register Book\"\n(1610-1756)--and found that Joseph Paine (our author's father) was made\na freeman of Thetford April 18, 1737, and Henry Cock May 16,1740. The\nfreemen of this borough were then usually respectable tradesmen. Their\nprivileges amounted to little more than the right of pasturage on the\ncommons. The appointment did not imply high position, but popularity and\ninfluence. Frances Cocke had no doubt resided in Euston Parish, where\nshe was married. She was a member of the Church of England and daughter\nof an attorney of Thetford. Her husband was a Quaker and is said to have\nbeen disowned by the Society of Friends for being married by a priest. A\nsearch made for me by official members of that Society in Norfolk County\nfailed to discover either the membership or disownment of any one of the\nname. Joseph's father, a farmer, was probably a Quaker. Had the son (b.\n1708) been a Quaker by conversion he would hardly have defied the rules\nof the Society at twenty-six.\n\nJoseph was eleven years younger than his wife. According to Oldys he was\n\"a reputable citizen and though poor an honest man,\" but his wife was\n\"a woman of sour temper and an eccentric character.\" Thomas Paine's\nwritings contain several affectionate allusions to his father, but none\nto his mother. \"They say best men are moulded out of faults,\" and the\nmoulding begins before birth.\n\nThomas Paine was born January 29, 1736-7, at Thetford. The plain brick\nhouse was in Bridge Street (now White Hart) and has recently made\nway for a pretty garden. I was inclined to adopt a more picturesque\ntradition that the birthplace was in old Heathen man Street, as more\nappropriate for a _paien_ (no doubt the origin of Paine's name), who\nalso bore the name of the doubting disciple. An appeal for allowances\nmight be based on such a conjunction of auspices, but a manuscript of\nPaine's friend Rickman, just found by Dr. Clair J. Grece, identifies\nthe house beyond question.\n\nThomas Paine is said by most of his biographers to have never been\nbaptized. This rests solely on a statement by Oldys:\n\n\"It arose probably from the tenets of the father, and from the\neccentricity of the mother, that our author was never baptized, though\nhe was privately named; and never received, like true Christians, into\nthe bosom of any church, though he was indeed confirmed by the bishop\nof Norwich: This last circumstance was owing to the orthodox zeal of\nMistress Cocke, his aunt, a woman of such goodness, that though she\nlived on a small annuity, she imparted much of this little to his\nmother.\n\n\"As he was not baptized, the baptism of Thomas Pain is not entered on\nthe parish books of Thetford. It is a remarkable fact, that the leaves\nof the two registers of the parishes of St. Cuthbert's and St. Peter's,\nin Thetford, containing the marriages, births, and burials, from the end\nof 1733, to the beginning of 1737, have been completely cut out. Thus,\na felony has been committed against the public, and an injury done to\nindividuals, by a hand very malicious and wholly unknown. Whether our\nauthor, when he resided in Thetford in 1787, looked into these registers\nfor his own birth; what he saw, or what he did, we will not conjecture.\nThey contain the baptism of his sister Elizabeth, on the 28th of August,\n1738.\"\n\nThis is Oldysian. Of course, if there was any mischief Paine did it,\nalbeit against his own interests. But a recent examination shows that\nthere has been no mutilation of the registers. St Peter's and St.\nCuthbert's had at the time one minister. In 1736, just before Paine's\nbirth, the minister (John Price) died, and his successor (Thomas\nVaughan) appears to have entered on his duties in March, 1737. A little\nbefore and during this interregnum the registers were neglected. In St\nCuthbert's register is the entry: \"Elizabeth, Daughter of Joseph Payne\nand Frances his wife of this parish, was born Aug't the 29th, 1738,\nbaptized September ye 20, 1738.\" This (which Oldys has got inaccurately,\n_suo more_) renders it probable that Thomas Paine was also baptized.\nIndeed, he would hardly have been confirmed otherwise.\n\nThe old historian of Norfolk County, Francis Blomefield, introduces us\nto Thetford (Sitomagus, Tedford, Theford, \"People of the Ford\") with a\nstrain of poetry:\n\n     \"No situation but may envy thee,\n     Holding such intimacy with the sea,\n     Many do that, but my delighted muse\n     Says, Neptune's fairest daughter is the Little Ouse.\"\n\nAfter reading Blomefield's history of the ancient town, and that of\nMartin, and after strolling through the quaint streets, I thought some\npoet should add to this praise for picturesqueness some tribute\non Thetford's historic vistas. There is indeed \"a beauty buried\neverywhere,\" as Browning says.\n\nEvelyn, visiting his friend Lord Arlington at Euston in September, 1677,\nwrites:\n\n\"I went to Thetford, the Burrough Towne, where stand the ruines of a\nreligious house; there is a round mountaine artificially raised, either\nfor some castle or monument, which makes a pretty landscape. As we went\nand returned, a tumbler shew'd his extraordinary addresse in the Warren.\nI also saw the Decoy, much pleas'd with the stratagem.\"\n\nEvelyn leaves his own figure, his princely friends, and the tumbler in\nthe foreground of \"a pretty landscape\" visible to the antiquarian all\naround Thetford, whose roads, fully followed, would lead past the great\nscenes of English history. In general appearance the town (population\nunder five thousand) conveys the pleasant impression of a fairly\ncomposite picture of its eras and generations. There is a continuity\nbetween the old Grammar School, occupying the site of the ancient\ncathedral, and a new Mechanics' Institute in the old Guildhall. The\nold churches summon their flocks from eccentric streets suggestive of\nliteral sheep-paths. Of the ignorance with which our democratic age\nsweeps away as cobwebs fine threads woven by the past around the\npresent, Thetford showed few signs, but it is sad to find \"Guildhall\"\neffacing \"Heathenman\" Street, which pointed across a thousand years to\nthe march of the \"heathen men\" (Danes) of Anglo-Saxon chronicles.\n\n\"A. 870. This year the [heathen] army rode across Mer-cia into East\nAnglia, and took up their winter quarters in Thetford; and the same\nwinter King Edmund fought against them, and the Danes got the victory,\nand slew the king, and subdued all the land, and destroyed all the\nministers which they came to. The names of their chiefs who slew the\nking were Hingwar and Habba.\"\n\nIf old Heathenman Street be followed historically, it would lead to Bury\nSt. Edmunds, where, on the spot of his coronation, the young king \"was\nplaced in a goodly shrine, richly adorned with jewels and precious\nstones,\" and a royal saint added to the calendar. The blood of St.\nEdmund reconsecrated Thetford.\n\n\"A. 1094. Then at Candlemas the king [William Rufus] went to Hastings,\nand whilst he waited there for a fair wind he caused the monastery\non the field of battle to be consecrated; and he took the staff from\nHerbert Losange, bishop of Thetford.\"\n\nThe letters of this Bishop Herbert, discovered at Brussels, give him an\nhonorable place in the list of Thetford authors; wherein also occur the\nnames of Richard of Thetford, author of a treatise on preaching, Jeffrey\nde Rocherio, who began a history of the monarchy, and John Brame, writer\nand translator of various treatises. The works of these Thetford authors\nare preserved at Cambridge, England.\n\nThetford was, in a way, connected with the first newspaper enterprise.\nIts member of Parliament, Sir Joseph Williamson, edited the _London\nGazette_, established by the Crown to support its own policy. The\nCrown claimed the sole right to issue any journal, and its license was\nnecessary for every book. In 1674 Sir Joseph, being Secretary of State\n(he bought the office for L5,000), had control of the _Gazette_ and of\nliterature. In that year, when Milton died, his treatise on \"Christian\nDoctrine\" was brought to Williamson for license. He said he could\n\"countenance nothing of Milton's writings,\" and the treatise was\nlocked up by this first English editor, to be discovered a hundred and\nforty-nine years later.\n\nOn his way to the Grammar School (founded by bequest of Sir Richard\nFulmerston, 1566) Paine might daily read an inscription set in the\nFulmerston almshouse wall: \"Follow peace and holines with all men\nwithout the which no man shall see the Lord.\" But many memorials would\nremind him of how Williamson, a poor rector's son, had sold his talent\nto a political lord and reached power to buy and sell Cabinet offices,\nwhile suppressing Milton. Thomas Paine, with more talent than Williamson\nto dispose of, was born in a time semi-barbaric at its best, and savage\nat its worst. Having got in the Quaker meeting an old head on his young\nshoulders, he must bear about a burden against most things around him.\nThe old churches were satanic steeple-houses, and if he strolled over\nto that in which his parents were married, at Euston, its new splendors\nwere accused by surrounding squalor.\n\nMr. F. H. Millington of Thetford, who has told Williamson's story,* has\nmade for me a search into Paine's time there.\n\n\"In Paine's boyhood [says Mr. Millington in a letter I have from him]\nthe town (about 2,000 inhabitants) possessed a corporation with mayor,\naldermen, sword-bearers, macemen, recorder. The corporation was a\ncorrupt body, under the dominance of the Duke of Grafton, a prominent\nmember of the Whig government. Both members of Parliament (Hon. C.\nFitzroy, and Lord Augustus Fitzroy) were nominees of Grafton. The people\nhad no interest and no power, and I do not think politics were of any\naccount in Paine's childhood. From Paine's 'Rights of Man' (Part ii., p.\n108) it is clear that his native town was the model in his mind when\nhe wrote on charters and corporations. The Lent Assizes for the Eastern\nCircuit were held here, and Paine would be familiar with the procedure\nand pomp of a court of justice. He would also be familiar with the sight\nof men and women hung for trivial offences. Thetford was on the main\nroad to London, and was a posting centre.\n\n     * \"Sir Joseph Williamson, Knt., A.D. 1630-1701. A Page in\n     the History of Thetford.\"   A very valuable contribution to\n     local history.\n\nPaine would be familiar with the faces and equipages of some of the\ngreat Whig nobles in Norfolk. Walpole might pass through on his way to\nHoughton. The river Ouse was navigable to Lynn, and Paine would probably\ngo on a barge to that flourishing seaport. Bury St. Edmunds was a\nprovincial capital for the nobility and gentry of the district. It\nwas twelve miles from Thetford, and in closest connection with it The\nreligious life of Thetford would be quiet. The churches were poor,\nhaving been robbed at the reformation. The Quakers were the only\nnon-conformists in the town. There is a tradition that Wesley visited\nthe town; if he did Paine would no doubt be among his hearers. On the\nwhole, I think it easy to trace in Paine's works the influence of his\nboyhood here. He would see the corrupting influence of the aristocracy,\nthe pomp of law, the evils of the unreformed corporations; the ruins of\ngreat ecclesiastical establishments, much more perfect than now,\nwould bring to his mind what a power the church had been. Being of\na mechanical turn of mind no doubt he had often played about the\npaper-mill which was, and is, worked by water-power.\"\n\nWhen Paine was a lad the grand gentlemen who purloined parks and\nmansions from the Treasury were sending children to the gallows for\nsmall thefts instigated by hunger. In his thirteenth year he might have\nseen under the shadow of Ely Minster, in that region, the execution of\nAmy Hutchinson, aged seventeen, for poisoning her husband. \"Her face\nand hands were smeared with tar, and having a garment daubed with pitch,\nafter a short prayer the executioner strangled her, and twenty minutes\nafter the fire was kindled and burnt half an hour.\" (Notes and Queries,\n27 September, 1873.) Against the prevailing savagery a human protest\nwas rarely heard outside the Quaker meeting. Whether disowned or not,\nPaine's father remained a Quaker, and is so registered at burial;\nand his eminent son has repeatedly mentioned his own training in the\nprinciples of that Society. Remembering the extent to which Paine's\nQuakerism had influenced his political theories, and instances of their\nbearing on great events, I found something impressive in the little\nmeeting-house in Cage Lane, Thetford. This was his more important\nbirthplace. Its small windows and one door open on the tombless\ngraveyard at the back,--perhaps that they might not be smashed by the\nmob, or admit the ribaldry of the street. The interior is hardly large\nenough to seat fifty people. Plymouth Brethren have for some years\noccupied the place, but I was told that the congregation, reduced\nto four or five, would soon cease to gather there. Adjoining the\nmeeting-house, and in contact with it, stands the ancient Cage, which\nstill remains to explain the name \"Cage Lane.\" In its front are two\narches, once iron-grated; at one stood the pillory, at the other the\nstocks,--the latter remembered by some now living.\n\nOn \"first day,\" when his schoolmates went in fine clothes to grand\nchurches, to see gay people, and hear fine music, little Thomas, dressed\nin drab, crept affrighted past the stocks to his childhood's pillory in\nthe dismal meeting-house. For him no beauty or mirth, no music but the\noaths of the pilloried, or shrieks of those awaiting the gallows, There\ncould be no silent meeting in Cage Lane. Testimonies of the \"Spirit\"\nagainst inhumanity, delivered beside instruments of legal torture, bred\npity in the child, who had a poetic temperament. The earliest glimpses\nwe have of his childhood are in lines written on a fly caught in a\nspider's web, and an epitaph for a crow which he buried in the garden:\n\n     \"Here lies the body of John Crow,\n     Who once was high, but now is low;\n     Ye brother Crows take warning all,\n     For as you rise, so must you fall.\"\n\nThis was when he was eight years of age. It seems doubtful whether the\nchild was weeping or smiling, but the humor, if it be such, is grim, and\ndid not last long. He had even then already, as we shall see, gained in\nthe Quaker meeting a feeling that \"God was too good\" to redeem man\nby his son's death, as his Aunt Cocke instructed him, and a heart so\nprecocious was a sad birthright in the Thetford of that day. We look in\nvain for anything that can be described as true boyhood in Paine. Oldys\nwas informed, no doubt rightly, that \"he was deemed a sharp boy, of\nunsettled application; but he left no performances which denote juvenile\nvigour or uncommon attainments.\" There are, indeed, various indications\nthat, in one way and another, Thetford and Quakerism together managed\nto make the early years of their famous son miserable. Had there been\nno Quakerism there had been no Thomas Paine; his consciousness of this\nfinds full recognition in his works; yet he says:\n\n\"Though I reverence their philanthropy, I cannot help smiling at\nthe conceit, that if the taste of a Quaker had been consulted at the\ncreation, what a silent and drab-coloured creation it would have\nbeen! Not a flower would have blossomed its gaieties, nor a bird been\npermitted to sing.\"\n\nThere is a pathos under his smile at this conceit. Paine wrote it in\nlater life, amid the flowers and birds of his garden, which he loved,\nbut whose gaieties he could never imitate. He with difficulty freed\nhimself from his early addiction to an unfashionable garb; he rarely\nentered a theatre, and could never enjoy cards.\n\nBy the light of the foregoing facts we may appreciate the few casual\nreminiscences of his school-days found in Paine's writings:\n\n\"My parents were not able to give me a shilling, beyond what they gave\nme in education; and to do this they distressed themselves.\n\n\"My father being of the Quaker profession, it was my good fortune to\nhave an exceeding good moral education, and a tolerable stock of useful\nlearning. Though I went to the grammar school (the same school, Thetford\nin Norfolk, that the present counsellor Mingay went to, and under\nthe same master), I did not learn Latin, not only because I had no\ninclination to learn languages, but because of the objection the Quakers\nhave against the books in which the language is taught. But this did\nnot prevent me from being acquainted with the subjects of all the Latin\nbooks used in the school The natural bent of my mind was to science. I\nhad some turn, and I believe some talent, for poetry; but this I\nrather repressed than encouraged, as leading too much into the field of\nimagination.\n\n\"I happened, when a schoolboy, to pick up a pleasing natural history of\nVirginia, and my inclination from that day of seeing the western side of\nthe Atlantic never left me.\"\n\nPaine does not mention his proficiency in mathematics, for which he was\nalways distinguished. To my own mind his \"turn\" for poetry possesses\nmuch significance in the light of his career. In excluding poets from\nhis \"Republic\" Plato may have had more reasons than he has assigned.\nThe poetic temperament and power, repressed in the purely literary\ndirection, are apt to break out in glowing visions of ideal society and\nfiery denunciations of the unlovely world.\n\nPaine was not under the master of Thetford School (Colman), who taught\nLatin, but under the usher, Mr. William Knowler, who admitted the Quaker\nlad to some intimacy, and related to him his adventures while serving on\na man-of-war. Paine's father had a small farm, but he also carried on a\nstay-making business in Thetford, and his son was removed from school,\nat the age of thirteen, to be taught the art and mystery of making\nstays. To that he stuck for nearly five years. But his father became\npoorer, his mother probably more discontented, and the boy began to\ndream over the adventures of Master Knowler on a man-of-war.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II. EARLY STRUGGLES\n\nIn the middle of the eighteenth century England and France were\ncontending for empire in India and in America. For some service the\nship _Terrible_, Captain Death, was fitted out, and Thomas Paine made an\neffort to sail on her. It seems, however, that he was overtaken by his\nfather on board, and carried home again. \"From this adventure I was\nhappily prevented by the affectionate and moral remonstrances of a good\nfather, who from the habits of his life, being of the Quaker profession,\nlooked on me as lost.\" This privateer lost in an engagement one\nhundred and seventy-five of its two hundred men. Thomas was then in his\nseventeenth year. The effect of the paternal remonstrances, unsupported\nby any congenial outlook at Thetford, soon wore off, and, on the formal\ndeclaration of war against France (1756), he was again seized with the\nlonging for heroic adventure, and went to sea on the _King of Prussia_,\nprivateer, Captain Mendez. Of that he soon got enough, but he did not\nreturn home.\n\nOf Paine's adventures with the privateer there is no record. Of yet\nmore momentous events of his life for some years there is known nothing\nbeyond the barest outline. In his twentieth year he found work in London\n(with Mr. Morris, stay-maker, Hanover Street, Longacre), and there\nremained near two years. These were fruitful years. \"As soon as I\nwas able I purchased a pair of globes, and attended the philosophical\nlectures of Martin and Ferguson, and became afterwards acquainted with\nDr. Bevis, of the society called the Royal Society, then living in the\nTemple, and an excellent astronomer.\"\n\nIn 1758 Paine found employment at Dover with a stay-maker named Grace.\nIn April, 1759, he repaired to Sandwich, Kent, where he established\nhimself as a master stay-maker. There is a tradition at Sandwich that he\ncollected a congregation in his room in the market-place, and preached\nto them \"as an independent, or a Methodist\" Here, at twenty-two, he\nmarried Mary Lambert. She was an orphan and a waiting-woman to Mrs.\nRichard Solly, wife of a woollen-draper in Sandwich. The Rev. Horace\nGilder, Rector of St. Peter's, Sandwich, has kindly referred to the\nregister, and finds the entry: \"Thomas Pain, of the parish of St.\nPeters, in the town of Sandwich, in Kent, bachelor, and Mary Lambert, of\nthe same parish, spinster, were married in this church, by licence, this\n27th day of Sept., 1759, by me William Bunce, Rector.\" Signed \"Thomas\nPain, Mary Lambert In the presence of Thomas Taylor, Maria Solly, John\nJoslin.\"\n\nThe young couple began housekeeping on Dolphin Key, but Paine's business\ndid not thrive, and he went to Margate. There, in 1760, his wife died,\nPaine then concluded to abandon the stay-making business. His wife's\nfather had once been an exciseman. Paine resolved to prepare himself\nfor that office, and corresponded with his father on the subject. The\nproject found favor, and Paine, after passing some months of study in\nLondon, returned to Thetford in July, 1761. Here, while acting as a\nsupernumerary officer of excise, he continued his studies, and enjoyed\nthe friendship of Mr. Cock-sedge, the Recorder of Thetford. On 1\nDecember, 1762, he was appointed to guage brewers' casks at Grantham. On\n8 August, 1764, he was set to watch smugglers at Alford.\n\nThus Thomas Paine, in his twenty-fifth year, was engaged in executing\nExcise Acts, whose application to America prepared the way for\nindependence. Under pressure of two great hungers--for bread, for\nscience--the young exciseman took little interest in politics. \"I had\nno disposition for what is called politics. It presented to my mind\nno other idea than is contained in the word jockey-ship.\" The excise,\nthough a Whig measure, was odious to the people, and smuggling was\nregarded as not only venial but clever. Within two years after an excise\nof L1 per gallon was laid on spirits (1746), twelve thousand persons\nwere convicted for offences against the Act, which then became a dead\nletter. Paine's post at Alford was a dangerous one. The exciseman who\npounced on a party of smugglers got a special reward, but he risked\nhis life. The salary was only fifty pounds, the promotions few, and the\nexcise service had fallen into usages of negligence and corruption to\nwhich Paine was the first to call public attention. \"After tax, charity,\nand fitting expenses are deducted, there remains very little more than\nforty-six pounds; and the expenses of housekeeping in many places cannot\nbe brought under fourteen pounds a year, besides the purchase at first,\nand the hazard of life, which reduces it to thirty-two pounds per annum,\nor one shilling and ninepence farthing per day.\"\n\nIt is hardly wonderful that Paine with his globes and scientific books\nshould on one occasion have fallen in with the common practice of\nexcisemen called \"stamping,\"--that is, setting down surveys of work on\nhis books, at home, without always actually travelling to the traders'\npremises and examining specimens. These detective rounds were generally\noffensive to the warehouse people so visited, and the scrutiny had\nbecome somewhat formal. For this case of \"stamping,\" frankly confessed,\nPaine was discharged from office, 27 August, 1765.*\n\n     *  I am indebted to Mr. G. J. Holyoake for documents that\n     shed full light on an incident which Oldys has carefully\n     left in the half-light congenial to his insinuations. The\n     minute of the Board of Excise, dated 27 August, 1765, is as\n     follows:\n\n\"Thomas Paine, officer of Alford (Lincolnshire), Grantham collection,\nhaving on July 11th stamped the whole ride, as appears by the specimens\nnot being signed in any part thereof, though proper entry was shown in\njournal, and the victuallers stocks drawn down in his books as if the\nsame had been surveyed that day, as by William Swallow, Supervisor's\nletter of 3rd instant, and the collector's report thereon, also by\nthe said Paine's own confession of the 13th instant, ordered to be\ndischarged; that Robert Peat, dropped malt assistant in Lynn collection,\nsucceed him.\"\n\nThe following is Paine's petition for restoration:\n\n\"London, July 3, 1766. Honourable Sirs,--In humble obedience to your\nhonours' letter of discharge hearing date August 29, 1765, I delivered\nup my commission and since that time have given you no trouble. I\nconfess the justice of your honours' displeasure and humbly beg to add\nmy thanks for the candour and lenity with which you at that unfortunate\ntime indulged me. And though the nature of the report and my own\nconfession cut off all expectations of enjoying your honours' favour\nthen, yet I humbly hope it has not finally excluded me therefrom, upon\nwhich hope I humbly presume to entreat your honours to restore me.\nThe time I enjoyed my former commission was short and unfortunate--an\nofficer only a single year. No complaint of the least dishonesty or\nintemperance ever appeared against me; and, if I am so happy as to\nsucceed in this, my humble petition, I will endeavour that my future\nconduct shall as much engage your honours' approbation as my former\nhas merited your displeasure. I am, your honours' most dutiful humble\nservant, Thomas Paine.\"\n\nBoard's minute: \"July 4, 1766. Ordered that he be restored on a proper\nvacancy.\"\n\nMr. S. F. Dun, for thirty-three years an officer of excise, discovered\nthe facts connected with Paine's discharge, and also saw Paine's letter\nand entry books. In a letter before me he says: \"I consider Mr. Paine's\nrestoration as creditable to him as to the then Board of Excise.\"\n\nAfter Paine's dismission he supported himself as a journeyman with\nMr. Gudgeon, a stay-maker of Diss, Norfolk, where he is said to have\nfrequently quarrelled with his fellow-workmen. To be cast back on the\nodious work, to be discharged and penniless at twenty-eight, could\nhardly soothe the poor man's temper, and I suppose he did not remain\nlong at Diss. He is traceable in 1766 in Lincolnshire, by his casual\nmention of the date in connection with an incident related in his\nfragment on \"Forgetfulness.\" He was on a visit at the house of a widow\nlady in a village of the Lincolnshire fens, and as they were walking in\nthe garden, in the summer evening, they beheld at some distance a white\nfigure moving. He quitted Mrs. E. and pursued the figure, and when he\nat length reached out his hand, \"the idea struck me,\" he says, \"will my\nhand pass through the air, or shall I feel anything?\" It proved to be\na love-distracted maiden who, on hearing of the marriage of one she\nsupposed her lover, meant to drown herself in a neighboring pond.\n\nThat Thomas Paine should sue for an office worth, beyond its\nexpenses, thirty-two pounds, argues not merely penury, but an amazing\nunconsciousness, in his twenty-ninth year, of his powers. In London,\nfor some months there stood between him and starvation only a salary of\ntwenty-five pounds, given him by a Mr. Noble for teaching English in his\nacademy in Goodman's Fields. This was the year 1766, for though Paine\nwas restored to the excise on July 11th of this year no place was found\nfor him. In January, 1767, he was employed by Mr. Gardiner in his school\nat Kensington. Rickman and others have assigned to this time Paine's\nattendance of lectures at the Royal Society, which I have however\nconnected with his twentieth year. He certainly could not have afforded\nglobes during this pauperized year 1766. In reply to Rickman's allusion\nto the lowly situations he had been in at this time, Paine remarked:\n\"Here I derived considerable information; indeed I have seldom passed\nfive minutes of my life, however circumstanced, in which I did not\nacquire some knowledge.\"\n\nAccording to Oldys he remained in the school at Kensington but three\nmonths. \"His desire of preaching now returned on him,\" says the same\nauthor, \"but applying to his old master for a certificate of his\nqualifications, to the bishop of London, Mr. Noble told his former\nusher, that since he was only an English scholar he could not recommend\nhim as a proper candidate for ordination in the church.\" It would thus\nappear that Paine had not parted from his employer in Goodman's Fields\nin any unpleasant way. Of his relation with his pupils only one trace\nremains--a letter in which he introduces one of them to General Knox,\nSeptember 17, 1783: \"Old friend, I just take the opportunity of sending\nmy respects to you by Mr. Darby, a gentleman who was formerly a pupil of\nmine in England.\"\n\nOldys says that Paine, \"without regular orders,\" preached in Moorfields\nand elsewhere in England, \"as he was urged by his necessities or\ndirected by his spirit.\" Although Paine's friendly biographers have\nomitted this preaching episode, it is too creditable to Paine's standing\nwith the teacher with whom he had served a year for Oldys to have\ninvented it. It is droll to think that the Church of England should ever\nhave had an offer of Thomas Paine's services. The Quakerism in which he\nhad been nurtured had never been formally adopted by him, and it offered\nno opportunities for the impulse to preach which seems to mark a phase\nin the life of every active English brain.\n\nOn May 15, 1767, Paine was appointed excise officer at Grampound,\nCornwall, but \"prayed leave to wait another vacancy.\" On February 19,\n1768, he was appointed officer at Lewes, Sussex, whither, after a brief\nvisit to Thetford, he repaired.\n\nNot very unlike the old Norfolk borough in which Paine was born was\nLewes, and with even literally an Ouse flowing through it Here also\nmarched the \"Heathen Men,\" who have left only the legend of a wounded\nson of Harold nursed into health by a Christian maiden. The ruined\ncastle commands a grander landscape than the height of Thetford, and\nmuch the same historic views. Seven centuries before Paine opened his\noffice in Lewes came Harold's son, possibly to take charge of the excise\nas established by Edward the Confessor, just deceased.\n\n\"Paine\" was an historic name in Lewes also. In 1688 two French refugees,\nWilliam and Aaron Paine, came to the ancient town, and found there as\nmuch religious persecution as in France. It was directed chiefly against\nthe Quakers. But when Thomas Paine went to dwell there the Quakers\nand the \"powers that be\" had reached a _modus vivendi_, and the new\nexciseman fixed his abode with a venerable Friend, Samuel Ollive,\na tobacconist. The house then adjoined a Quaker meetinghouse, now a\nUnitarian chapel. It is a quaint house, always known and described as\n\"the house with the monkey on it.\" The projecting roof is supported by\na female nondescript rather more human than anthropoid. I was politely\nshown through the house by its occupant, Mr. Champion, and observed in\nthe cellar traces of Samuel Ollive's--afterward Paine's--tobacco mill.\nThe best room upstairs long bore on its wall \"Tom Paine's study.\" The\nplaster has now flaked off, but the proprietor, Mr. Alfred Hammond, told\nme that he remembers it there in 1840. Not far from the house is the old\nmansion of the Shelleys,--still called \"The Shelleys,\"--ancestors of a\npoet born with the \"Rights of Man,\" and a child of Paine's revolution.\nAnd--such are the moral zones and poles in every English town--here in\nthe graveyard of Jireh Chapel--is the tomb of William Huntington S. S.\n[Sinner Saved] bearing this epitaph:\n\n\"Here lies the Coalheaver, beloved of God, but abhorred of men: the\nomniscient Judge, at the grand assize, shall ratify and confirm that to\nthe confusion of many thousands; for England and its metropolis shall\nknow that there hath been a prophet among them. W. H: S. S.\"\n\nWhile Paine was at Lewes this Hunt _alias_ Huntington was a pious tramp\nin that part of England, well known to the police. Yet in his rubbish\nthere is one realistic story of tramp-life which incidentally portrays\nan exciseman of the time. Huntington (born 1744), one of the eleven\nchildren of a day-laborer earning from seven to nine shillings a week in\nKent, was sent by some friends to an infant school.\n\n\"And here I remember to have heard my mistress reprove me for something\nwrong, telling me that God Almighty took notice of children's sins. It\nstuck to my conscience a great while; and who this God Almighty could be\nI could not conjecture; and how he could know my sins without asking\nmy mother I could not conceive. At that time there was a person named\nGodfrey, an exciseman in the town, a man of a stern and hard-favoured\ncountenance, whom I took notice of for having a stick covered with\nfigures, and an ink-bottle hanging at the button-hole of his coat. I\nimagined that man to be employed by God Almighty to take notice,\nand keep an account of children's sins; and once I got into the\nmarket-house, and watched him very narrowly, and found that he was\nalways in a hurry by his walking so fast; and I thought he had need\nto hurry, as he must have a deal to do to find out all the sins of\nchildren. I watched him out of one shop into another, all about the\ntown, and from that time eyed him as a most formidable being, and the\ngreatest enemy I had in all the world.\"\n\nTo the shopkeepers this exciseman was really an adversary and an\naccuser, and one can well believe that his very physiognomy would be\naffected by such work, and the chronic consciousness of being unwelcome.\nWe may picture Paine among the producers of Lewes--with but four or five\nthousand people, then a notorious seat of smugglers--with his stick and\nink-bottle; his face prematurely aged, and gathering the lines and\nthe keen look which mask for casual eyes the fundamental candor and\nkindliness of his face.\n\nPaine's surveys extended to Brighton; the brilliant city of our time\nbeing then a small fishing-town known as Brighthelmston. It was scarce\nten miles distant, and had no magistrates, offenders being taken to\nLewes. There was a good deal of religious excitement in the neighborhood\nabout the time Paine went there to reside, owing to the preaching of\nRev. George Whitefield, chaplain of Lady Huntingdon, at a chapel\nbuilt by her ladyship at Brighthelmston. Lady Huntingdon already had a\nquasi-miraculous fame which in Catholic times would have caused her\nto be honored as St. Selina. In those days a pious countess was more\nmiraculous than the dream that foretold about Lady Huntingdon's coming.\nSurrounded by crowds, she had to send for her chaplain, Whitefield,\nwho preached in a field till a chapel was built. At the time when Lady\nHuntingdon was exhorting the poor villagers of Brighton, two relatives\nof hers, Governor Shirley of Massachusetts and his aide-de-camp Colonel\nGeorge Washington, were preparing the way for the great events in which\nPaine was to bear a part.\n\nWhen Paine went on his survey he might have observed the Washington\nmotto, possibly a trace of the pious countess, which long remained on a\nhouse in Brighton: _Exitus acta probat_. There was an ancient Washington\nwho fought at the battle of Lewes; but probably if our exciseman ever\nthought of any Washington at all it was of the anomalous Colonel in\nVirginia founding a colonial association to disuse excisable articles\nimported from England. But if such transatlantic phenomena, or the\npreaching of Whitefield in the neighborhood, concerned Paine at all,\nno trace of their impression is now discoverable. And if there were any\nprotest in him at that time, when the English government had reached\nits nadir of corruption, it cannot be heard. He appears to have been\nconventionally patriotic, and was regarded as the Lewes laureate. He\nwrote an election song for the Whig candidate at New Shoreham, for which\nthe said candidate, (Rumbold by name) paid him three guineas; and he\nwrote a song on the death of General Wolfe, which, when published some\nyears later, was set to music, and enjoyed popularity in the Anacreontic\nand other societies. While Britannia mourns for her Wolfe, the sire\nof the gods sends his messengers to console \"the disconsolate dame,\"\nassuring her that her hero is not dead but summoned to lead \"the armies\nabove\" against the proud giants marching against Heaven.\n\nThe ballad recalls Paine the _paien_, but the Thetford Quaker is not\napparent. And, indeed, there are various indications about this time\nthat some reaction had set in after the preaching phase.\n\n\"Such was his enterprise on the water,\" says Oldys, \"and his intrepidity\non the ice that he became known by the appellation of _Commodore_\"\nWilliam Carver (MS.) says he was at this time \"tall and slim, about five\nfeet eight inches.\"\n\nAt Lewes, where the traditions concerning Paine are strong, I met Miss\nRickman, a descendant of Thomas \"Clio\" Rickman--the name Clio, under\nwhich his musical contributions to the Revolution were published, having\nbecome part of his name. Rickman was a youth in the Lewes of Paine's\ntime, and afterwards his devoted friend. His enthusiasm was represented\nin children successively named Paine, Washington, Franklin, Rousseau,\nPetrarch, Volney. Rickman gives an account of Paine at Lewes:\n\n\"In this place he lived several years in habits of intimacy with a\nvery respectable, sensible, and convivial set of acquaintance, who were\nentertained with his witty sallies and informed by his more serious\nconversations. In politics he was at this time a Whig, and notorious\nfor that quality which has been defined perseverance in a good cause\nand obstinacy in a bad one. He was tenacious of his opinions, which\nwere bold, acute, and independent, and which he maintained with ardour,\nelegance, and argument. At this period, at Lewes, the White Hart evening\nclub was the resort of a social and intelligent circle who, out of fun,\nseeing that disputes often ran very warm and high, frequently had what\nthey called the 'Headstrong Book.' This was no other than an old Greek\nHomer which was sent the morning after a debate vehemently maintained,\nto the most obstinate haranguer in the Club: this book had the following\ntitle, as implying that Mr. Paine the best deserved and the most\nfrequently obtained it: 'The Headstrong Book, or Original Book of\nObstinacy.' Written by -------- ------ of Lewes, in Sussex, and Revised\nand Corrected by Thomas Paine.\n\n\"'Immortal Paine, while mighty reasoners jar, We crown thee General of\nthe Headstrong War; Thy logic vanquish'd error, and thy mind No bounds\nbut those of right and truth confined. Thy soul of fire must sure ascend\nthe sky, Immortal Paine, thy fame can never die; For men like thee their\nnames must ever save From the black edicts of the tyrant grave.'\n\n\"My friend Mr. Lee, of Lewes, in communicating this to me in September,\n1810, said: 'This was manufactured nearly forty years ago, as applicable\nto Mr. Paine, and I believe you will allow, however indifferent\nthe manner, that I did not very erroneously anticipate his future\ncelebrity.'\"\n\nIt was probably to amuse the club at the White Hart, an ancient tavern,\nthat Paine wrote his humorous poems.\n\nOn the 26 March, 1771, Paine married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel\nOllive, with whom he had lodged. This respected citizen had died\nin July, 1769, leaving in Lewes a widow and one daughter in poor\ncircumstances. Paine then took up his abode elsewhere, but in the\nfollowing year he joined the Ollives in opening a shop, and the\ntobacco-mill went on as before. His motive was probably compassion, but\nit brought him into nearer acquaintance with the widow and her daughter.\nElizabeth is said to have been pretty, and, being of Quaker parentage,\nshe was no doubt fairly educated. She was ten years younger than Paine,\nand he was her hero. They were married in St. Michael's Church, Lewes,\non the 26th of March, 1771, by Robert Austen, curate, the witnesses\nbeing Henry Verrall and Thomas Ollive, the lady's brother.\n\nOldys is constrained to give Paine's ability recognition. \"He had risen\nby superior energy, more than by greater honesty, to be a chief among\nthe excisemen.\" They needed a spokesman at that time, being united in an\nappeal to Parliament to raise their salaries, and a sum of money, raised\nto prosecute the matter, was confided to Paine. In 1772 he prepared the\ndocument, which was printed, but not published until 1793.* Concerning\nthe plea for the excisemen it need only be said that it is as clear and\ncomplete as any lawyer could make it. There was, of course, no room for\noriginality in the simple task of showing that the ill-paid service must\nbe badly done, but the style is remarkable for simplicity and force.\n\nPaine put much time and pains into this composition, and passed the\nwhole winter of 1772-3 trying to influence members of Parliament and\nothers in favor of his cause. \"A rebellion of the excisemen,\" says\nOldys, \"who seldom have the populace on their side, was not much feared\nby their superiors.\" Paine's pamphlet and two further leaflets of his\nwere printed. The best result of his pamphlet was to secure him an\nacquaintance with Oliver Goldsmith, to whom he addressed the following\nletter:\n\n     * The document was revived as a pamphlet, though its subject\n     was no longer of interest, at a time when Paine's political\n     writings were under prosecution, and to afford a vehicle for\n     an \"introduction,\" which gives a graphic account of Paine's\n     services in the United States. On a copy of this London\n     edition (1793) before me, one of a number of Paine's early\n     pamphlets bearing marks of his contemporary English editor,\n     is written with pencil: \"With a preface (Qy. J. Barlow).\"\n     From this, and some characteristics of the composition, I\n     have no doubt that the vigorous introduction was Barlow's.\n     The production is entitled, \"The Case of the Officers of\n     Excise; with remarks on the qualifications of Officers;\n     and of the numerous evils arising to the Revenue, from the\n     insufficiency of the present salary. Humbly addressed to the\n     Hon. and Right Hon. Members of both Houses of Parliament.\"\n\n\"Honored Sir,--Herewith I present you with the Case of the Officers of\nExcise. A compliment of this kind from an entire stranger may appear\nsomewhat singular, but the following reasons and information will, I\npresume, sufficiently apologize. I act myself in the humble station of\nan officer of excise, though somewhat differently circumstanced to what\nmany of them are, and have been the principal promoter of a plan\nfor applying to Parliament this session for an increase of salary. A\npetition for this purpose has been circulated through every part of the\nkingdom, and signed by all the officers therein. A subscription of\nthree shillings per officer is raised, amounting to upwards of L500,\nfor supporting the expenses. The excise officers, in all cities and\ncorporate towns, have obtained letters of recommendation from the\nelectors to the members in their behalf, many or most of whom have\npromised their support. The enclosed case we have presented to most of\nthe members, and shall to all, before the petition appear in the\nHouse. The memorial before you met with so much approbation while in\nmanuscript, that I was advised to print 4000 copies; 3000 of which were\nsubscribed for the officers in general, and the remaining 1000 reserved\nfor presents. Since the delivering them I have received so many letters\nof thanks and approbation for the performance, that were I not rather\nsingularly modest, I should insensibly become a little vain. The\nliterary fame of Dr. Goldsmith has induced me to present one to him,\nsuch as it is. It is my first and only attempt, and even now I should\nnot have undertaken it, had I not been particularly applied to by some\nof my superiors in office. I have some few questions to trouble Dr.\nGoldsmith with, and should esteem his company for an hour or two, to\npartake of a bottle of wine, or any thing else, and apologize for this\ntrouble, as a singular favour conferred on His unknown\n\n\"Humble servant and admirer,\n\n\"Thomas Paine.\n\n\"Excise Coffee House,\n\n\"Broad Street, Dec. 21, 1772.\n\n\"P. S. Shall take the liberty of waiting on you in a day or two.\"'\n\n\n     * Goldsmith responded to Paine's desire for his acquaintance.\n     I think Paine may be identified as the friend to whom\n     Goldsmith, shortly before his death, gave the epitaph first\n     printed in Paine's Pennsylvania Magaritu, January, 1775,\n     beginning,\n\n          \"Here Whitefoord reclines, and deny it who can,\n          Though he merrily lived he is now a grave man.\"\n\n     In giving it Goldsmith said, \"It will be of no use to me\n     where I am going.\"\n\n     I am indebted for these records to the Secretary of Inland\n     Revenue, England, and to my friend, Charles Macrae, who\n     obtained them for me.\n\nTo one who reads Paine's argument, it appears wonderful that a man of\nsuch ability should, at the age of thirty-five, have had his horizon\nfilled with such a cause as that of the underpaid excisemen, Unable to\nget the matter before Parliament, he went back to his tobacco-mill in\nLewes, and it seemed to him like the crack of doom when, 8 April, 1774,\nhe was dismissed from the excise. The cause of Paine's second dismission\nfrom the excise being ascribed by his first biographer (Oldys) to\nhis dealing in smuggled tobacco, without contradiction by Paine, his\nadmirers have been misled into a kind of apology for him on account of\nthe prevalence of the custom. But I have before me the minutes of\nthe Board concerning Paine, and there is no hint whatever of any such\naccusation. The order of discharge from Lewes is as follows:\n\n\"Friday 8th April 1774. Thomas Pain, Officer of Lewes 4th O. Ride Sussex\nCollection having quitted his Business, without obtaining the Board's\nLeave for so doing, and being gone off on Account of the Debts which he\nhath contracted, as by Letter of the 6th instant from Edward Clifford,\nSupervisor, and the said Pain having been once before Discharged,\nOrdered that he be again discharged.\"\n\nIn Paine's absence in London, writing his pleas for the excisemen,\nlaboring with members of Parliament, his tobacco-mill had been still,\nhis groceries unsold, and his wife and her mother had been supported\nfrom the bank of flattering hope. No sooner was it known that the\nhope of an increased salary for the exciseman had failed than he found\nhimself in danger of arrest for debt. It was on this account that he\nleft Lewes for a time, but it was only that he might take steps to\nmake over all of his possessions to his creditors. This was done. The\nfollowing placard appeared:\n\n\"To be sold by auction, on Thursday the 14th of April, and following\nday, all the household furniture, stock in trade and other effects of\nThomas Pain, grocer and tobacconist, near the West Gate, in Lewes:\nAlso a horse tobacco and snuff mill, with all the utensils for\ncutting tobacco and grinding off snuff; and two unopened crates of\ncream-coloured stone ware.\"\n\nThis sale was announced by one Whitfield, grocer, and if there were\nother creditors they were no doubt paid by the results, for Paine had\nno difficulty in returning to Lewes. He once more had to petition\nthe Board, which shortly before had commended his assiduity. Its\ncommissioner, George Lewis Scott, labored in his behalf. In vain.\nWhether it was because it was a rule that a second discharge should be\nfinal, or that his failure to move Parliament had made him a scapegoat\nfor the disappointed excisemen, his petition was rejected. At\nthirty-seven Paine found himself penniless.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III. DOMESTIC TROUBLE\n\nThe break-up of Paine's business at Lewes brought to a head a more\nserious trouble. On June 4th of the same miserable year, 1774, Paine and\nhis wife formally separated.\n\nThe causes of their trouble are enveloped in mystery. It has been stated\nby both friendly and hostile biographers that there was from the first\nno cohabitation, and that concerning the responsibility for this neither\nof them was ever induced to utter a word. Even his friend Rickman was\nwarned off the subject by Paine, who, in reply to a question as to the\nreason of the separation, said: \"It is nobody's business but my own; I\nhad cause for it, but I will name it to no one.\"\n\nWilliam Huntington, in his \"Kingdom of Heaven,\" mentions a usage of some\nQuakers in his time, \"that when a young couple are espoused, they are to\nbe kept apart for a season to mourn\"; this being their interpretation of\nZech. xii., 12-14. As Huntington was mainly acquainted with this Sussex\nregion, it is not inconceivable that Elizabeth Ollive held some such\nnotion, and that this led to dissension ending in separation. Nor is it\ninconceivable that Paine himself, finding his excise office no support,\nand his shop a failure, resolved that no offspring should suffer his\npenury or increase it. It is all mere guesswork.\n\nMr. Alfred Hammond, of Lewes, who owns the property, showed me the\ndocuments connected with it. After the death of Samuel Ollive in 1769,\nEsther, his widow, enjoyed the messuage until her own death, in 1800,\nwhen a division among the heirs became necessary. Among the documents is\none which recites some particulars of the separation between Paine and\nhis wife.\n\n\"Soon after the Testator's death, his daughter Elizabeth married Thos.\nPain from whom she afterwards lived separate under articles dated 4th\nJune 1774, and made between the said Thos. Pain of the first part, the\nsaid Elizabeth of the 2nd part, and the Rev. James Castley, Clerk,\nof the 3d part. by which Articles, after reciting (inter alia) that\nDissentions had arisen between the said Thos. Pain and Elizabeth his\nwife, and that they had agreed to live separate. And also reciting the\nWill of the said Saml. Ollive and that the said Thomas Pain had agreed\nthat the said Elizabeth should have and take her share of the said\nMonies of the said House when the same should become due and payable and\nthat he would give any Discharge that should then be required to and\nfor the use of the said Elizabeth: The said Thos. Pain did covenant to\npermit the said Elizabeth to live separate from him and to carry on\nsuch Trade and Business as she should think fit, notwithstanding her\ncoverture and as if she were a Feme. Sole. And that he would not at\nany time thereafter claim or demand the said monies which she should\nbe entitled to at the time of the sale of the said House in Lewes\naforesaid, or any of the Monies Rings Plate Cloathes Linen Woollen\nHousehold Goods or Stock in Trade which the said Elizabeth should or\nmight at any time thereafter buy or purchase or which should be devised\nor given to her or she should otherwise acquire and that she should and\nmight enjoy and absolutely dispose of the same as if she were a Feme.\nSole and unmarried. And also that it should and might be lawful for\nthe said Elizabeth to have receive and take to her own separate use\nand benefit her said share of the Monies for which the said Messuage\nor Tenement in Lewes should be sold when the same should become due and\npayable.\"\n\nAnother paper is a Release to Francis Mitchener, October 14, 1800, in\nwhich it is recited:\n\n\"That the said Elizabeth Pain had ever since lived separate from him the\nsaid Thos. Pain, and never had any issue, and the said Thomas Pain had\nmany years quitted this kingdom and resided (if living) in parts beyond\nthe seas, but had not since been heard of by the said Elizabeth Pain,\nnor was it known for certain whether he was living or dead.\"\n\nThis release is signed by Robert Blackman and wife, and eight others,\namong these being the three children of Samuel Ollive, who under his\nwill were to \"share alike \"--Samuel, Thomas, and Elizabeth (Mrs.\nPaine). The large seals attached to the signatures were fortunately\nwell preserved, for each represents the head of Thomas Paine. By the\nassistance of Mr. Hammond I am able to present this little likeness of\nPaine that must have been made when he was about thirty-five, or nearly\ntwenty years earlier than any other portrait of him. The reader must\nform his own conjecture as to the origin of this seal, its preservation\nby the wife, and use on this document At this time, and probably since\nher separation, Elizabeth Paine would appear to have resided with her\nbrother Thomas, a watchmaker in Cranbrook, Kent. That she and the family\ndid not know Paine's whereabouts in 1800, or whether he were dead or\nalive, argues that they had not followed his career or the course of\npublic events with much interest. One would be glad to believe that\nElizabeth cherished kindly remembrance of the man who considering his\nforlorn condition, had certainly shown generosity in the justice with\nwhich he renounced all of his rights in the property she had brought\nhim, and whose hand she might naturally have suspected behind the monies\nanonymously sent her. We will therefore hope that it was from some other\nmember of the family that Oldys obtained,--unless, like his \"A. M. of\nthe University of Philadelphia,\" it was invented,--the letter said to\nhave been written by Paine's mother to his wife.*\n\n     * \"Thetpord, Norfolk, 27th July, 1774. Dear Daughter,--I\n     must beg leave to trouble you with my inquiries concerning\n     my unhappy son and your husband: various are the reports,\n     which I find come originally from the Excise-office. Such as\n     his vile treatment to you, his secreting upwards of 30L.\n     intrusted with him to manage the petition for advance of\n     salary; and that since his discharge, he have petitioned to\n     be restored, which was rejected with scorn. Since which I am\n     told he have left England. To all which I beg you'll be kind\n     enough to answer me by due course of post.--You 'll not be\n     a little surprized at my so strongly desiring to know what's\n     become of him after I repeat to you his undutiful behavior\n     to the tenderest of parents; he never asked of us anything,\n     but what was granted, that were in our poor abilities to do;\n     nay, even distressed ourselves, whose works are given over\n     by old age, to let him have 20L. on bond, and every other\n     tender mark a parent could possibly shew a child; his\n     ingratitude, or rather want of duty, has been such, that he\n     have not wrote to me upwards of two years.--If the above\n     account be true, I am heartily sorry, that a woman whose\n     character and amiableness deserves the greatest respect,\n     love, and esteem, as I have always on enquiry been informed\n     yours did, should be tied for life to the worst of husbands.\n     I am, dear daughter, your affectionate mother,\n\n     \"F. Pain.\n\n     \"P. S. For God's sake, let me have your answer, as I am\n     almost distracted.\"\n\n\nThe letter may have been manipulated, but it is not improbable that\nrumors, \"exaggerated by enmity or misstated by malice,\" as Oldys\nconfesses, elicited some such outburst from Thetford.* The excisemen,\nangry at the failure to get their case before Parliament, and having\nfixed on Paine as their scapegoat, all other iniquities were naturally\nlaid on him. Eighteen years later, when the scapegoat who had gone into\nthe American wilderness returned with the renown of having helped to\nmake it a nation, he addressed a letter to Lewes, which was about\nto hold a meeting to respond to a royal proclamation for suppressing\nseditious writings. His tone is not that of a man who supposed that\nLewes had aught against him on the score of his wife.\n\n\"It is now upwards of eighteen years since I was a resident inhabitant\nof the town of Lewes. My situation among you as an officer of the\nrevenue, for more than six years, enabled me to see into the numerous\nand various distresses which the weight of taxes even at that time of\nday occasioned; and feeling, as I then did, and as it is natural for\nme to do, for the hard condition of others, it is with pleasure I can\ndeclare, and every person then under my survey, and now living, can\nwitness the exceeding candor, and even tenderness, with which that part\nof the duty that fell to my share was executed. The name of Thomas Paine\nis not to be found in the records of the Lewes justices, in any one\nact of contention with, or severity of any kind whatever towards, the\npersons whom he surveyed, either in the town or in the country; of this\nMr. Fuller and Mr. Shelley, who will probably attend the meeting, can,\nif they please, give full testimony. It is, however, not in their power\nto contradict it. Having thus indulged myself in recollecting a place\nwhere I formerly had, and even now have, many friends, rich and poor,\nand most probably some enemies.\n\n     * When Paine had the money he did forward twenty pounds to\n     his parents, and made provision for his mother when she was\n     a widow. As to writing to her, in those unhappy years, he\n     probably thought it better to keep his burdens to himself.\n     He may also have been aware of his mother's severity without\n     knowing her interest in him.\n\nI proceed to the import of my letter. Since my departure from Lewes,\nfortune or providence has thrown me into a line of action which my first\nsetting out in life could not possibly have suggested to me. Many of\nyou will recollect that, whilst I resided among you, there was not a man\nmore firm and open in supporting the principles of liberty than myself,\nand I still pursue, and ever will, the same path.\"\n\nFinally, it should be added that Rickman, a truthful man, who admits\nPaine's faults, says: \"This I can assert, that Mr. Paine always spoke\ntenderly and respectfully of his wife; and sent her several times\npecuniary aid, without her knowing even whence it came.\"\n\nWhile Paine was in London, trying to get before Parliament a measure\nfor the relief of excisemen, he not only enjoyed the friendship of\nGoldsmith, but that of Franklin. In the Doctor's electrical experiments\nhe took a deep interest; for Paine was devoted to science, and the\nextent of his studies is attested by his description of a new electrical\nmachine and other scientific papers, signed \"Atlanticus,\" in the\n_Pennsylvania Magazine_, The sale of his effects in Lewes paid his\ndebts, but left him almost penniless. He came to London, and how he\nlived is unknown--that is, physically, for we do find some intimation of\nhis mental condition. In a letter written many years after to John King,\na political renegade, Paine says:\n\n\"When I first knew you in Ailiffe-street, an obscure part of the City,\na child, without fortune or friends, I noticed you; because I thought\nI saw in you, young as you was, a bluntness of temper, a boldness of\nopinion, and an originality of thought, that portended some future\ngood. I was pleased to discuss, with you, under our friend _Oliver's_\nlime-tree, those political notions, which I have since given the world\nin my 'Rights of Man.' You used to complain of abuses, as well as me,\nand write your opinions on them in free terms--What then means this\nsudden attachment to _Kings_?\"\n\nThis \"Oliver\" was probably the famous Alderman Oliver who was imprisoned\nin the Tower during the great struggle of the City with the Government,\non account of Wilkes. Paine tells us that in early life he cared little\nfor politics, which seemed to him a species of \"jockeyship\"; and how apt\nthe term is shown by the betting-book kept at Brooks' Club, in which\nare recorded the bets of the noblemen and politicians of the time on the\noutcome of every motion and course of every public man or minister. But\nthe contemptuous word proves that Paine was deeply interested in\nthe issues which the people had joined with the king and his servile\nministers. He could never have failed to read with excitement the\nletters of Junius, whose \"brilliant pen,\" he afterwards wrote,\n\"enraptured without convincing; and though in the plenitude of its rage\nit might be said to give elegance to bitterness, yet the policy survived\nthe blast.\" We may feel sure that he had heard with joy that adroit\nverdict of the jury at the King's Bench on Woodfall, Junius' printer,\nwhich secured liberty of the press until, twenty-two years later, it was\nreversed by revolutionary panic, in the same court, for Paine himself.\nNotwithstanding the private immorality of Wilkes, in which his\nassociates were aristocratic, the most honorable political elements\nin England, and the Independents and Presbyterians, were resolute in\ndefending the rights of his constituents against the authority arrogated\nby the Commons to exclude him. Burke then stood by Wilkes, as John\nBright stood by Bradlaugh at a later day. And while Paine was laboring\nto carry his excise bill through Parliament he had good opportunity\nto discover how completely that body's real opinions were overruled by\nroyal dictation. It was at that time that George III., indifferent\nto his brother's profligacies, would not forgive his marriage with a\ncommoner's sister, and forced on Parliament a Marriage Act which made\nall marriages in the royal family illegitimate without his consent. The\nindignant resignation of Fox modified the measure slightly, limiting the\nKing's interference at the twenty-sixth year of the marrying parties,\nand then giving the veto to Parliament. For this the King turned his\nwrath on Fox. This was but one of the many instances of those years--all\ntold in Trevelyan's admirable work*--which added to Paine's studies of\nthe Wilkes conflicts a lasting lesson in the conservation of despotic\nforces. The barbaric eras of prerogative had returned under the forms of\nministerial government. The Ministry, controlled by the Court, ruled by\ncorruption of commoners.\n\n     * \"The Early History of Charles James Fox,\" 1880.\n\nIt was a _regime_ almost incredible to us now, when England is of all\nnations most free from corruption and court influence in politics; and\nit was little realized in English colonies before the Revolution.\nBut Franklin was in London to witness it, and Paine was there to grow\nfamiliar with the facts. To both of them the systematic inhumanity and\ninjustice were brought home personally. The discharged and insulted\npostmaster could sympathize with the dismissed and starving exciseman.\nFranklin recognized Paine's ability, and believed he would be useful and\nsuccessful in America. So on this migration Paine decided, and possibly\nthe determination brought his domestic discords to a crisis.\n\n\n\n\n{1774}\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV. THE NEW WORLD\n\nPaine left England in October and arrived in America November 30, 1774.\nHe bore a letter of introduction from Dr. Franklin to Richard Bache, his\nson-in-law, dated September 30, 1774:\n\n\"The bearer Mr. Thomas Paine is very well recommended to me as an\ningenious worthy young man. He goes to Pennsylvania with a view\nof settling there. I request you to give him your best advice and\ncountenance, as he is quite a stranger there. If you can put him in a\nway of obtaining employment as a clerk, or assistant tutor in a school,\nor assistant surveyor, of all of which I think him very capable, so that\nhe may procure a subsistence at least, till he can make acquaintance\nand obtain a knowledge of the country, you will do well, and much oblige\nyour affectionate father.\"\n\n\n\n\n{1775}\n\nOn March 4, 1775, Paine writes Franklin from Philadelphia:\n\n\"Your countenancing me has obtained for me many friends and much\nreputation, for which please accept my sincere thanks. I have been\napplied to by several gentlemen to instruct their sons on very\nadvantageous terms to myself, and a printer and bookseller here, a\nman of reputation and property, Robert Aitkin, has lately attempted a\nmagazine, but having little or no turn that way himself, he has applied\nto me for assistance. He had not above six hundred subscribers when I\nfirst assisted him. We have now upwards of fifteen hundred, and daily\nincreasing. I have not entered into terms with him This is only the\nsecond number. The first I was not concerned in.\"\n\nIt has been often stated that Paine was befriended by Dr. Rush, but\nthere is no indication of this. Their acquaintance was casual.\n\n\"About the year 1773 [says Dr. Rush--the date is an error for 1774] I\nmet him accidentally in Mr. Aitkin's bookstore, and was introduced to\nhim by Mr. Aitkin. We conversed a few minutes, and I left him. Soon\nafterwards I read a short essay with which I was much pleased, in one of\nBradford's papers, against the slavery of the Africans in our country,\nand which I was informed was written by Mr. Paine. This excited my\ndesire to be better acquainted with him. We met soon afterwards in Mr.\nAitkin's bookstore, where I did homage to his principles and pen upon\nthe subject of the enslaved Africans. He told me the essay to which I\nalluded was the first thing he had ever published in his life. After\nthis Mr. Aitkin employed him as the editor of his Magazine, with a\nsalary of fifty pounds currency a year. This work was well supported by\nhim. His song upon the death of Gen. Wolfe, and his reflections upon the\ndeath of Lord Clive, gave it a sudden currency which few works of the\nkind have since had in our country.\"\n\nAs the anti-slavery essay was printed March 8, 1775, it appears that\nPaine had been in America more than three months before Rush noticed\nhim.\n\nThe first number of the _Pennsylvania Magazine_, or _American Museum_,\nappeared at the end of January, 1775. Though \"not concerned\" in it\npecuniarily, not yet being editor, his contributions increased the\nsubscription list, and he was at once engaged. For eighteen months Paine\nedited this magazine, and probably there never was an equal amount of\ngood literary work done on a salary of fifty pounds a year. It was\na handsome magazine, with neat vignette--book, plough, anchor, and\nolive-twined shield,--the motto, _Juvat in sylvis kabitare_. The\nfuture author of the \"Rights of Man\" and \"Age of Reason\" admonishes\ncorrespondents that religion and politics are forbidden topics! The\nfirst number contains a portrait of Goldsmith and the picture of a\nnew electrical machine. A prefatory note remarks that \"the present\nperplexities of affairs\" have \"encompassed with difficulties the first\nnumber of the magazine, which, like the early snowdrop, comes forth in\na barren season, and contents itself with modestly foretelling that\nchoicer flowers are preparing to appear.\" The opening essay shows a fine\nliterary touch, and occasionally a strangely modern vein of thought.\n\"Our fancies would be highly diverted could we look back and behold a\ncircle of original Indians haranguing on the sublime perfections of the\nage; yet 't is not impossible but future times may exceed us as much as\nwe have exceeded them.\"\n\nHere is a forerunner of Macaulay's New Zea-lander sketching the ruins\nof St. Paul's. It is followed by a prediction that the coming American\nmagazine will surpass the English, \"because we are not exceeded in\nabilities, have a more extended field for inquiry, and whatever may be\nour political state, our happiness will always depend upon ourselves.\"\nA feature of the magazine was the description, with plates, of recent\nEnglish inventions not known in the new world--threshing-machine,\nspinning-machine, etc.,--such papers being by Paine. These attracted the\nmembers of the Philosophical Society, founded by Franklin, and Paine was\nwelcomed into their circle by Rittenhouse, Clymer, Rush, Muhlenberg, and\nother representatives of the scientific and literary metropolis. Many a\npiece composed for the Headstrong Club at Lewes first saw the light in\nthis magazine,--such as the humorous poems, \"The Monk and the Jew,\" \"The\nFarmer and Short's Dog, Porter\"; also the famous ballad \"On the Death of\nGeneral Wolfe.\" printed March, 1775, with music. Lewes had not, indeed,\nlost sight of him, as is shown by a communication in April from Dr.\nMatthew Wilson, dated from that town, relating to a new kind of fever\nraging in England.\n\nThe reader who has studied Paine's avowed and well-known works finds no\ndifficulty in tracking him beneath the various signatures by which\nhe avoided an appearance of writing most of the articles in the\n_Pennsylvania Magazine_, though he really did. He is now \"Atlanticus,\"\nnow \"Vox Populi,\" or \"AEsop,\" and oftener affixes no signature. The\nThetford Quaker is still here in \"Reflections on the Death of Lord\nClive\" (reprinted as a pamphlet in England), \"A New Anecdote of\nAlexander the Great,\" and \"Cursory Reflections on the Single Combat or\nModern Duel.\" The duel was hardly yet challenged in America when Paine\nwrote (May, 1775)\n\n\"From the peculiar prevalence of this custom in countries where the\nreligious system is established which, of all others, most expressly\nprohibits the gratification of revenge, with every species of outrage\nand violence, we too plainly see how little mankind are in reality\ninfluenced by the precepts of the religion by which they profess to be\nguided, and in defence of which they will occasionally risk even their\nlives.\"\n\nBut with this voice from Thetford meeting-house mingles the testimony of\n\"common sense.\" In July, 1775, he writes:\n\n\"I am thus far a Quaker, that I would gladly agree with all the world\nto lay aside the use of arms, and settle matters by negotiations; but,\nunless the whole world wills, the matter ends, and I take up my musket,\nand thank heaven he has put it in my power.... We live not in a world\nof angels. The reign of Satan is not ended, neither can we expect to be\ndefended by miracles.\"\n\nTitles he sees through (May, 1775):\n\n\"The Honourable plunderer of his country, or the Right Honourable\nmurderer of mankind, create such a contrast of ideas as exhibit a\nmonster rather than a man. The lustre of the Star, and the title of My\nLord, overawe the superstitious vulgar, and forbid them to enquire\ninto the character of the possessor: Nay more, they are, as it were,\nbewitched to admire in the great the vices they would honestly condemn\nin themselves.... The reasonable freeman sees through the magic of a\ntitle, and examines the man before he approves him. To him the honours\nof the worthless seem to write their masters' vices in capitals, and\ntheir Stars shine to no other end than to read them by. Modesty forbids\nmen separately, or collectively, to assume titles. But as all honours,\neven that of kings, originated from the public, the public may justly be\ncalled the true fountain of honour. And it is with much pleasure I\nhave heard the title 'Honourable' applied to a body of men, who nobly\ndisregarding private ease and interest for public welfare, have justly\nmerited the address of _The Honourable Continental Congress_.\"\n\nHe publishes (May, 1775), and I think wrote, a poetical protest against\ncruelty to animals, to whose rights Christendom was then not awakened.\nHis pen is unmistakable in \"Reflections on Unhappy Marriages\" (June,\n1775): \"As extasy abates coolness succeeds, which often makes way for\nindifference, and that for neglect. Sure of each other by the nuptial\nbond, they no longer take any pains to be mutually agreeable. Careless\nif they displease, and yet angry if reproached; with so little relish\nfor each other's company that anybody else's is more welcome, and more\nentertaining.\" It is a more pointed statement of the problem already\nsuggested, in the April magazine, by his well-known fable \"Cupid and\nHymen,\" whose controversies are now settled in the Divorce Court.\n\nIn his August (1775) number is found the earliest American plea for\nwoman. It is entitled \"An Occasional Letter on the Female Sex,\"\nand unsigned, but certainly by Paine. His trick of introducing a\nsupposititious address from another person, as in the following extract,\nappears in many examples.\n\n\"Affronted in one country by polygamy, which gives them their rivals for\ninseparable companions; inslaved in another by indissoluble ties, which\noften join the gentle to the rude, and sensibility to brutality: Even\nin countries where they may be esteemed most happy, constrained in their\ndesires in the disposal of their goods, robbed of freedom of will by the\nlaws, the slaves of opinion, which rules them with absolute sway, and\nconstrues the slightest appearances into guilt, surrounded on all sides\nby judges who are at once their tyrants and seducers, and who after\nhaving prepared their faults, punish every lapse with dishonour--nay\nusurp the right of degrading them on suspicion!--who does not feel for\nthe tender sex? Yet such I am sorry to say is the lot of woman over the\nwhole earth. Man with regard to them, in all climates and in all ages,\nhas been either an insensible husband or an oppressor; but they have\nsometimes experienced the cold and deliberate oppression of pride, and\nsometimes the violent and terrible tyranny of jealousy. When they are\nnot beloved they are nothing; and when they are they are tormented.\nThey have almost equal cause to be afraid of indifference and love. Over\nthree quarters of the globe Nature has placed them between contempt and\nmisery.\"\n\n\"Even among people where beauty receives the highest homage we find\nmen who would deprive the sex of every kind of reputation. 'The most\nvirtuous woman,' says a celebrated Greek, 'is she who is least talked\nof.' That morose man, while he imposes duties on women, would deprive\nthem of the sweets of public esteem, and in exacting virtues from them\nwould make it a crime to aspire to honour. If a woman were to defend the\ncause of her sex she might address him in the following manner:\n\n\"'How great is your injustice! If we have an equal right with you to\nvirtue, why should we not have an equal right to praise? The public\nesteem ought to wait upon merit. Our duties are different from yours,\nbut they are not less difficult to fulfil, or of less consequence to\nsociety: They are the foundations of your felicity, and the sweetness\nof life. We are wives and mothers. 'T is we who form the union and the\ncordiality of families; 't is we who soften that savage rudeness which\nconsiders everything as due to force, and which would involve man with\nman in eternal war. We cultivate in you that humanity which makes you\nfeel for the misfortunes of others, and our tears forewarn you of your\nown danger. Nay, you cannot be ignorant that we have need of courage not\nless than you: More feeble in ourselves, we have perhaps more trials to\nencounter. Nature assails us with sorrow, law and custom press us with\nconstraint, and sensibility and virtue alarm us by their continual\nconflict. Sometimes also the name of citizen demands from us the tribute\nof fortitude. When you offer your blood to the state, think that it\nis ours. In giving it our sons and our husbands we give it more than\nourselves. You can only die on the field of battle, but we have the\nmisfortune to survive those whom we love the most. Alas! while your\nambitious vanity is unceasingly laboring to cover the earth with\nstatues, with monuments, and with inscriptions to eternize, if possible,\nyour names, and give yourselves an existence when this body is no more,\nwhy must we be condemned to live and to die unknown? Would that the\ngrave and eternal forgetfulness should be our lot. Be not our tyrants in\nall: Permit our names to be sometime pronounced beyond the narrow circle\nin which we live: Permit friendship, or at least love, to inscribe its\nemblems on the tomb where our ashes repose; and deny us not the public\nesteem which, after the esteem of one's self, is the sweetest reward of\nwelldoing.'\"\n\nThus the Pennsylvania Magazine, in the time that Paine edited it, was\na seed-bag from which this sower scattered the seeds of great reforms\nripening with the progress of civilization. Through the more popular\npress he sowed also. Events selected his seeds of American independence,\nof republican equality, freedom from royal, ecclesiastical, and\nhereditary privilege, for a swifter and more imposing harvest; but the\nwhole circle of human ideas and principles was recognized by this\nlone wayfaring man. The first to urge extension of the principles of\nindependence to the enslaved negro; the first to arraign monarchy, and\nto point out the danger of its survival in presidency; the first to\npropose articles of a more thorough nationality to the new-born States;\nthe first to advocate international arbitration; the first to expose\nthe absurdity and criminality of duelling; the first to suggest more\nrational ideas of marriage and divorce; the first to advocate national\nand international copyright; the first to plead for the animals; the\nfirst to demand justice for woman: what brilliants would our modern\nreformers have contributed to a coronet for that man's brow, had he not\npresently worshipped the God of his fathers after the way that\ntheologians called heresy! \"Be not righteous overmuch,\" saith cynical\nSolomon; \"neither make thyself over-wise: why shouldest thou destroy\nthyself?\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V. LIBERTY AND EQUALITY\n\nWith regard to Paine's earliest publication there has been needless\nconfusion. In his third _Crisis_ he says to Lord Howe: \"I have likewise\nan aversion to monarchy, as being too debasing to the dignity of man;\nbut I never troubled others with my notions till very lately, nor ever\npublished a syllable in England in my life.\" It has been alleged that\nthis is inconsistent with his having written in 1772 \"The Case of the\nOfficers of Excise.\" But this, though printed (by William Lee of Lewes)\nwas not published until 1793. It was a document submitted to Parliament,\nbut never sold. The song on Wolfe, and other poetical pieces,\nthough known to the Headstrong Club in Lewes, were first printed in\nPhiladelphia.*\n\n     * Mr. W. H. Burr maintains that Paine wrote in the English\n     Crisis (1775) under the name of \"Casca.\" As Casca's articles\n     bear intrinsic evidence of being written in London--such as\n     his treating as facts General Gage's fictions about\n     Lexington--the theory supposes Paine to have visited England\n     in that year. But besides the facts that Rush had an\n     interview with Paine near the middle of March, and Franklin\n     in October, the accounts of Aitkin, preserved in\n     Philadelphia, show payments to Paine in May, July, and\n     August, 1775. As Mr. Burr's further theory, that Paine wrote\n     the letters of Junius, rests largely on the identification\n     with \"Casca,\" it might be left to fall with disproof of the\n     latter. It is but fair, however, to the labors of a\n     courageous writer, and to the many worthy people who have\n     adopted his views, to point out the impossibilities of their\n     case.   An able summary of the facts discoverable concerning\n     the personality of Junius, in Macaulay's \"Warren Hastings,\"\n     says: \"As to the position, pursuits, and connexions of\n     Junius, the following are the most important facts which can\n     be considered as clearly proved: first, that he was\n     acquainted with the technical forms of the Secretary of\n     State's office; secondly, that he was intimately acquainted\n     with the business of the War Office; thirdly, that he,\n     during the year 1770, attended debates in the House of\n     Lords, and took notes of speeches, particularly of the\n     speeches of Lord Chatham; fourthly, that he bitterly\n     resented the appointment of Mr. Chamier to the place of\n     Deputy Secretary of War; fifthly, that he was bound by some\n     strong tie to the first Lord Holland.\"\n\nNow during the period of Junius' letters (Jan. 21, 1769, to Jan. 21,\n1772) Paine was occupied with his laborious duties as exciseman at\nLewes, and with the tobacco mill from which he vainly tried to extort\na living for himself and wife, and her mother. Before that period\nthere was no time at which Paine could have commanded the leisure or\nopportunities necessary to master the political and official details\nknown to Junius, even had he been interested in them. He declares\nthat he had no interest in politics, which he regarded as a species\nof \"jockeyship.\" How any one can read a page of Junius and then one of\nPaine, and suppose them from the same pen appears to me inconceivable.\nJunius is wrapped up in the affairs of Lord This and Duke That, and\na hundred details. I can as easily imagine Paine agitated with the\nmovements of a battle of chessmen. But apart from this, the reader need\nonly refer to the facts of his life before coming to America to acquit\nhim of untruth in saying that he had published nothing in England, and\nthat the cause of America made him an author.\n\nIn America Wolfe again rises before Paine's imagination. In the\n_Pennsylvania Journal_, January 4th, appears a brief \"Dialogue between\nGeneral Wolfe and General Gage in a Wood near Boston.\" Wolfe, from the\nElysian Fields, approaches Gage with rebuke for the errand on which he\nhas come to America, and reminds him that he is a citizen as well as a\nsoldier. \"If you have any regard for the glory of the British name, and\nif you prefer the society of Grecian, Roman, and British heroes in\nthe world of spirits to the company of Jeffries, Kirk, and other royal\nexecutioners, I conjure you immediately to resign your commission.\"\n\nAlthough this \"Dialogue\" was the first writing of Paine published, it\nwas not the first written for publication. The cause that first moved\nhis heart and pen was that of the negro slave. Dr. Rush's date of his\nmeeting with Paine, 1773,--a year before his arrival,--is one of a\nnumber of errors in his letter, among these being his report that\nPaine told him the antislavery essay was the first thing he had ever\npublished. Paine no doubt told him it was the first thing he ever wrote\nand offered for publication; but it was not published until March\n8th. Misled by Rush's words, Paine's editors and our historians of the\nantislavery movement have failed to discover this early manifesto\nof abolitionism. It is a most remarkable article. Every argument and\nappeal, moral, religious, military, economic, familiar in our subsequent\nanti-slavery struggle, is here found stated with eloquence and\nclearness. Having pointed out the horrors of the slave trade and of\nslavery, he combats the argument that the practice was permitted to the\nJews. Were such a plea allowed it would justify adoption of other Jewish\npractices utterly unlawful \"under clearer light.\" The Jews indeed had\nno permission to enslave those who never injured them, but all such\narguments are unsuitable \"since the time of reformation came under\nGospel light. All distinctions of nations, and privileges of one above\nothers, are ceased. Christians are taught to account all men their\nneighbours; and love their neighbours as themselves; and do to all men\nas they would be done by; to do good to all men; and man-stealing is\nranked with enormous crimes.\" Bradford might naturally hesitate some\nweeks before printing these pointed reproofs. \"How just, how suitable to\nour crime is the punishment with which Providence threatens us? We\nhave enslaved multitudes, and shed much innocent blood, and now are\nthreatened with the same.\" In the conclusion, a practical scheme is\nproposed for liberating all except the infirm who need protection, and\nsettling them on frontier lands, where they would be friendly protectors\ninstead of internal foes ready to help any invader who may offer them\nfreedom.\n\nThis wonderful article is signed \"Justice and Humanity.\" Thomas Paine's\nventure in this direction was naturally welcomed by Dr. Rush, who some\nyears before had written a little pamphlet against the slave trade, and\ndeploring slavery, though he had not proposed or devised any plan for\nimmediate emancipation. Paine's paper is as thorough as Garrison himself\ncould have made it. And, indeed, it is remarkable that Garrison, at a\ntime when he shared the common prejudices against Paine, printed at the\nhead of his _Liberator_ a motto closely resembling Paine's. The motto of\nPaine was: \"The world is my country, my religion is to do good\"; that\nof the _Liberator_: \"Our country is the world, our countrymen are all\nmankind.\" Garrison did characteristic justice to Paine when he had\noutgrown early prejudices against him.* On April 12th, thirty-five days\nafter Paine's plea for emancipation, the first American Antislavery\nSociety was formed, in Philadelphia.\n\n     * It will be seen by the \"Life of William Lloyd Garrison,\"\n     i., p. 219, and iii., p. 145, that Mr. Garrison did not know\n     of Paine's motto (\"Rights of Man,\" i., chap. v.). His review\n     of Paine's works appeared November, 1845.    The\n     Liberator first appeared January 1, 1831.\n\nAlthough the dialogue between Wolfe and Gage (January 4th) shows\nthat Paine shared the feeling of America, the earlier numbers of his\n_Pennsylvania Magazine_ prove his strong hope for reconciliation. That\nhope died in the first collision; after Lexington he knew well that\nseparation was inevitable. A single sentence in the magazine intimates\nthe change. The April number, which appeared soon after the \"Lexington\nmassacre,\" contains a summary of Chatham's speech, in which he said\nthe crown would lose its lustre if \"robbed of so principal a jewel as\nAmerica.\" Paine adds this footnote: \"The principal jewel of the crown\nactually dropt out at the coronation.\" There was probably no earlier\nprinted suggestion of independence by any American.*\n\n     * The London Chronicle, of October 25, 1774, printed Major\n     Cartwright's \"American Independence the Interest and Glory\n     of Great Britain,\" and it was reprinted in the Pennsylvania\n     Journal. Although it has little relation to the form in\n     which the question presently suggested itself, the article\n     is interesting as an indication that separation was then\n     more talked of in England than in America. Twelve years\n     before the Revolution a pamphlet in favor of separation was\n     written by Josiah Tucker of Bristol, England. Then as now\n     colonists were more loyal than the English at home.\n\nThere are three stages in the evolution of the Declaration of\nIndependence. The colonies reached first the resolution of resistance,\nsecondly of separation, and thirdly of republicanism.\n\nIn the matter of resistance the distribution of honors has been\nrather literary than historical. In considering the beginnings of the\nRevolution our minds fly at once to the Tea-party in Boston harbor, then\nto Lexington, where seven Massachusetts men fell dead, and seven years\nof war followed. But two years before the tea was thrown overboard,\nand four years before the Lexington massacre, North Carolinians had\nencountered British troops, had left two hundred patriots fallen, and\nseen their leaders hanged for treason. Those earliest martyrs are\nalmost forgotten because, in the first place, North Carolina produced no\nhistorians, poets, magazines, to rehearse their story from generation\nto generation. In the second place, the rebellion which Governor Tryon\ncrushed at Alamance, though against the same oppressions, occurred\nin 1771, before the colonies had made common cause. Governmental\nanachronisms have a tendency to take refuge in colonies. Had Great\nBritain conceded to Americans the constitutional rights of Englishmen\nthere could have been no revolution. Before the time of George III.\nBritish governors had repeatedly revived in America prerogatives extinct\nin England, but the colonists had generally been successful in their\nappeals to the home government. Even in 1774 the old statesmen in\nAmerica had not realized that a king had come who meant to begin in\nAmerica his mad scheme of governing as well as reigning. When, in\nSeptember, 1774, the first Continental Congress assembled, its members\ngenerally expected to settle the troubles with the \"mother country\"\nby petitions to Parliament. There is poetic irony in the fact that the\nfirst armed resistance to royal authority in America was by the North\nCarolina \"Regulators.\" On the frontiers, before official courts were\nestablished, some kind of law and order had to be maintained, and they\nwere protected by a volunteer police called \"Regulators.\" In the forests\nof Virginia, two hundred years ago, Peter Lynch was appointed judge by\nhis neighbors because of his wisdom and justice, and his decisions were\nenforced by \"Regulators.\" Judge Lynch's honorable name is now degraded\ninto a precedent for the cowardly ruffians who hunt down unarmed\nnegroes, Italians, and Chinamen, and murder them without trial, or after\ntheir acquittal. But such was not the case with our frontier courts and\n\"Regulators,\" which were civilized organizations, though unauthorized.\nFor several years before the Revolution lawful and civilized government\nin some of the colonies depended on unauthorized administrations. The\nauthorized powers were the \"lynchers,\" as they would now be called,\nwith traditional misrepresentation of Peter Lynch. The North Carolina\nRegulators of 1771 were defending the English constitution against a\nking and a governor acting as lawlessly as our vile lynchers and \"White\nCaps.\" It was remarked, by Paine among others that after the royal\nauthority was abolished, though for a long time new governments were not\nestablished, \"order and harmony were preserved as inviolate as in any\ncountry in Europe.\"*\n\n     * \"The Rights of Man,\" part ii., chapter i.\n\nIn the dialogue between Wolfe and Gage, Paine writes as an Englishman;\nhe lays no hand on the constitution, nor considers the sovereign\ninvolved in ministerial iniquities. Apart from his Quaker sentiments he\nfelt dismay at a conflict which interrupted his lucrative school, and\nthe literary opportunities afforded by his magazine. \"For my own part,\"\nhe wrote to Franklin, \"I thought it very hard to have the country set\non fire about my ears almost the moment I got into it.\" And indeed there\nwas a general disgust among the patriots during the year 1775, while\nas yet no great aim or idea illumined the smoke of battle. They were\nvehemently protesting that they had no wish for separation from England,\njust as in the beginning of our civil war leading Unionists declared\nthat they would not interfere with slavery. In March, 1775, Franklin\nmaintained the assurance he had given Lord Chatham in the previous\nyear, that he had never heard in America an expression in favor of\nindependence, \"from any person drunk or sober.\" Paine says that on his\narrival he found an obstinate attachment to Britain; \"it was at that\ntime a kind of treason to speak against it.\" \"Independence was a\ndoctrine scarce and rare even towards the conclusion of the year 1775.\"\nIn May, George Washington, on his way to Congress, met the Rev. Jonathan\nBoucher, in the middle of the Potomac; while their boats paused, the\nclergyman warned his friend that the path on which he was entering might\nlead to separation from England. \"If you ever hear of my joining in any\nsuch measures,\" said Washington, \"you have my leave to set me down for\neverything wicked.\"* Although Paine, as we shall see, had no reverence\nfor the crown, and already foresaw American independence, he abhorred\nthe method of war. In the first number of his magazine he writes: \"The\nspeeches of the different governors pathetically lament the present\ndistracted state of affairs. Yet they breathe a spirit of mildness\nas well as tenderness, and give encouragement to hope that some happy\nmethod of accommodation may yet arise.\"\n\n     * Notes and Queries (Eng.), series 3 and 5. See also in\n     Lippincotts Maga-rine, May, 1889, my paper embodying the\n     correspondence of Washington and Boucher.\n\nBut on April 19th came the \"massacre at Lexington,\" as it was commonly\ncalled. How great a matter is kindled by a small fire! A man whose name\nremains unknown, forgetful of Captain Parker's order to his minute-men\nnot to fire until fired on, drew his trigger on the English force\nadvancing to Concord; the gun missed fire, but the little flash was\nanswered by a volley; seven men lay dead. In the blood of those patriots\nat Lexington the Declaration of Independence was really written. From\ntown-meetings throughout the country burning resolutions were hurled on\nGeneral Gage in Boston, who had warned Major Pitcairn, commander of the\nexpedition, not to assume the offensive. From one county, Mecklenburg,\nNorth Carolina, were sent to Congress twenty resolutions passed by its\ncommittee, May 31st, declaring \"all laws and commissions confirmed by\nor derived from the authority of the King and Parliament are anulled\nand vacated,\" and that, \"whatever person shall hereafter receive a\ncommission from the crown, or attempt to exercise any such commission\nheretofore received, shall be deemed an enemy to his country.\"*\n\n     * These resolutions further organized a provisional\n     government to be in force until \"the legislative body of\n     Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pretensions\n     with respect to America.\" In 1819 a number of witnesses\n     stated that so early as May 20th Mecklenburg passed an\n     absolute Declaration of Independence, and it is possible\n     that, on receipt of the tidings from Lexington, some popular\n     meeting at Charlottetown gave vent to its indignation in\n     expressions, or even resolutions, which were tempered by the\n     County Committee eleven days later. The resolutions\n     embodying the supposititious \"Declaration,\" written out\n     (1800) from memory by the alleged secretary of the meeting\n     (Dr. Joseph McKnitt Alexander), are believed by Dr. Welling\n     to be \"an honest effort to reproduce, according to the best\n     of his recollection, the facts and declarations contained in\n     the genuine manuscripts of May 31, after that manifesto had\n     been forgotten.\"--(North American Review, April, 1874.) But\n     the testimony is very strong in favor of two sets of\n     resolutions.\n\nMany years after the independence of America had been achieved, William\nCobbett, on his return to England after a long sojourn in the United\nStates, wrote as follows:\n\n\"As my Lord Grenville introduced the name of Burke, suffer me, my Lord,\nto introduce that of a man who put this Burke to shame, who drove him\noff the public stage to seek shelter in the pension list, and who is\nnow named fifty million times where the name of the pensioned Burke is\nmentioned once. The cause of the American colonies was the cause of the\nEnglish Constitution, which says that no man shall be taxed without his\nown consent.... A little thing sometimes produces a great effect; an\ninsult offered to a man of great talent and unconquerable perseverance\nhas in many instances produced, in the long run, most tremendous\neffects; and it appears to me very clear that some beastly insults,\noffered to Mr. Paine while he was in the Excise in England, was the real\ncause of the Revolution in America; for, though the nature of the cause\nof America was such as I have before described it; though the principles\nwere firm in the minds of the people of that country; still, it was Mr.\nPaine, and Mr. Paine alone, who brought those principles into action.\"\n\nIn this passage Cobbett was more epigrammatic than exact. Paine, though\nnot fairly treated, as we have seen, in his final dismissal from the\nexcise, was not insulted. But there is more truth in what Cobbett\nsuggests as to Paine's part than he fully realized. Paine's unique\nservice in the work of independence may now be more clearly defined.\nIt was that he raised the Revolution into an evolution. After the\n\"Lexington massacre\" separation was talked of by many, but had it\nthen occurred America might have been another kingdom. The members of\nCongress were of the rich conservative \"gentry,\" and royalists. Had he\nnot been a patriot, Peyton Randolph, our first president, would probably\nhave borne a title like his father, and Washington would certainly have\nbeen knighted. Paine was in the position of the abolitionists when the\nsecession war began. They also held peace principles, and would have\nscorned a war for the old slave-holding union, as Paine would have\nscorned a separation from England preserving its political institutions.\nThe war having begun, and separation become probable, Paine hastened to\nconnect it with humanity and with republicanism. As the abolitionists\nresolved that the secession war should sweep slavery out of the country,\nPaine made a brave effort that the Revolution should clear away both\nslavery and monarchy. It was to be in every respect a new departure for\nhumanity. So he anticipated the Declaration of Independence by more than\neight months with one of his own, which was discovered by Moreau in the\nfile of the _Pennsylvania Journal_, October 18th.*\n\n     * Mr. Moreau mentions it as Paine's in his MS. notes in a\n     copy of Cheetham's book, now owned by the Pennsylvania\n     Historical Society. No one familiar with Paine's style at\n     the time can doubt its authorship.\n\n\n\"A SERIOUS THOUGHT.\n\n\"When I reflect on the horrid cruelties exercised by Britain in the East\nIndies--How thousands perished by artificial famine--How religion and\nevery manly principle of honor and honesty were sacrificed to luxury and\npride--When I read of the wretched natives being blown away, for no\nother crime than because, sickened with the miserable scene, they\nrefused to fight--When I reflect on these and a thousand instances of\nsimilar barbarity, I firmly believe that the Almighty, in compassion to\nmankind, will curtail the power of Britain.\n\n\"And when I reflect on the use she hath made of the discovery of this\nnew world--that the little paltry dignity of earthly kings hath been set\nup in preference to the great cause of the King of kings--That instead\nof Christian examples to the Indians, she hath basely tampered with\ntheir passions, imposed on their ignorance, and made them the tools\nof treachery and murder--And when to these and many other melancholy\nreflections I add this sad remark, that ever since the discovery of\nAmerica she hath employed herself in the most horrid of all traffics,\nthat of human flesh, unknown to the most savage nations, hath yearly\n(without provocation and in cold blood) ravaged the hapless shores\nof Africa, robbing it of its unoffending inhabitants to cultivate her\nstolen dominions in the West--When I reflect on these, I hesitate not\nfor a moment to believe that the Almighty will finally separate America\nfrom Britain. Call it Independancy or what you will, if it is the cause\nof God and humanity it will go on.\n\n\"And when the Almighty shall have blest us, and made us a people\n_dependent only upon him_, then may our first gratitude be shown by an\nact of continental legislation, which shall put a stop to the\nimportation of Negroes for sale, soften the hard fate of those already\nhere, and in time procure their freedom.\n\n\"Humanus.\"\n\n\n\n\n{1776}\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI. \"COMMON SENSE\"\n\nIn furrows ploughed deep by lawless despotism, watered with blood of\npatriots, the Thetford Quaker sowed his seed--true English seed. Even\nwhile he did so he was suspected of being a British spy, and might\nhave been roughly handled in Philadelphia had it not been for Franklin.\nPossibly this suspicion may have arisen from his having, in the\nantislavery letter, asked the Americans \"to consider with what\nconsistency or decency they complain so loudly of attempts to enslave\nthem, while they hold so many thousands in slavery.\" Perfectly\nindifferent to this, Paine devoted the autumn of 1775 to his pamphlet\n\"Common Sense,\" which with the new year \"burst from the press with an\neffect which has rarely been produced by types and paper in any age or\ncountry.\" So says Dr. Benjamin Rush, and his assertion, often quoted,\nhas as often been confirmed.\n\nOf the paramount influence of Paine's \"Common Sense\" there can indeed\nbe no question.* It reached Washington soon after tidings that Norfolk,\nVirginia, had been burned (Jan. 1st) by Lord Dunmore, as Falmouth (now\nPortland), Maine, had been, Oct 17, 1775, by ships under Admiral Graves.\n\n     * \"This day was published, and is now selling by Robert\n     Bell, in Third Street, [Phil.] price two shillings, 'Common\n     Sense,' addressed to the inhabitants of North America.\"--\n     Pennsylvania Journal, Jan. 10, 1776.\n\nThe General wrote to Joseph Reed, from Cambridge, Jan. 31st: \"A few more\nof such flaming arguments as were exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk,\nadded to the sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning contained in the\npamphlet 'Common Sense,' will not leave numbers at a loss to decide upon\nthe propriety of separation.\"*\n\nHenry Wisner, a New York delegate in Congress, sent the pamphlet to John\nMcKesson, Secretary of the Provincial Congress sitting in New York City,\nwith the following note: \"Sir, I have only to ask the favour of you to\nread this pamphlet, consulting Mr. Scott and such of the Committee of\nSafety as you think proper, particularly Orange and Ulster, and let me\nknow their and your opinion of the general spirit of it. I would have\nwrote a letter on the subject, but the bearer is waiting.\" In pursuance\nof this General Scott suggested a private meeting, and McKesson read\nthe pamphlet aloud. New York, the last State to agree to separation, was\nalarmed by the pamphlet, and these leaders at first thought of answering\nit, but found themselves without the necessary arguments. Henry\nWisner, however, required arguments rather than orders, and despite the\ninstructions of his State gave New York the honor of having one name\namong those who, on July 4th, voted for independence.** Joel Barlow, a\nstudent in Yale College at the beginning of the Revolution, has borne\ntestimony to the great effect of Paine's pamphlet, as may be seen in his\nbiography by Mr. Todd.\n\n     * \"The Writings of George Washington.\" Collected and edited\n     by Wotthington Chauncey Ford, vol. iii., p. 396.\n\n     ** Mag. Am. Hist., July, 1880, p. 62, and Dec., 1888, p.\n     479. The Declaration passed on July 4th was not signed until\n     Aug. 2d, the postponement being for the purpose of removing\n     the restrictions placed by New York and Maryland on their\n     delegates. Wisner, the only New York delegate who had voted\n     for the Declaration, did not return until after the recess.\n     In Trumbull's picture at the Capitol Thomas Stone, a signer\n     for Maryland, is left out, and Robert Livingston of New York\n     is included, though he did not sign it.\n\nAn original copy of Paine's excise pamphlet (1792) in my possession\ncontains a note in pencil, apparently contemporary, suggesting that the\nintroduction was written by Barlow. In this introduction--probably by\nBarlow, certainly by a competent observer of events in America--it is\nsaid:\n\n\"On this celebrated publication ['Common Sense'], which has received the\ntestimony of praise from the wise and learned of different nations, we\nneed only remark (for the merit of every work should be judged by its\neffect) that it gave spirit and resolution to the Americans, who were\nthen wavering and undetermined, to assert their rights, and inspired a\ndecisive energy into their counsels: we may therefore venture to say,\nwithout fear of contradiction, that the great American cause owed as\nmuch to the pen of Paine as to the sword of Washington.\"*\n\n     * And yet--such was the power of theological intimidation--\n     even heretical Barlow could find no place for Paine in his\n     _Columbiad_(1807).\n\nEdmund Randolph, our first Attorney-General, who had been on\nWashington's staff in the beginning of the war, and conducted much of\nhis correspondence, ascribed independence primarily to George III.,\nbut next to \"Thomas Paine, an Englishman by birth, and possessing an\nimagination which happily combined political topics, poured forth in a\nstyle hitherto unknown on this side of the Atlantic, from the ease\nwith which it insinuated itself into the hearts of the people who were\nunlearned, or of the learned.\"* This is from a devout churchman, writing\nafter Paine's death. Paine's malignant biographer, Cheetham (1809), is\nconstrained to say of \"Common Sense\": \"Speaking a language which the\ncolonists had felt but not thought, its popularity, terrible in its\nconsequences to the parent country, was unexampled in the history of the\npress.\"**\n\n     * Randolph's \"History\" (MS.), a possession of the Virginia\n     Historical Society, has been confided to my editorial care\n     for publication.\n\n     ** See also the historians, Ramsay (Rev., i., p. 336,\n     London, 1793), Gordon (Rev., ii., p. 78, New York, 1794),\n     Bryant and Gay (U. S., iii., p. 471, New York, 1879).\n\nLet it not be supposed that Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Randolph,\nand the rest, were carried away by a meteor. Deep answers only unto\ndeep. Paine's ideas went far because they came far. He was the authentic\ncommoner, representing English freedom in the new world. There was no\ndreg in the poverty of his people that he had not tasted, no humiliation\nin their dependence, no outlook of their hopelessness, he had not known,\nand with the addition of intellectual hungers which made his old-world\ndespair conscious. The squalor and abjectness of Thetford, its\ncorporation held in the hollow of Grafton's hand, its members of\nParliament also, the innumerable villages equally helpless, the\nunspeakable corruptions of the government, the repeated and always\nbaffled efforts of the outraged people for some redress,--these had been\nbrought home to Paine in many ways, had finally driven him to America,\nwhere he arrived on the hour for which none had been so exactly and\nthoroughly trained. He had thrown off the old world, and that America\nhad virtually done the same, constituted its attraction for him. In the\nopening essay in his magazine, written within a month of his arrival in\nthe country (Nov. 30, 1774), Paine speaks of America as a \"nation,\" and\nhis pregnant sentences prove how mature the principles of independence\nhad become in his mind long before the outbreak of hostilities.\n\n\"America has now outgrown the state of infancy. Her strength and\ncommerce make large advances to manhood; and science in all its branches\nhas not only blossomed, but even ripened upon the soil. The cottages as\nit were of yesterday have grown to villages, and the villages to cities;\nand while proud antiquity, like a skeleton in rags, parades the streets\nof other nations, their genius, as if sickened and disgusted with the\nphantom, comes hither for recovery.... America yet inherits a large\nportion of her first-imported virtue. Degeneracy is here almost a\nuseless word. Those who are conversant with Europe would be tempted\nto believe that even the air of the Atlantic disagrees with the\nconstitution of foreign vices; if they survive the voyage they either\nexpire on their arrival, or linger away in an incurable consumption.\nThere is a happy something in the climate of America which disarms them\nof all their power both of infection and attraction.\"\n\nIn presently raising the standard of republican independence, Paine\nspeaks of separation from England as a foregone conclusion. \"I have\nalways considered the independency of this continent as an event which\nsooner or later must arrive.\" Great Britain having forced a collision,\nthe very least that America can demand is separation.\n\n\"The object contended for ought always to bear some just proportion to\nthe expence. The removal of North, or the whole detestable junto, is a\nmatter unworthy the millions we have expended. A temporary stoppage of\ntrade was an inconvenience which would have sufficiently balanced the\nrepeal of all the acts complained of, had such repeals been obtained;\nbut if the whole Continent must take up arms, if every man must be a\nsoldier, 't is scarcely worth our while to fight against a contemptible\nministry only. Dearly, dearly do we pay for the repeal of the acts, if\nthat is all we fight for; for, in a just estimation, 't is as great a\nfolly to pay a Bunker-hill price for law as for land.... It would be\npolicy in the king, at this time, to repeal the acts for the sake of\nreinstating himself in the government of the provinces, in order that he\nmay accomplish by craft and subtlety, in the long run, what he cannot\ndo by force and violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are\nnearly related.\"\n\nStarting with the lowest demand, separation, Paine shows the justice\nand necessity of it lying fundamentally in the nature of monarchy\nas represented by Great Britain, and the potential republicanism of\ncolonies composed of people from all countries. The keynote of this is\nstruck in the introduction. The author withholds his name \"because\nthe object of attention is the Doctrine itself, not the Man \"; and he\naffirms, \"the cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all\nmankind.\"\n\nNo other pamphlet published during the Revolution is comparable with\n\"Common Sense\" for interest to the reader of to-day, or for value as\nan historical document. Therein as in a mirror is beheld the almost\nincredible England, against which the colonies contended. And therein\nis reflected the moral, even religious, enthusiasm which raised the\nstruggle above the paltriness of a rebellion against taxation to a great\nhuman movement,--a war for an idea. The art with which every sentence is\nfeathered for its aim is consummate.\n\nThe work was for a time generally attributed to Franklin. It is said the\nDoctor was reproached by a loyal lady for using in it such an epithet as\n\"the royal brute of Britain.\" He assured her that he had not written the\npamphlet, and would never so dishonor the brute creation.\n\nIn his letter to Cheetham (1809) already referred to, Dr. Rush claims to\nhave suggested the work to Paine, who read the sheets to him and also\nto Dr. Franklin. This letter, however, gives so many indications of\nan enfeebled memory, that it cannot be accepted against Paine's own\nassertion, made in the year following the publication of \"Common Sense,\"\nwhen Dr. Rush and Dr. Franklin might have denied it.\n\n\"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials\nas were in his hands towards completing a history of the present\ntransactions, and seemed desirous of having the first volume out the\nnext spring. I had then formed the outlines of 'Common Sense,' and\nfinished nearly the first part; and as I supposed the doctor's design\nin getting out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I\nexpected to surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier\nthan he thought of; and without informing him of what I was doing, got\nit ready for the press as fast as I conveniently could, and sent him the\nfirst pamphlet that was printed off.\"\n\nOn the other hand, Paine's memory was at fault when he wrote (December\n3, 1802): \"In my publications, I follow the rule I began with in 'Common\nSense.' that is, to consult nobody, nor to let anybody see what I write\ntill it appears publicly.\" This was certainly his rule, but in the case\nof \"Common Sense\" he himself mentions (_Penn. Jour_., April 10, 1776)\nhaving shown parts of the MS. to a \"very few.\" Dr. Rush is correct in\nhis statement that Paine had difficulty in finding \"a printer who\nhad boldness enough to publish it,\" and that he (Rush) mentioned the\npamphlet to the Scotch bookseller, Robert Bell. For Bell says, in\na contemporary leaflet: \"When the work was at a stand for want of a\ncourageous Typographer, I was then recommended by a gentleman nearly in\nthe following words: 'There is Bell, he is a Republican printer, give\nit to him, and I will answer for his courage to print it.'\" Dr. Rush\nprobably required some knowledge of the contents of the pamphlet before\nhe made this recommendation.\n\nThat Dr. Rush is mistaken in saying the manuscript was submitted to\nFranklin, and a sentence modified by him, is proved by the fact that on\nFebruary 19th, more than a month after the pamphlet appeared, Franklin\nintroduced Paine to Gen. Charles Lee with a letter containing the words,\n\"He is the reputed and, I think, the real author of 'Common sense.'\"\nFranklin could not have thus hesitated had there been in the work\nanything of his own, or anything he had seen. Beyond such disclosures\nto Dr. Rush, and one or two others, as were necessary to secure\npublication, Paine kept the secret of his authorship as long as he\ncould. His recent arrival in the country might have impaired the force\nof his pamphlet.\n\nThe authorship of \"Common Sense\" was guessed by the \"Tory\" President of\nthe University of Philadelphia, the Rev. William Smith, D.D., who knew\npretty well the previous intellectual resources of that city. Writing\nunder the name of \"Cato\" he spoke of \"the foul pages of interested\nwriters, and strangers intermeddling in our affairs.\" To which \"The\nForester\" (Paine) answers: \"A freeman, Cato, is a stranger nowhere,--a\nslave, everywhere.\"*\n\n     * \"The writer of 'Common Sense' and 'The Forester' is the\n     same person. His name is Paine, a gentleman about two years\n     ago from England,--a man who, General Lee says, has genius\n     in his eyes.\"--John Adams to his wife.\n\nThe publication of \"Common Sense\" had been followed by a number of\napplauding pamphlets, some of them crude or extravagant, from Bell's\npress. \"Cato\" was anxious to affiliate these \"additional doses\" on the\nauthor of \"Common Sense,\" who replies:\n\n\"Perhaps there never was a pamphlet, since the use of letters were\nknown, about which so little pains were taken, and of which so great\na number went off in so short a time. I am certain that I am within\ncompass when I say one hundred and twenty thousand. The book was turned\nupon the world like an orphan to shift for itself; no plan was formed\nto support it, neither hath the author ever published a syllable on\nthe subject from that time till after the appearance of Cato's fourth\nletter.\"\n\nThis letter of \"The Forester\" is dated April 8th (printed on the 10th).\n\"Common Sense,\" published January 10th, had, therefore, in less than\nthree months, gained this sale. In the end probably half a million\ncopies were sold. In reply to \"Cato's\" sneer about \"interested writers,\"\nPaine did not announce the fact that he had donated the copyright to the\nStates for the cause of independence. It was sold at two shillings, and\nthe author thus gave away a fortune in that pamphlet alone. It never\nbrought him a penny; he must even have paid for copies himself, as the\npublisher figured up a debt against him, on account of \"Common Sense,\"\nfor L29 12s. 1d. Notwithstanding this experience and the popularity\nhe had acquired, Paine also gave to the States the copyright of his\n_Crisis_ (thirteen numbers), was taunted by Tories as a \"garreteer,\" ate\nhis crust contentedly, peace finding him a penniless patriot, who might\neasily have had fifty thousand pounds in his pocket.\n\nThe controversy between \"Cato\" and \"The Forester\" was the most important\nthat preceded the Declaration of Independence. The president of\nthe University represented \"Toryism\" in distress. The \"massacre at\nLexington\" disabled him from justifying the government, which, however,\nhe was not prepared to denounce. He was compelled to assume the tone of\nan American, while at the same time addressing his appeal \"To the People\nof Pennsylvania,\" trying to detach its non-resident Quakers and its\nmercantile interest from sympathy with the general cause. Having a\nbad case, in view of Lexington, he naturally resorted to abuse of\nthe plaintiff's attorney. He soon found that when it came to Quaker\nsentiment and dialect, his unknown antagonist was at home.\n\n\"Remember, thou hast thrown me the glove, Cato, and either thee or I\nmust tire. I fear not the field of fair debate, but thou hast stepped\naside and made it personal. Thou hast tauntingly called me by name; and\nif I cease to hunt thee from every lane and lurking hole of mischief,\nand bring thee not a trembling culprit before the public bar, then brand\nme with reproach by naming me in the list of your confederates.\"\n\n\"The Forester\" declares his respect for the honest and undisguised\nopponents of independence. \"To be nobly wrong is more manly than to\nbe meanly right.\" But \"Cato\" wears the mask of a friend, and shall be\nproved a foe.\n\nThe so-called \"Tories\" of the American Revolution have never had justice\ndone them. In another work I have told the story of John Randolph,\nKing's Attorney in Virginia, and there were many other martyrs of\nloyalty in those days.* Four months after the affair at Lexington,\nThomas Jefferson wrote to John Randolph, in London: \"Looking with\nfondness towards a reconciliation with Great Britain, I cannot help\nhoping you may be able to contribute towards expediting the good work.\"\nThis was written on August 25, 1775; and if this was the feeling of\nJefferson only ten months before the Declaration, how many, of more\nmoderate temper, surrounded \"Cato\" and \"The Forester\" in loyal and\npeace-loving Philadelphia? But \"Cato\" was believed ungenuine. The Rev.\nDr. William Smith, who wrote under that name, a native of Aberdeen with\nan Oxonian D.D., had been a glowing Whig patriot until June, 1775. But\nhis wife was a daughter of the loyalist, William Moore. This lady of\nfashion was distinguished by her contempt for the independents, and her\nhusband, now near fifty, was led into a false position.**\n\n     * \"Omitted Chapters of History, Disclosed in the Life and\n     Papers of Edmund  Randolph,\" p.   20.\n\n     ** R. H. Lee, in a letter to his brother (July 5, 1778) says:\n    \"We had a magnificent celebration of the anniversary of\n     independence. The Whigs of the city dressed up a woman of\n     the town with the monstrous head-dress of the Tory ladies,\n     and escorted her through the town with a great concourse of\n     people. Her head was elegantly and expensively dressed, I\n     suppose about three feet high and proportionate width, with\n     a profusion of curls, etc. The figure was droll, and\n     occasioned much mirth. It has lessened some heads already,\n     and will probably bring the rest within the bounds of\n     reason, for they are monstrous indeed. The Tory wife of Dr.\n     Smith has christened this figure Continella, or the Duchess\n     of Independence, and prayed for a pin from her head by way\n     of relic. The Tory women are very much mortified,\n     notwithstanding this.\"--\"Omitted Chapters of History,\" p.\n     40.\n\n     \"Cato's\" brilliant wife had to retire before \"Continella\" in\n     the following year. The charter of the College of\n     Philadelphia was taken away, and its president retired to an\n     obscure living at Chestertown, Maryland. He had, however,\n     some of the dexterity of the Vicar of Bray; when the cause\n     he had reviled was nearly won he founded a \"Washington\"\n     college in Maryland. He was chosen by that diocese for a\n     bishop (1783), but the General Convention refused to\n     recommend him for consecration. In 1789 he managed to regain\n     his place as college president in Philadelphia.\n\nHe held the highest literary position in Philadelphia, and perhaps felt\nsome jealousy of Paine's fame. He picked out all the mistakes he\ncould find in \"Common Sense,\" and tried in every way to belittle his\nantagonist. Himself a Scotchman, his wife an Englishwoman, he sneered at\nPaine for being a foreigner; having modified his principles to those of\nthe loyalist's daughter, he denounced Paine as an \"interested\nwriter.\" He was out of his element in the controversy he began with\npersonalities. He spoke of the trouble as a lovers' quarrel. Paine\nanswers:\n\n\"It was not in the power of France or Spain, or all the other powers in\nEurope, to have given such a wound, or raised us to such mortal hatred\nas Britain hath done. We see the same kind of undescribed anger at her\nconduct, as we would at the sight of an animal devouring its young.\"\n\nThe strongest point of \"Cato\" was based on the proposed embassy for\nnegotiation, and he demanded reverence for \"Ambassadors coming to\nnegotiate a peace.\" To this \"The Forester\" replied:\n\n\"Cato discovers a gross ignorance of the British Constitution in\nsupposing that these men _can_ be empowered to act as Ambassadors. To\nprevent his future errors, I will set him right. The present war differs\nfrom every other, in this instance, viz., that it is not carried on\nunder the prerogative of the crown, as other wars have always been, but\nunder the authority of the whole legislative power united; and as the\nbarriers which stand in the way of a negotiation are not proclamations,\nbut acts of Parliament, it evidently follows that were even the King of\nEngland here in person, he could not ratify the terms or conditions of\na reconciliation; because, in the single character of King, he could\nnot stipulate for the repeal of any acts of Parliament, neither can the\nParliament stipulate for him. There is no body of men more jealous of\ntheir privileges than the Commons: Because they sell them.\"\n\nPaine wrote three letters in reply to \"Cato,\" the last of which\ncontained a memorable warning to the people on the eve of the\nDeclaration of Independence: \"_Forget not the hapless African_.\" That\nwas forgotten, but the summing up made Dr. William Smith an object of\ndetestation. He never ventured into political controversy again, and\nwhen he returned from exile to Philadelphia, a penitent patriot, he\nfound his old antagonist, Thomas Paine, honored by a degree from the\nUniversity of Pennsylvania into which the college had been absorbed.\n\nOn May 8th a fourth letter, signed \"The Forester,\" appeared in the same\npaper (_Pennsylvania Journal_), which I at first suspected of not being\nfrom Paine's pen.* This was because of a sentence beginning: \"The clergy\nof the English Church, of which I profess myself a member,\" etc. There\nis no need to question the truth of this, for, as we have seen, Paine\nhad been confirmed, and no doubt previously baptized; nor is there\nreason to disbelieve the statement of Oldys that he wished to enter holy\norders. There was a good deal of rationalism in the American church at\nthat time, and that Paine, with his religious fervor and tendency to\ninquire, should have maintained his place in that scholarly church is\nnatural. His quakerism was a philosophy, but he could by no means have\nfound any home in its rigid and dogmatic societies in Philadelphia. The\ncasual sentence above quoted was probably inserted for candor, as the\nletter containing it opens with a censure on the attitude of the Quakers\ntowards the proposal for independence. The occasion was an election of\nfour burgesses to represent Philadelphia in the State Assembly, a body\nin which Quakers (loyalists) preponderated. Had the independents been\nelected they must have taken the oath of allegiance to the crown, with\nwhich the State was at war. Indeed Paine declares that the \"Tories\"\nsucceeded in the election because so many patriots were absent for\ndefence of their country. Under these circumstances Paine urges the\nnecessity of a popular convention. The House of Assembly is disqualified\nfrom \"sitting in its own case.\"\n\n     * A theft of Paine's usual signature led to his first public\n     identification of himself (Feb. 13, 1779). \"As my signature,\n     'Common Sense,' has been counterfeited, either by Mr.\n     [Silas] Deane, or some of his adherents in Mr. Bradford's\n     paper of Feb. 3, I shall subscribe this with my name, Thomas\n     Paine.\" He, however, in Almon's Remembrancer (vol. viii.) is\n     indexed by name in connection with a letter of the previous\n     year signed \"Common Sense.\"\n\nThe extracts given from this letter are of historic interest as\nreflecting the conflict of opinions in Pennsylvania amid which the\nDeclaration was passed two months later.\n\n\"Whoever will take the trouble of attending to the progress and\nchangeability of times and things, and the conduct of mankind thereon,\nwill find that _extraordinary circumstances_ do sometimes arise before\nus, of a species, either so purely natural or so perfectly original,\nthat none but the man of nature can understand them. When precedents\nfail to assist us, we must return to the first principles of things for\ninformation, and think, as if we were the first men that thought. And\nthis is the true reason, that in the present state of affairs, the wise\nare become foolish, and the foolish wise. I am led to this reflection by\nnot being able to account for the conduct of the Quakers on any other;\nfor although they do not seem to perceive it themselves, yet it is\namazing to hear with what unanswerable ignorance many of that body,\nwise in other matters, will discourse on the present one. Did they hold\nplaces or commissions under the king, were they governors of provinces,\nor had they any interest apparently distinct from us, the mystery would\ncease; but as they have not, their folly is best attributed to that\nsuperabundance of worldly knowledge which in original matters is too\ncunning to be wise. Back to the first plain path of nature, friends, and\nbegin anew, for in this business your first footsteps were wrong. You\nhave now travelled to the summit of inconsistency, and that, with such\naccelerated rapidity as to acquire autumnal ripeness by the first of\nMay. Now your _rotting time comes on_.\"\n\n\"The Forester\" reminds the Quakers of their predecessors who, in 1704,\ndefended the rights of the people against the proprietor. He warns them\nthat the people, though unable to vote, represent a patriotic power\ntenfold the strength of Toryism, by which they will not submit to be\nruled.\n\n\"He that is wise will reflect, that the safest asylum, especially\nin times of general convulsion, when no settled form of government\nprevails, is _the love of the people_. All property is safe under their\nprotection. Even in countries where the lowest and most licentious of\nthem have risen into outrage, they have never departed from the path of\n_natural_ honor. Volunteers unto death in defence of the person or\nfortune of those who had served or defended them, division of property\nnever entered the mind of the populace. It is incompatible with that\nspirit which impels them into action. An avaricious mob was never heard\nof; nay, even a miser, pausing in the midst of them, and catching their\nspirit, would from that instant cease to be covetous.\"\n\nThe Quakers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey had held a congress in\nPhiladelphia and issued (January 20th) \"The Ancient Testimony and\nPrinciples of the People called Quakers renewed, with respect to the\nKing and Government; and touching the Commotions now prevailing in these\nand other Parts of America; addressed to the People in General.\" Under\nthis lamb-like tract, and its bleat of texts, was quite discoverable\nthe \"Tory\" wolf; but it was widely circulated and became a danger. The\nQuakers of Rhode Island actually made efforts to smuggle provisions into\nBoston during the siege. Paine presently reviewed this testimony in a\npamphlet, one extract from which will show that he could preach a better\nQuaker sermon than any of them:\n\n\"O ye partial ministers of your own acknowledged principles! If the\nbearing arms be sinful, the first going to war must be more so, by all\nthe difference between wilful attack and unavoidable defence. Wherefore,\nif ye really preach from conscience, and mean not to make a political\nhobbyhorse of your religion, convince the world thereof by proclaiming\nyour doctrine to our enemies, for they likewise bear arms. Give us proof\nof your sincerity by publishing it at St James's, to the commanders\nin chief at Boston, to the admirals and captains who are piratically\nravaging our coasts, and to all the murdering miscreants who are acting\nin authority under Him whom ye profess to serve. Had ye the honest soul\nof Barclay ye would preach repentance to your king; ye would tell the\nRoyal Wretch his sins, and warn him of eternal ruin; ye would not spend\nyour partial invectives against the injured and insulted only, but, like\nfaithful ministers, cry aloud and spare none.\"\n\n     * Paine was not then aware of the extent of the intrigues of\n     leading Quakers with the enemy. The State archives of\n     England and France contain remarkable evidences on this\n     subject. Paul Wentworth, in a report to the English\n     government (1776 or 1777.) mentions the loyalty of Pemberton\n     and the Quakers. Wentworth says that since the publication\n     of \"Common Sense\" it had become hard to discover the real\n     opinions of leading men. \"Mr. Payne,\" he says, \"should not\n     be forgot. He is an Englishman, was schoolmaster in\n     Philadelphia; must be driven to work; naturally indolent;\n     led by His passions.\" These \"passions,\" chiefly for liberty\n     and humanity, seem to have so driven the indolent man to\n     work that, according to Wentworth, his pamphlet \"worked up\n     [the people] to such a high temper as fitted them for the\n     impression of the Declaration, etc.\" The Quakers, however,\n     held out long, though more covertly. M. Gerard de Rayneval,\n     in a letter from Philadelphia, Sept. 18, 1778, reports to\n     his government: \"During the occupation of Philadelphia by\n     the English, proofs were obtained of the services rendered\n     them by the Quakers; some of these were caught acting as\n     spies, etc.\" La Luzerne writes (May 4, 1781): \"All the\n     Quakers in Philadelphia who have taken up arms, or\n     voluntarily paid war taxes, have been excommunicated;\n     these, increasing in number, declare themselves loyal.\" See\n     for further information on this matter, \"New Materials for\n     the History of the American Revolution,\" etc   By John\n     Durand.    New York, 1889,\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII. UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE\n\nAs in North Carolina had occurred the first armed resistance to British\noppressions (1771), and its Mecklenburg County been the first to\norganize a government independent of the Crown, so was that colony\nthe first to instruct its delegates in Congress to vote for national\nindependence. She was followed in succession by South Carolina,*\nVirginia,** Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire,\nGeorgia, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Maryland passed\npatriotic resolutions, but not sufficiently decisive for its delegates\nto act. New York alone forbade its delegates to vote for independence.\n\n     * Colonel Gadsden, having left the Continental Congress to\n     take command in South Carolina, appeared in the provincial\n     Congress at Charleston February 10,1776. \"Col. Gadsden\n     (having brought the first copy of Paine's pamphlet 'Common\n     Sense, etc.,') boldly declared himself... for the\n     absolute Independence of America. This last sentiment came\n     like an explosion of thunder on the members\" (Rev. John\n     Drayton's Memoirs; etc., p. 172). The sentiment was\n     abhorred, and a member \"called the author of 'Common Sense'\n     --------\"; but on March 21st the pamphlet was reinforced by\n     tidings of an Act of Parliament (Dec. 21, 1775) for seizure\n     of American ships, and on March 23d South Carolina\n     instructed its delegates at Philadelphia to agree to\n     whatever that Congress should \"judge necessary, etc.\"\n\n     ** A thousand copies of \"Common Sense\" were at once ordered\n     from Virginia, and many more followed. On April 1st\n     Washington writes to Joseph Reed: \"By private letters which\n     I have lately received from Virginia, I find 'Common Sense'\n     is working a wonderful change there in the minds of many\n     men.\" On June 29th union with England was \"totally dissolved\"\n     by Virginia.\n\nMeanwhile, on June 7th, Richard Henry Lee, in behalf of the Virginians,\nhad submitted resolutions of independence; but as six States hesitated,\nCongress adjourned the decision until July 1st, appointing, however,\n(June 11th) a committee to consider the proper form of the probable\nDeclaration--Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman, and\nRobert R. Livingston. But this interval, from June 7th to July 1st,\nwas perilous for independence. News came of the approach of Lord Howe\nbearing from England the \"olive branch.\" The powerful colonies New York\nand Pennsylvania were especially anxious to await the proposals\nfor peace. At this juncture Paine issued one of his most effective\npamphlets, \"A Dialogue between the Ghost of General Montgomery, Just\nArrived from the Ely-sian Fields, and an American Delegate, in a Wood\nnear Philadelphia.\" Montgomery, the first heroic figure fallen in the\nwar, reproaches the hesitating delegate for willingness to accept pardon\nfrom a royal criminal for defending \"the rights of humanity.\" He points\nout that France only awaits their declaration of independence to come\nto their aid, and that America \"teems with patriots, heroes, and\nlegislators who are impatient to burst forth into light and importance.\"\nThe most effective part of the pamphlet, however, was a reply to the\ncommercial apprehensions of New York and Pennsylvania. \"Your dependance\nupon the Crown is no advantage, but rather an injury, to the people of\nGreat Britain, as it increases the power and influence of the King. The\npeople are benefited only by your trade, and this they may have after\nyou are independent of the Crown.\" There is a shrewd prescience of what\nactually happened shown in this opportune work. Of course the gallant\nghost remarks that \"monarchy and aristocracy have in all ages been the\nvehicles of slavery.\" The allusion to the arming of negroes and Indians\nagainst America, and other passages, resemble clauses in one of the\nparagraphs eliminated from the original Declaration of Independence.\n\nAt this time Paine saw much of Jefferson, and there can be little doubt\nthat the anti-slavery clause struck out of the Declaration was written\nby Paine, or by some one who had Paine's anti-slavery essay before him.\nIn the following passages it will be observed that the antitheses are\nnearly the same--\"infidel and Christian,\" \"heathen and Christian.\"\n\n[Illustration: Anti-slavery essay 117-118]\n\n\nPARAGRAPH STRUCK OUT OF THE DECLARATION.\n\n\"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most\nsacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people\nwho never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in\nanother hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation\nthither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is\nthe warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep\nopen a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted\nhis negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or\nrestrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors\nmight want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very\npeople to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which\nhe has deprived them by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded\nthem, thus paying off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of\none people with crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES\nof another.\"\n\n\nTHOMAS PAINE.\n\n\"--these inoffensive people are brought into slavery, by stealing them,\ntempting kings to sell subjects, which they can have no right to do, and\nhiring one tribe to war against another, in order to catch prisoners.\nBy such wicked and inhuman ways the English, etc.... an hight of outrage\nthat seems left by Heathen nations to be practised by pretended Chris\nHansr\n\n\"--that barbarous and hellish power which has stirred up the Indians and\nNegroes to destroy us; the cruelty hath a double guilt--it is dealing\nbrutally by us and treacherously by them.\"\n\n\nThus did Paine try to lay at the corner the stone which the builders\nrejected, and which afterwards ground their descendants to powder.\nJefferson withdrew the clause on the objection of Georgia and South\nCarolina, which wanted slaves, and of Northerners interested in\nsupplying them. That, however, was not known till all the parties were\ndead. Paine had no reason to suppose that the Declaration of human\nfreedom and equality, passed July 4th, could fail eventually to include\nthe African slaves. The Declaration embodied every principle he had been\nasserting, and indeed Cobbett is correct in saying that whoever may\nhave written the Declaration Paine was its author. The world being his\ncountry, and America having founded its independence on such universal\ninterests, Paine could not hesitate to become a soldier for mankind.*\nHis Quaker principles, always humanized, were not such as would applaud\na resistance in which he was not prepared to participate. While the\nsigners of the Declaration of Independence were affixing their names--a\nprocedure which reached from August 2d into November--Paine resigned his\n_Pennsylvania Magazine_, and marched with his musket to the front. He\nenlisted in a Pennsylvania division of the Flying Camp of ten thousand\nmen, who were to be sent wherever needed. He was under General\nRoberdeau, and assigned at first to service at Amboy, afterwards at\nBergen. The Flying Camp was enlisted for a brief period, and when that\nhad expired Paine travelled to Fort Lee, on the Hudson, and renewed his\nenlistment. Fort Lee was under the command of General Nathaniel\nGreene who, on or about September 19th, appointed Paine a Volunteer\nAide-de-camp.\n\n     * Professor John Fiske (whose \"American Revolution\" suffers\n     from ignorance of Paine's papers) appreciates the effect of\n     Paine's \"Common Sense\" but not its cause. He praises the\n     pamphlet highly, but proves that he has only glanced at it\n     by his exception: \"The pamphlet is full of scurrilous abuse\n     of the English people; and resorts to such stupid arguments\n     as the denial of the English origin of the Americans\" (i.,\n     p. 174). Starting with the principle that the cause of\n     America is \"the cause of all mankind,\" Paine abuses no\n     people, but only their oppressors. As to Paine's argument,\n     it might have appeared less \"stupid\" to Professor Fiske had\n     he realized that in Paine's mind negroes were the equals of\n     whites. However, Paine does not particularly mention negroes;\n     his argument was meant to carry its point, and it might\n     have been imprudent for him, in that connection, to have\n     classed the slaves with the Germans, who formed a majority\n     in Pennsylvania, and with the Dutch of New York. In replying\n     to the \"Mother-Country\" argument it appears to me far from\n     stupid to point out that Europe is our parent country, and\n     that if English descent made men Englishmen, the descendants\n     of William the Conqueror and half the peers of England were\n     Frenchmen, and, if the logic held, should be governed by\n     France.\n\nGeneral Greene in a gossipy letter to his wife (November 2d) says:\n\"Common Sense (Thomas Paine) and Colonel Snarl, or Cornwell, are\nperpetually wrangling about mathematical problems.\" On November 20th\ncame the surprise of Fort Lee; the boiling kettles and baking ovens of a\ndinner to be devoured by the British were abandoned, with three hundred\ntents, for a retreat made the more miserable by hunger and cold. By\nNovember 22d the whole army had retreated to Newark, where Paine began\nwriting his famous first _Crisis_.*\n\n     * Sec Almon's Remembrancer, 1777, p. 28, for Paine's graphic\n     journal of this retreat, quoted from the Pennsylvania\n     Journal. In reply to those who censured the retreat as\n     pusillanimous, he states that \"our army was at one time less\n     than a thousand effective men and never more than 4,000,\"\n     the pursuers being \"8,000 exclusive of their artillery and\n     light horse\"; he declares that posterity will call the\n     retreat \"glorious--and the names of Washington and Fabius\n     will run paralell to eternity.\" In the Pennsylvania Packet\n     (March 20, 1779) Paine says: \"I had begun the first number\n     of the Crisis while on the retreat, at Newark, with a design\n     of publishing it in the Jersies, as it was General\n     Washington's intention to have made a stand at Newark, could\n     he have been timely reenforced; instead of which nearly\n     half the army left him at that place, or soon after, their\n     time being out.\"\n\nHe could only write at night; during the day there was constant work for\nevery soldier of the little force surrounding Washington. \"I am wearied\nalmost to death with the retrogade motion of things,\" wrote Washington\nto his brother (November 9th), \"and I solemnly protest that a pecuniary\nreward of twenty thousand pounds a year would not induce me to undergo\nwhat I do; and after all, perhaps to lose my character, as it is\nimpossible, under such a variety of distressing circumstances, to\nconduct matters agreeably to public expectation.\" On November 27th\nhe writes from Newark to General Lee: \"It has been more owing to the\nbadness of the weather that the enemy's progress has been checked, than\nto any resistance we could make.\" Even while he wrote the enemy drew\nnear, and the next day (November 28th) entered one end of Newark\nas Washington left the other. At Brunswick he was joined by General\nWilliamson's militia, and on the Delaware by the Philadelphia militia,\nand could muster five thousand against Howe's whole army. \"I tremble\nfor Philadelphia,\" writes Washington to Lund Washington (December 10th).\n\"Nothing in my opinion, but General Lee's speedy arrival, who has been\nlong expected, though still at a distance (with about three thousand\nmen), can save it.\" On December 13th Lee was a prisoner, and on the 17th\nWashington writes to the same relative:\n\n\"Your imagination can scarce extend to a situation more distressing than\nmine. Our only dependence now is upon the speedy enlistment of a new\narmy. If this fails, I think the game will be pretty well up, as from\ndisaffection and want of spirit and fortitude, the inhabitants, instead\nof resistance, are offering submission and taking protection from Gen.\nHowe in Jersey.\"\n\nThe day before, he had written to the President of Congress that the\nsituation was critical, and the distresses of his soldiers \"extremely\ngreat, many of 'em being entirely naked and most so thinly clad as to be\nunfit for service.\" On December 18th he writes to his brother:\n\n\"You can form no idea of the perplexity of my situation. No man, I\nbelieve, ever had a greater choice of difficulties, and less means to\nextricate himself from them. However, under a full persuasion of the\njustice of our cause, I cannot entertain an Idea that it will finally\nsink, tho' it may remain for some time under a cloud.\"\n\nUnder that cloud, by Washington's side, was silently at work the force\nthat lifted it Marching by day, listening to the consultations of\nWashington and his generals, Paine wrote by the camp fires; the winter\nstorms, the Delaware's waves, were mingled with his ink; the half-naked\nsoldiers in their troubled sleep dreaming of their distant homes, the\nskulking deserter creeping off in the dusk, the pallid face of the\nheavy-hearted commander, made the awful shadows beneath which was\nwritten that leaflet which went to the Philadelphia printer along with\nWashington's last foreboding letters to his relatives in Virginia. It\nwas printed on December 19th,* and many copies reached the camp above\nTrenton Falls on the eve of that almost desperate attack on which\nWashington had resolved. On the 23d December he wrote to Colonel Joseph\nReed:\n\n     * The pamphlet was dated December 23rd, but it had appeared\n     on the 19th in the Pennsylvania Journal, the pen none have\n     achieved such vast results as Paine's  \"Common  Sense\" and\n     his first _Crisis_, Before the battle of Trenton the half-\n     clad, dis-heartened   soldiers   of   Washington   were\n     called together in groups to listen to that thrilling\n     exhortation.\n\n\"Christmas-day, at night, one hour before day, is the time fixed upon\nfor our attempt on Trenton. For Heaven's sake keep this to yourself, as\nthe discovery of it may prove fatal to us; our numbers, sorry I am\nto say, being less than I had any conception of; but necessity, dire\nnecessity will, nay must, justify any attempt.\"\n\nAmerica has known some utterances of the lips equivalent to decisive\nvictories in the field,--as some of Patrick Henry's, and the address of\nPresident Lincoln at Gettysburg.\n\nThe opening words alone were a victory.\n\n\"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the\nsunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his\ncountry; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man\nand woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this\nconsolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the\ntriumph: what we obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly; 't is dearness\nonly that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper\nprice upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an\narticle as Freedom should not be highly rated.\"\n\nNot a chord of faith, or love, or hope was left untouched. The very\nfaults of the composition, which the dilettanti have picked out, were\neffective to men who had seen Paine on the march, and knew these things\nwere written in sleepless intervals of unwearied labors. He speaks of\nwhat Joan of Arc did in \"the fourteenth century,\" and exclaims: \"Would\nthat heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen,\nand save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment!\" Joan was\nborn in 1410, but Paine had no cyclopaedia in his knapsack. The literary\nmusket reaches its mark. The pamphlet was never surpassed for true\neloquence--that is, for the power that carries its point. With skilful\nillustration of lofty principles by significant details, all summed with\nsimplicity and sympathy, three of the most miserable weeks ever endured\nby men were raised into epical dignity. The wives, daughters, mothers,\nsisters, seemed stretching out appealing hands against the mythically\nmonstrous Hessians. The great commander, previously pointed to as \"a\nmind that can even flourish upon care,\" presently saw his dispirited\nsoldiers beaming with hope, and bounding to the onset,--their watchword:\n_These are the times that try men's souls_! /Trenton was won, the\nHessians captured, and a New Year broke for America on the morrow of\nthat Christmas Day, 1776.*\n\n     * Paine's enemy, Cheetham, durst not, in the face of\n     Washington's expression of his \"lively sense of the\n     importance of your [Paine's] works,\" challenge well known\n     facts, and must needs partly confess them: \"The number was\n     read in the camp, to every corporal's guard, and in the army\n     and out of it had more than the intended effect. The\n     convention of New York, reduced by dispersion, occasioned by\n     alarm, to nine members, was rallied and reanimated.\n     Militiamen who, already tired of the war, were straggling\n     from the army, returned. Hope succeeded to despair,\n     cheerfulness to gloom, and firmness to irresolution. To the\n     confidence which it inspired may be attributed much of the\n     brilliant little affair which in the same month followed at\n     Trenton.\" Even Oldys is somewhat impressed by Paine's\n     courage: \"The Congress fled.    All were dismayed.   Not so\n     our author.\"\n\nPaine's Trenton musket had hardly cooled, or the pen of his first\n_Crisis_ dried, before he began to write another. It appeared about\nfour weeks after the battle and is addressed to Lord Howe. The Thetford\nmechanic has some pride in confronting this English lord who had offered\nthe Americans mercy. \"Your lordship, I find, has now commenced author,\nand published a Proclamation; I have published a Crisis.\" The rumors of\nhis being a hireling scribe, or gaining wealth by his publications, made\nit necessary for Paine to speak of himself at the conclusion:\n\n\"What I write is pure nature, and my pen and my soul have ever gone\ntogether. My writings I have always given away, receiving only the\nexpense of printing and paper, and sometimes not even that. I never\ncounted either fame or interest, and my manner of life, to those who\nknow it, will justify what I say. My study is to be useful, and if your\nlordship loves mankind as well as I do, you would, seeing you cannot\nconquer us, cast about and lend your hand towards accomplishing a peace.\nOur independence, with God's blessing, we will maintain against all the\nworld; but as we wish to avoid evil ourselves, we wish not to inflict it\non others. I am never over-inquisitive into the secrets of the cabinet,\nbut I have some notion that, if you neglect the present opportunity, it\nwill not be in our power to make a separate peace with you afterwards;\nfor whatever treaties or alliances we form we shall most faithfully\nabide by; wherefore you may be deceived if you think you can make it\nwith us at any time.\"\n\nThus the humble author of the Crisis offers the noble author of the\nProclamation \"mercy,\" on condition of laying down his arms, and going\nhome; but it must be at once!\n\nIf Howe, as is most likely, considered this mere impudence, he presently\nhad reason to take it more seriously. For there were increasing\nindications that Paine was in the confidence of those who controlled\naffairs. On January 21st he was appointed by the Council of Safety in\nPhiladelphia secretary to the commission sent by Congress to treat with\nthe Indians at Easton, Pennsylvania. The commissioners, with a thousand\ndollars' worth of presents, met the Indian chiefs in the German Reformed\nChurch (built 1776), and, as they reported to Congress, \"after shaking\nhands, drinking rum, while the organ played, we proceeded to business.\"*\n\n     * Condit's \"History of Easton,\" pp. 60, 118,\n\nThe report was, no doubt, written by Paine, who for his services\nwas paid L300 by the Pennsylvania Assembly (one of its advances for\nCongress, afterwards refunded). In a public letter, written in 1807,\nPaine relates an anecdote concerning this meeting with the Indians.\n\n\"The chief of the tribes, who went by the name of King Last-night,\nbecause his tribe had sold their lands, had seen some English men-of-war\nin some of the waters of Canada, and was impressed with the power of\nthose great canoes; but he saw that the English made no progress against\nus by land. This was enough for an Indian to form an opinion by. He\ncould speak some English, and in conversation with me, alluding to the\ngreat canoes, he gave me his idea of the power of a king of England, by\nthe following metaphor. 'The king of England,' said he, 'is like a fish.\nWhen he is in the water he can wag his tail; when he comes on land he\nlays down on his side.' Now if the English government had but half\nthe sense this Indian had, they would not have sent Duckworth to\nConstantinople, and Douglas to Norfolk, to lay down on their side.\"\n\nOn April 17th, when Congress transformed the \"Committee of Secret\nCorrespondence\" into the \"Committee of Foreign Affairs,\" Paine was\nelected its secretary. His friend, Dr. Franklin, had reached France in\nDecember, 1776, where Arthur Lee and Silas Deane were already at work.\nLord Howe might, indeed, have done worse than take Paine's advice\nconcerning the \"opportunity,\" which did not return. General Howe did,\nindeed, presently occupy a fine abode in Philadelphia, but only kept it\nwarm, to be afterwards the executive mansion of President Washington.\n\n\n\n\n{1777}\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII. SOLDIER AND SECRETARY\n\nAfter their disaster at Trenton, the English forces suspended\nhostilities for a long time. Paine, maintaining his place on General\nGreene's staff, complied with the wish of all the generals by wielding\nhis pen during the truce of arms. He sat himself down in Philadelphia,\n\"Second Street, opposite the Quaker meeting,\"--as he writes the\naddress. The Quakers regarded him as Antichrist pursuing them into\nclose quarters. Untaught by castigation, the leaders of the Society,\nand chiefly one John Pemberton, disguised allies of the Howes, had put\nforth, November 20, 1776, a second and more dangerous \"testimony.\" In\nit they counsel Friends to refuse obedience to whatever \"instructions or\nordinances\" may be published, not warranted by \"that happy constitution\nunder which they and others long enjoyed tranquillity and peace.\" In his\nsecond _Crisis_ (January 13, 1777) Paine refers to this document, and\na memorial, from \"a meeting of a reputable number of the inhabitants of\nthe city of Philadelphia,\" called attention of the Board of Safety to\nits treasonable character. The Board, however, not having acted, Paine\ndevoted his next three months to a treatment of that and all other moral\nand political problems which had been developed by the course of the\nRevolution, and must be practically dealt with. In reading this third\n_Crisis_, one feels in every sentence its writer's increased sense of\nresponsibility. Events had given him the seat of a lawgiver. His first\npamphlet had dictated the Declaration of Independence, his second\nhad largely won its first victory, his third had demonstrated the\nimpossibility of subjugation, and offered England peace on the only\npossible terms. The American heart had responded without a dissonant\nnote; he held it in his hand; he knew that what he was writing in that\nroom \"opposite the Quaker meeting\" were Acts of Congress. So it proved.\nThe third _Crisis_ was dated April 19, 1777, the second anniversary of\nthe first collision (Lexington). It was as effective in dealing with the\ninternal enemies of the country as the first had been in checking\nits avowed foes. It was written in a city still largely, if not\npreponderantly, \"tory,\" and he deals with them in all their varieties,\nnot arraigning the Friends as a Society. Having carefully shown that\nindependence, from being a natural right, had become a political and\nmoral necessity, and the war one \"on which a world is staked,\" he says\nthat \"Tories\" endeavoring to insure their property with the enemy should\nbe made to fear still more losing it on the other side. Paine proposes\nan \"oath or affirmation\" renouncing allegiance to the King, pledging\nsupport to the United States. At the same time let a tax of ten,\nfifteen, or twenty per cent be levied on all property. Each who takes\nthe oath may exempt his property by holding himself ready to do what\nservice he can for the cause; they who refuse the oath will be paying a\ntax on their insurance with the enemy. \"It would not only be good policy\nbut strict justice to raise fifty or one hundred thousand pounds, or\nmore, if it is necessary, out of the estates and property of the King\nof England's votaries, resident in Philadelphia, to be distributed as\na reward to those inhabitants of the city and State who should turn out\nand repulse the enemy should they attempt to march this way.\"\n\nThese words were written at a moment when a vigorous opposition, in and\nout of Congress, was offered to Washington's Proclamation (Morris-town,\nJanuary 25, 1777,) demanding that an oath of allegiance to the United\nStates should be required of all who had taken such an oath to the King,\nnon-jurors to remove within the enemy's lines, or be treated as enemies.\nPaine's proposal was partly followed on June 13th, when Pennsylvania\nexacted an oath of allegiance to the State from all over eighteen years\nof age.\n\nPaine was really the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. His election had\nnot been without opposition, and, according to John Adams, there was\na suggestion that some of his earlier writings had been unfavorable to\nthis country. What the reference was I cannot understand unless it\nwas to his anti-slavery essay, in which he asked Americans with what\nconsistency they could protest against being enslaved while they were\nenslaving others. That essay, I have long believed, caused a secret,\nsilent, hostility to the author by which he suffered much without\nsuspecting it. But he was an indefatigable secretary. An example of the\ncare with which foreign representatives were kept informed appears in a\nletter to William Bingham, agent of Congress at Martinique.\n\n\"Philadelphia, July 16th, 1777.--Sir,--A very sudden opportunity\noffers of sending you the News-papers, from which you will collect the\nsituation of our Affairs. The Enemy finding their attempt of marching\nthro' the Jersies to this City impracticable, have retreated to Staten\nIsland seemingly discontented and dispirited and quite at a loss what\nstep next to pursue. Our Army is now well recruited and formidable. Our\nMilitia in the several States ready at a day's notice to turn out and\nsupport the Army when occasion requires; and tho' we cannot, in the\ncourse of a Campaign, expect everything in the several Parts of the\nContinent, to go just as we wish it; yet the general face of our Affairs\nassures us of final success.\n\n\"In the Papers of June 18th & 25 and July 2d you will find Genl.\nWashington and Arnold's Letters of the Enemy's movement in, and retreat\nfrom the Jersies. We are under some apprehensions for Ticonderoga, as\nwe find the Enemy are unexpectedly come into that Quarter. The Congress\nhave several times had it in contemplation to remove the Garrison from\nthat Place--as by Experience we find that Men shut up in Forts are not\nof so much use as in the field, especially in the highlands where every\nhill is a natural fortification.\n\n\"I am Sir\n\n\"Your Obt. Humble Servt.\n\n\"Thomas Paine.\n\n\"Secretry to the Committee for Foreign Affairs.\"'\n\n     * MS., for which I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz, Philadelphia.\n\nAfter the occupation of Philadelphia by the British (September 26,\n1777), Paine had many adventures, as we shall presently see. He seems to\nhave been with Washington at Valley Forge when the Pennsylvania Assembly\nand President (Thomas Wharton, Jr.,) confided to him the delicate and\narduous task assigned by the following from Timothy Matlack, Secretary\nof the Assembly:\n\n\"Lancaster, Oct. 10, 1777. Sir,--The Hon'ble house of As'y have proposed\nand Council have adopted a plan of obtaining more regular and constant\nintelligence of the proceeding of Gen. Washington's army than has\nhitherto been had. Everyone agrees that you are the proper person for\nthis purpose, and I am directed by his Exc'y, the pr't, to write to you\nhereon (the Prs't being engaged in writing to the Gen'l, and the Express\nin waiting).\n\n\"The Assembly have agreed to make you a reasonable compensation for your\nservices in this business, if you think proper to engage in it, which I\nhope you will; as it is a duty of importance that there are few, however\nwell disposed, who are capable of doing in a manner that will answer all\nthe intentions of it--perhaps a correspondence of this kind may be the\nfairest opportunity of giving to Council some important hints that may\noccur to you on interesting subjects.\n\n\"Proper expresses will be engaged in this business. If the expresses\nwhich pass from headquarters to Congress can be made use of so much the\nbetter;--of this you must be judge.\n\n\"I expect Mr. Rittenhouse will send you a copy of the testimony of the\nlate Y. M. by this opp'y, if time will admit it to be copied--'t is a\npoor thing.--Yours, &c, T. M.\"*\n\n     * Pa. Arch., 1779, p. 659.    Paine at once set to work: p.\n     693, 694.\n\nWhat with this service, and his correspondence with foreign agents,\nPaine had his hands pretty full. But at the same time he wrote important\nletters to leading members of Congress, then in session at York,\nPennsylvania.\n\nThe subjoined letter sheds fresh light on a somewhat obscure point in\nour revolutionary history,--the obscurity being due to the evasions of\nAmerican historians on an episode of which we have little reason to\nbe proud. An article of Burgoyne's capitulation (October 17th) was as\nfollows:\n\n\"A free passage to be granted to the army under General Burgoyne to\nGreat Britain, upon condition of not serving again in North America\nduring the present contest: and the port of Boston to be assigned for\nentry of transports to receive the troops whenever General Howe shall so\norder.\"\n\nA letter was written by Paine to Hon. Richard Henry Lee, dated at\n\"Headquarters, fourteen miles from Philadelphia,\" October 30th, 1777.\n\n\"I wrote you last Tuesday 21st Inst., including a Copy of the King's\nspeech, since which nothing material has happened at Camp. Genl.\nMcDougal was sent last Wednesday night 22d. to attack a Party of the\nEnemy who lay over the Schuylkill at Grey's Ferry where they have a\nBridge. Genls. Greene & Sullivan went down to make a diversion below\nGerman Town at the same Time. I was with this last Party, but as the\nEnemy withdrew their Detachment We had only our Labor for our Pains.\n\n\"No Particulars of the Northern Affair have yet come to head Qrs.,\nthe want of which has caused much Speculation. A copy, said to be the\nArticles of Capitulation was recd. 3 or 4 days ago, but they rather\nappear to be some proposals made by Burgoyne, than the Capitulation\nitself. By those Articles it appears to me that Burgoyne has capitulated\nupon Terms, which we have a right to doubt the full performance of,\nVizt., 'That the Offrs. and Men shall be Transported to England and not\nserve in or against North America during the present War'--or words to\nthis effect.\n\n\"I remark, that this Capitulation, if true, has the air of a National\ntreaty; it is binding, not only on Burgoyne as a General, but on England\nas a Nation; because the Troops are to be subject to the conditions of\nthe Treaty after they return to England and are out of his Command. It\nregards England and America as Separate Sovereign States, and puts them\non an equal footing by staking the faith and honor of the former for the\nperformance of a Contract entered into with the latter.\n\n\"What in the Capitulation is stiled the '_Present War_' England affects\nto call a '_Rebellion_,' and while she holds this Idea and denies\nany knowledge of America as a Separate Sovereign Power, she will not\nconceive herself bound by any Capitulation or Treaty entered into by\nher Generals which is to bind her as a _Nation_, and more especially\nin those Cases where both Pride and present Advantage tempt her to a\nViolation. She will deny Burgoyne's Right and Authority for making such\na Treaty, and will, very possibly, show her insult by first censuring\nhim for entering into it, and then immediately sending the Troops back.\n\n\"I think we ought to be exceedingly cautious how we trust her with the\npower of abusing our Credulity. We have no authority for believing she\nwill perform that part of the Contract which subjects her not to send\nthe Troops to America during the War. The insolent Answer given to\nthe Commissrs. by Ld. Stormont, '_that the King's Ambassadors reed, no\nLetters from Rebels but when they came to crave Mercy?_ sufficiently\ninstructs us not to entrust them with the power of insulting Treaties of\nCapitulation.\n\n\"Query, Whether it wd. not be proper to detain the Troops at Boston &\ndirect the Commissioners at Paris to present the Treaty of Capitulation\nto the English Court thro' the hands of Ld. Stormont, to know whether it\nbe the intention of that Court to abide strictly by the Conditions and\nObligations thereof, and if no assurance be obtained to keep the Troops\nuntil they can be exchanged here.\n\n\"Tho' we have no immediate knowledge of any alliance formed by our\nCommissioners with France or Spain, yet we have no assurance there is\nnot, and our immediate release of those prisoners, by sending them to\nEngland, may operate to the injury of such Allied Powers, and be perhaps\ndirectly contrary to some contract subsisting between us and them prior\nto the Capitulation. I think we ought to know this first.--Query, ought\nwe not (knowing the infidelity they have already acted) to suspect they\nwill evade the Treaty by putting back into New York under pretence of\ndistress.--I would not trust them an inch farther than I could see them\nin the present state of things.\n\n\"The Army was to have marched yesterday about 2 or 3 Miles but the\nweather has been so exceedingly bad for three days past as to prevent\nany kind of movement, the waters are so much out and the rivulets so\nhigh there is no passing from one part of ye Camp to another.\n\n\"I wish the Northern Army was down here. I am apt to think that nothing\nmaterially offensive will take place on our part at present. Some\nMeans must be taken to fill up the Army this winter. I look upon the\nrecruiting service at an end and that some other plan must be adopted.\nSuppose the Service be by draft--and that those who are not drawn\nshould contribute a Dollar or two Dollars a Man to him on whom the lot\nfalls.--something of this kind would proportion the Burthen, and those\nwho are drawn would have something either to encourage them to go, or to\nprovide a substitute with--After closing this Letter I shall go again to\nFort Mifflin; all was safe there on the 27th, but from some preparations\nof the Enemy they expect another attack somewhere.\n\n\"The enclosed return of provision and Stores is taken from an account\nsigned by Burgoyne and sent to Ld. George Germain. I have not time to\nCopy the whole. Burgoyne closes his Letter as follows, 'By a written\naccount found in the Commissary's House at Ticonderoga Six thousand\nodd hundred Persons were fed from the Magazine the day before the\nevacuation.'\n\n\"I am Dear Sir, Yr. Affectionate Hble. Servt.\n\n\"T. Paine. \"Respectful Compts. to Friends.\n\n\"If the Congress has the Capitulation and Particulars of ye Surrender,\nthey do an exceeding wrong thing by not publishing ym. because they\nsubject the whole Affair to Suspicion.\"'\n\n     * I am indebted for this letter to Dr. John S. H. Fogg of\n     Boston. It bears the superscription: \"Honbl. Richd. Henry\n     Lee Esq. (in Congress) York Town. Forwarded by yr humble\n     Servt. T. Matlack, Nov. 1, 1777.\" Endorsed in handwriting of\n     Lee: \"Oct: 1777. Mr. Paine, Author of 'Common Sense.'\"\n\nHad this proposal of Paine, with regard to Bur-goyne's capitulation,\nbeen followed at once, a blot on the history of our Revolution might\nhave been prevented. The time required to march the prisoners to Boston\nand prepare the transports would have given England opportunity to\nratify the articles of capitulation. Washington, with characteristic\ninability to see injustice in anything advantageous to America, desired\nCongress to delay in every possible way the return of the prisoners to\nEngland, \"since the most virtuous adhesion to the articles would not\nprevent their replacing in garrison an equal number of soldiers who\nmight be sent against us.\" The troops were therefore delayed on one\npretext and another until Burgoyne declared that \"the publick faith is\nbroke.\" Congress seized on this remark to resolve that the embarkation\nshould be suspended until an \"explicit ratification of the Convention of\nSaratoga shall be properly ratified by the Court of Great Britain.\" This\nresolution, passed January 8, 1778, was not communicated to Burgoyne\nuntil February 4th. If any one should have suffered because of a remark\nmade in a moment of irritation it should have been Burgoyne himself; but\nhe was presently allowed to proceed to England, while his troops were\nretained,--a confession that Burgoyne's casual complaint was a mere\npretext for further delay. It may be added that the English government\nbehaved to its surrendered soldiers worse than Congress. The question of\nratifying the Saratoga Convention was involved in a partisan conflict in\nParliament, the suffering prisoners in America were forgotten, and they\nwere not released until the peace,--five years after they had marched\n\"with the honours of war,\" under a pledge of departure conceded by Gen.\nGates in reply to a declaration that unless conceded they would \"to a\nman proceed to any act of desperation sooner than submit.\"\n\nConcerning this ugly business there is a significant silence in Paine's\npublic writings. He would not have failed to discuss the matter in his\n_Crisis_ had he felt that anything honorable to the American name or\ncause could be made out of it.*\n\n     * Professor Fiske (\"Am. Revolution,\" i., p. 341) has a\n     ferocious attack on Congress for breaking faith in this\n     matter, but no doubt he has by this time read, in Ford's\n     \"Writings of Washington,\" (vol. vi.) the letters which bring\n     his attack on the great commander's own haloed head.\n\nIn his letter to Hon. R. H. Lee (October 30, 1777) Paine mentions\nthat he is about leaving the head-quarters near Philadelphia for Fort\nMifflin. Mr. Asa Bird Gardener, of New York, who has closely studied\nPaine's military career, writes me some account of it.\n\n\"Major-Gen. Greene was charged with the defence of the Delaware, and\npart of Brig.-Gen. Varnum's brigade was placed in garrison at Fort\nMercer, Red Bank, and at Fort Mifflin, Mud Island. A bloody and\nunsuccessful assault was made by Count Donop and 1,200 Hessians on Fort\nMercer, defended by the 1 st and 2d Reg'ts. R. I. Continental Inf'y. The\nentire British fleet was then brought up opposite Fort Mifflin, and\nthe most furious cannonade, and most desperate but finally unsuccessful\ndefence of the place was made. The entire works were demolished, and\nmost of the garrison killed and wounded. Major-Gen. Greene being anxious\nfor the garrison and desirous of knowing its ability to resist sent Mr.\nPaine to ascertain. He accordingly went to Fort Mercer, and from thence,\non Nov. 9 (1777) went with Col. Christopher Greene, commanding Fort\nMercer, in an open boat to Fort Mifflin, during the cannonade, and were\nthere when the enemy opened with two-gun batteries and a mortar battery.\nThis _very_ gallant act shows what a fearless man Mr. Paine was, and\nentitles him to the same credit for service in the Revolution as any\nContinental could claim.\"\n\n\n\n\n{1778}\n\nThe succession of mistakes, surprises, panics, which occasioned the\ndefeats before Philadelphia and ended in the occupation of that city by\nthe British general, seriously affected the reputation of Washington.\nThough Paine believed that Washington's generalship had been at fault\n(as Washington himself probably did*), he could utter nothing that\nmight injure the great cause. He mistrusted the singleness of purpose\nof Washington's opponents, and knew that the commander-in-chief was as\ndevoted as himself to the American cause, and would never surrender it\nwhatever should befall. While, therefore, the intrigues were going on at\nYorktown, Pennsylvania, whither Congress had retreated, and Washington\nwith his ill-fed and ill-clad army were suffering at Valley Forge, Paine\nwas writing his fifth _Crisis_, which had the most happy effect. It was\ndated at Lancaster, March 121, 1778. Before that time (February 19th)\nGeneral Gates had made his peace with Washington, and the intrigue\nwas breaking up, but gloom and dissatisfaction remained. The contrast\nbetween the luxurious \"Tories\" surrounding Howe in Philadelphia, and\nWashington's wretched five thousand at Valley Forge, was demoralizing\nthe country. The first part of this _Crisis_, addressed \"to General\nSir William Howe,\" pointed wrangling patriots to the common enemy; the\nsecond, addressed \"to the inhabitants of America,\" sounded a note of\ncourage, and gave good reasons for it. Never was aid more artistic\nthan that Paine's pen now gave Washington. The allusions to him are\nincidental, there is no accent of advocacy. While mentioning \"the\nunabated fortitude of a Washington,\" he lays a laurel on the brow of\nGates, on that of Herkimer, and even on the defeated. While belittling\nall that Howe had gained, telling him that in reaching Philadelphia, he\n\"mistook a trap for a conquest,\" he reunites Washington and Gates, in\nthe public mind, by showing the manoeuvres of the one near Philadelphia\npart of the other's victory at Saratoga. It is easy for modern eulogists\nof Washington to see this, but when Paine said it,--apparently aiming\nonly to humiliate Howe,--the sentence was a sunbeam parting a black\ncloud. Coming from a member of Greene's staff, from an author whose\ndaring at Fort Mifflin had made him doubly a hero; from the military\ncorrespondent of the Pennsylvania Council, and the Secretary of the\nCongressional Committee of Foreign Affairs,--Paine's optimistic view of\nthe situation had immense effect. He hints his official knowledge that\nBritain's \"reduced strength and exhausted coffers in a three years' war\nwith America hath given a powerful superiority to France and Spain,\"\nand advises Americans to leave wrangling to the enemy. \"We never had\nso small an army to fight against, nor so fair an opportunity of final\nsuccess as _now_.\"\n\n     * See his letter to the President of Congress. Ford's,\n     \"Writings of Washington,\" vol. vi., p. 82.\n\nThis fifth _Crisis_ was written mainly at Lancaster, Pa., at the house\nof William Henry, Jr., where he several times found shelter while\ndividing his time between Washington's head-quarters and York.* Every\nnumber of the _Crisis_ was thus written with full information from\nboth the military and political leaders. This _Crisis_ was finished and\nprinted at York, and there Paine begins No. VI. The \"stone house on the\nbanks of the Cadorus,\" at York, is still pointed out by a trustworthy\ntradition as that to which he bore the chest of congressional papers\nwith which he had fled to Trenton, when Howe entered Philadelphia.** It\nis a pleasant abode in a picturesque country, and no doubt Paine would\nhave been glad to remain there in repose. But whoever slept on his watch\nduring the Revolution Paine did not. The fifth _Crisis_ printed, he\ngoes to forward the crisis he will publish next. In April he is again\nat Lancaster, and on the 11th writes thence to his friend Henry Laurens,\nPresident of Congress.***\n\n     * This I learn by a note from Mr. Henry's descendant, John\n     W. Jordan. At this time Paine laid before Henry his scheme\n     for steam-navigation.\n\n     ** The house is marked \"B. by J. B. Cookis in the year\n     1761.\" It is probable that Congress deemed it prudent to\n     keep important documents a little way from the edifice in\n     the centre of the town where it met, a building which no\n     longer stands.\n\n     *** I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz, of Philadelphia, for\n     this and several other letters of Paine to Laurens.\n\n\"Lancaster, April 11th, 1778. Sir,--I take the liberty of mentioning\nan affair to you which I think deserves the attention of Congress. The\npersons who came from Philadelphia some time ago with, or in company\nwith, a flag from the Enemy, and were taken up and committed to\nLancaster Jail for attempting to put off counterfeit Contl. money,\nwere yesterday brought to Tryal and are likely to escape by means of an\nartful and partial Construction of an Act of this State for punishing\nsuch offences. The Act makes it felony to counterfeit the money\n_emitted_ by Congress, or to circulate such counterfeits knowing them to\nbe so. The offenders' Council explained the word 'emitted' to have\nonly a retrospect meaning by supplying the Idea of '_which have been_'\n'emitted by Congress.' Therefore say they the Act cannot be applied\nto any money emitted after the date of the Act. I believe the words\n'emitted by Congress' means only, and should be understood, to\ndistinguish Continental Money from other Money, and not one Time from\nanother Time. It has, as I conceive, no referrence to any Particular\nTime, but only to the particular authority which distinguishes Money\nso emitted from Money emitted by the State. It is meant only as a\ndiscription of the Money, and not of the Time of striking it, but\nincludes the Idea of all Time as inseparable from the Continuance of the\nauthority of Congress. But be this as it may; the offence is Continental\nand the consequences of the same extent. I can have no Idea of any\nparticular State pardoning an offence against all, or even their letting\nan offender slip legally who is accountable to all and every State alike\nfor his crime. The place where he commits it is the least circumstance\nof it. It is a mere accident and has nothing or very little to do with\nthe crime itself. I write this hoping the Information will point out the\nnecessity of the Congress supporting their emissions by claiming every\noffender in this line where the present deficiency of the Law or the\nPartial Interpretation of it operates to the Injustice and Injury of the\nwhole Continent.\n\n\"I beg leave to trouble you with another hint. Congress I learn has\nsomething to propose thro' the Commissrs. on the Cartel respecting the\nadmission and stability of the Continental Currency. As Forgery is a Sin\nagainst all men alike, and reprobated by all civil nations, Query, would\nit not be right to require of General Howe the Persons of Smithers and\nothers in Philadelphia suspected of this crime; and if He, or any other\nCommander, continues to conceal or protect them in such practices, that,\nin such case, the Congress will consider the crime as the Act of the\nCommander-in-Chief. Howe affects not to know the Congress--he ought to\nbe made to know them; and the apprehension of Personal Consequences may\nhave some effect on his Conduct. I am, Dear Sir,\n\n\"Your obt. and humble Servt.,\n\n\"T. Paine.\n\n\"Since writing the foregoing the Prisoners have had their Tryal, the one\nis acquitted and the other convicted only of a Fraud; for as the law now\nstands, or rather as it is explained, the counterfeiting--or circulating\ncounterfeits--is only a fraud. I do not believe it was the intention of\nthe Act to make it so, and I think it misapplied Lenity in the Court\nto suffer such an Explanation, because it has a tendency to invite and\nencourage a Species of Treason, the most prejudicial to us of any or all\nthe other kinds. I am aware how very difficult it is to make a law\nso very perfect at first as not to be subject to false or perplexed\nconclusions. There never was but one Act (said a Member of the House\nof Commons) which a man might not creep out of, _i. e._ the Act which\nobliges a man to be buried in woollen. T. P.\"\n\nThe active author and secretary had remained in Philadelphia two days\nafter Howe had crossed the Schuylkill, namely, until September 21st.\nThe events of that time, and of the winter, are related in a letter to\nFranklin, in Paris, which is of too much historical importance for any\npart of it to be omitted. It is dated Yorktown, May 16, 1778.\n\n\"Your favor of Oct 7th did not come to me till March. I was at Camp when\nCapt Folger, arrived with the Blank Packet The private Letters were,\nI believe, all safe. Mr. Laurens forwarded yours to York Town where I\nafterwards recd. it.\n\n\"The last winter has been rather barren of military events, but for your\namusement I send you a little history how I have passed away part of the\ntime.\n\n\"The 11th of Sepr. last I was preparing Dispatches for you when the\nreport of cannon at Brandywine interrupted my proceeding. The event of\nthat day you have doubtless been informed of, which, excepting the\nEnemy keeping the ground, may be deemed a drawn battle. Genl. Washington\ncollected his Army at Chester, and the Enemy's not moving towards him\nnext day must be attributed to the disability they sustained and the\nburthen of their wounded. On the 16th of the same month, the two Armies\nwere drawn up in order of battle near the White horse on the Lancaster\nroad, when a most violent and incessant storm of rain prevented an\naction. Our Army sustained a heavy loss in their Ammunition, the\nCartouch Boxes, especially as they were not of the most seasoned\nleather, being no proof agst. the almost incredible fury of the weather,\nwhich obliged Genl. Washn. to draw his Army up into the country till\nthose injuries could be repaired, and a new supply of ammunition\nprocured. The Enemy in the mean time kept on the West Side of\nSchuylkill. On Fryday the 19th about one in the morning the first alarm\nof their crossing was given, and the confusion, as you may suppose, was\nvery great. It was a beautiful still moonlight morning and the streets\nas full of men women and children as on a market day. On the eveng.\nbefore I was fully persuaded that unless something was done the City\nwould be lost; and under that anxiety I went to Col. Bayard, speaker of\nthe house of Assembly, and represented, as I very particularly knew\nit, the situation we were in, and the probability of saving the City if\nproper efforts were made for that purpose. I reasoned thus--Genl. Washn.\nwas about 30 Miles up the Schuylkill with an Army properly collected\nwaiting for Ammunition, besides which, a reinforcement of 1500 men were\nmarching from the North River to join him; and if only an appearance\nof defence be made in the City by throwing up works at the heads\nof streets, it will make the Enemy very suspicious how they throw\nthemselves between the City and Genl. Washington, and between two\nRivers, which must have been the case; for notwithstanding the knowledge\nwhich military gentlemen are supposed to have, I observe they move\nexceedingly cautiously on new ground, are exceedingly suspicious of\nVillages and Towns, and more perplexed at seemingly little things which\nthey cannot clearly understand than at great ones which they are fully\nacquainted with. And I think it very probable that Genl. Howe would\nhave mistaken our necessity for a deep laid scheme and not have ventured\nhimself in the middle of it But admitting that he had, he must either\nhave brought his whole Army down, or a part of it. If the whole. Gen. W.\nwould have followed him, perhaps the same day, in two or three days at\nmost, and our assistance in the City would have been material. If only\na part of it, we should have been a match for them, and Gen. W. superior\nto those which remained above. The chief thing was, whether the cityzens\nwould turn out to defend the City. My proposal to Cols. Bayard and\nBradford was to call them together the next morning, make them fully\nacquainted with the situation and the means and prospect of preserving\nthemselves, and that the City had better voluntarily assess itself\n50,000 for its defence than suffer an Enemy to come into it. Cols.\nBayard and Bradford were in my opinion, and as Genl. Mifflin was then in\ntown, I next went to him, acquainted him with our design, and mentioned\nlikewise that if two or three thousand men could be mustered up whether\nwe might depend on him to command them, for without some one to lead,\nnothing could be done. He declined that part, not being then very well,\nbut promised what assistance he could.--A few hours after this the alarm\nhappened. I went directly to Genl. Mifflin but he had sett off, and\nnothing was done. I cannot help being of opinion that the City might\nhave been saved, but perhaps it is better otherwise.\n\n\"I staid in the City till Sunday [Sep. 21st], having sent my Chest and\neverything belonging to the foreign Committee to Trenton in a Shallop.\nThe Enemy did not cross the river till the Wednesday following. Hearing\non the Sunday that Genl. Washn. had moved to Swederford I set off for\nthat place but learning on the road that it was a mistake and that he\nwas six or seven miles above that place, I crossed over to South-field\nand the next Morning to Trenton, to see after my Chest On the Wednesday\nMorning I intended returning to Philadelphia, but was informed at\nBristol of the Enemy's crossing the Schuylkill. At this place I met Col.\nKirkbride of Pennsburg Manor, who invited me home with him. On Fryday\nthe 26th a Party of the Enemy about 1500 took possession of the City,\nand the same day an account arrived that Col. Brown had taken 300 of\nthe Enemy at the old french lines at Ticonderoga and destroyed all their\nWater Craft, being about 200 boats of different kinds.\n\n\"On the 29th Sept I sett off for Camp without well knowing where to\nfind it, every day occasioning some movement I kept pretty high up the\ncountry, and being unwilling to ask questions, not knowing what company\nI might be in, I was three days before I fell in with it The Army had\nmoved about three miles lower down that morning. The next day they made\na movement about the same distance, to the 21 Mile Stone on the Skippach\nRoad--Head Quarters at John Wince's. On the 3d Octr. in the morning they\nbegan to fortify the Camp, as a deception; and about 9 at Night marched\nfor German Town. The Number of Continental Troops was between 8 and\n9000, besides Militia, the rest remaining as Guards for the security of\nCamp. Genl. Greene, whose Quarters I was at, desired me to remain\nthere till Morning. I set off for German Town about 5 next morning.\nThe Skirmishing with the Pickets began soon after. I met no person for\nseveral miles riding, which I concluded to be a good sign; after this I\nmet a man on horseback who told me he was going to hasten on a supply\nof ammunition, that the Enemy were broken and retreating fast, which\nwas true. I saw several country people with arms in their hands running\ncross a field towards German Town, within about five or six miles, at\nwhich I met several of the wounded on waggons, horseback, and on foot.\nI passed Genl. Nash on a litter made of poles, but did not know him.\nI felt unwilling to ask questions lest the information should not\nbe agreeable, and kept on. About two miles after this I passed a\npromiscuous crowd of wounded and otherwise who were halted at a house to\nrefresh. Col: Biddle D.Q.N.G. was among them, who called after me, that\nif I went farther on that road I should be taken, for that the firing\nwhich I heard ahead was the Enemy's. I never could, and cannot now\nlearn, and I believe no man can inform truly the cause of that day's\nmiscarriage.\n\n\"The retreat was as extraordinary. Nobody hurried themselves. Every one\nmarched his own pace. The Enemy kept a civil distance behind, sending\nevery now and then a Shot after us, and receiving the same from us. That\npart of the Army which I was with collected and formed on the Hill on\nthe side of the road near White Marsh Church; the Enemy came within\nthree quarters of a mile and halted. The orders on Retreat were to\nassemble that night on the back of Perki-ominy Creek, about 7 miles\nabove Camp, which had orders to move. The Army had marched the preceding\nnight 14 miles and having full 20 to march back were exceedingly\nfatigued. They appeared to me to be only sensible of a disappointment,\nnot a defeat, and to be more displeased at their retreating from German\nTown, than anxious to get to their rendezvous. I was so lucky that night\nto get to a little house about 4 miles wide of Perkiominy, towards which\nplace in the morning I heard a considerable firing, which distressed me\nexceedingly, knowing that our army was much harassed and not collected.\nHowever, I soon relieved myself by going to see. They were discharging\ntheir pieces, wch. tho' necessary, prevented several Parties going till\nnext day. I breakfasted next morning at Genl. W. Quarters, who was at\nthe same loss with every other to account for the accidents of the day.\nI remember his expressing his Surprise, by saying, that at the time he\nsupposed every thing secure, and was about giving orders for the Army\nto proceed down to Philadelphia; that he most unexpectedly saw a Part (I\nthink of the Artillery) hastily retreating. This partial Retreat was,\nI believe, misunderstood, and soon followed by others. The fog was\nfrequently very thick, the Troops young and unused to breaking and\nrallying, and our men rendered suspicious to each other, many of them\nbeing in Red. A new Army once disordered is difficult to manage, the\nattempt dangerous. To this may be added a prudence in not putting\nmatters to too hazardous a tryal the first time. Men must be taught\nregular fighting by practice and degrees, and tho' the expedition\nfailed, it had this good effect--that they seemed to feel themselves\nmore important after it than before, as it was the first general attack\nthey had ever made.\n\n\"I have not related the affair at Mr Chew's house German Town, as I was\nnot there, but have seen it since. It certainly afforded the Enemy time\nto rally--yet the matter was difficult. To have pressed on and left\n500 Men in ye rear, might by a change of circumstances been ruinous. To\nattack them was loss of time, as the house is a strong stone building,\nproof against any 12 pounder. Genl. Washington sent a flag, thinking it\nwould procure their surrender and expedite his march to Philadelphia; it\nwas refused, and circumstances changed almost directly after.\n\n\"I staid in Camp two days after the Germantown action, and lest any ill\nimpression should get among the Garrisons at Mud Island and Red Bank,\nand the Vessels and Gallies stationed there, I crossed over to the\nJersies at Trenton and went down to those places. I laid the first night\non board the Champion Continental Galley, who was stationed off the\nmouth of Schuylkill. The Enemy threw up a two Gun Battery on the point\nof the river's mouth opposite the Pest House. The next morning was a\nthick fog, and as soon as it cleared away, and we became visible to each\nother, they opened on the Galley, who returned the fire. The Commodore\nmade a signal to bring the Galley under the Jersey shore, as she was\nnot a match for the Battery, nor the Battery a sufficient Object for the\nGalley. One Shot went thro' the fore sail, wch. was all. At noon I went\nwith Col. [Christopher] Greene, who commanded at Red Bank, over to fort\nMifflin (Mud Island). The Enemy opened that day 2 two-gun Batteries, and\na Mortar Battery, on the fort. They threw about 30 Shells into it that\nafternoon, without doing any damage; the ground being damp and spongy,\nnot above five or six burst; not a man was killed or wounded. I came\naway in the evening, laid on board the Galley, and the next day came to\nCol. Kirkbride's [Borden-town N. J.]; staid a few days, and came again\nto Camp. An Expedition was on foot the evening I got there in which I\nwent as Aid de Camp to Genl. Greene, having a Volunteer Commission for\nthat purpose. The Occasion was--a Party of the Enemy, about 1500, lay\nover the Schuylkill at Grey's ferry. Genl. McDougall with his Division\nwas sent to attack them; and Sullivan & Greene with their Divisions were\nto favor the enterprise by a feint on the City, down the German-town\nroad. They set off about nine at night, and halted at day break, between\nGerman Town and the City, the advanced Party at the three Miles Run. As\nI knew the ground I went with two light horse to discover the Enemy's\nPicket, but the dress of the light horse being white made them, I\nthought, too visible, as it was then twilight; on which I left them\nwith my horse, and went on foot, till I distinctly saw the Picket at\nMr. Dickerson's place,--which is the nearest I have been to Philadelphia\nsince Sepr., except once at Coopers ferry, as I went to the forts. Genl.\nSullivan was at Dr. Redman's house, and McDougall's beginning the attack\nwas to be the Signal for moving down to the City. But the Enemy either\non the approach of McDougall, or on information of it, called in their\nParty, and the Expedition was frustrated.\n\n\"A Cannonade, by far the most furious I ever heard, began down the\nriver, soon after daylight, the first Gun of which we supposed to be\nthe Signal; but was soon undeceived, there being no small Arms. After\nwaiting two hours beyond the time, we marched back, the cannon was then\nless frequent; but on the road between German town and White marsh we\nwere stuned with a report as loud as a peal from a hundred Cannon at\nonce; and turning round I saw a thick smoke rising like a pillar, and\nspreading from the top like a tree. This was the blowing up of the\nAugusta. I did not hear the explosion of the Berlin.\n\n\"After this I returned to Col. Kirkbride's where I staid about a\nfortnight, and set off again to Camp. The day after I got there Genls.\nGreene, Wayne, and Cadwallader, with a Party of light horse, were\nordered on a reconnoitering Party towards the forts. We were out\nfour days and nights without meeting with any thing material. An East\nIndiaman, whom the Enemy had cut down so as to draw but little water,\ncame up, without guns, while we were on foot on Carpenter's Island,\ngoing to Province Island. Her Guns were brought up in the evening in a\nflat, she got in the rear of the Fort, where few or no Guns could bear\nupon her, and the next morning, played on it incessantly. The night\nfollowing the fort was evacuated. The obstruction the Enemy met with\nfrom those forts, and the _Chevaux de frise_ was extraordinary, and had\nit not been that the Western Channel, deepened by the current, being\nsomewhat obstructed by the _Chevaux de frise_ in the main river, which\nenabled them to bring up the light Indiaman Battery, it is a doubt\nwhether they would have succeeded at last. By that assistance they\nreduced the fort, and got sufficient command of the river to move some\nof the late sunk _Chevaux de frise_. Soon after this the fort on Red\nBank, (which had bravely repulsed the Enemy a little time before) was\navacuated, the Gallies ordered up to Bristol, and the Capts. of such\nother armed Vessels as thought they could not pass on the Eastward side\nof Wind mill Island, very precipitately set them on fire. As I judged\nfrom this event that the Enemy would winter in Philadelphia, I began to\nthink of preparing for York Town, which however I was willing to delay,\nhoping that the ice would afford opportunity for new Manoeuvres. But the\nseason passed very barrenly away. I staid at Col. Kirkbride's till the\nlatter end of Janay. Commodore Haslewood, who commanded the remains of\nthe fleet at Trenton, acquainted me with a scheme of his for burning the\nEnemy's Shipping, which was by sending a charged boat across the river\nfrom Cooper's ferry, by means of a Rocket fixt in its stern. Considering\nthe width of the river, the tide, and the variety of accidents\nthat might change its direction, I thought the project trifling and\ninsufficient; and proposed to him, that if he would get a boat properly\nchoyed, and take a Batteau in tow, sufficient to bring three or four\npersons off, that I would make one with him and two other persons who\nmight be relied on to go down on that business. One of the Company,\nCapn. Blewer of Philadelphia, seconded the proposal, but the Commodore,\nand, what I was more surprized at, Col. Bradford, declined it. The\nburning of part of the Delaware fleet, the precipitate retreat of the\nrest, the little service rendered by them and the great expence they\nwere at, make the only national blot in the proceedings of the last\nCampaign. I felt a strong anxiety for them to recover their credit,\nwch., among others, was one motive for my proposal. After this I came to\ncamp, and from thence to York Town, and published the _Crisis_ No. 5, To\nGenl. Howe. I have began No. 6, which I intend to address to Ld. North.\n\n\"I was not at Camp when Genl. Howe marched out on the 20th of Deer,\ntowards White marsh. It was a most contemptible affair, the threatenings\nand seeming fury he sate out with, and haste and Terror the Army\nretreated with, make it laughable. I have seen several persons from\nPhiladelphia who assure me that their coming back was a mere uproar, and\nplainly indicated their apprehensions of a pursuit. Genl. Howe, in\nhis Letter to Ld. Go. Germain, dated Dec. 13th, represented Genl.\nWashington's Camp as a strongly fortified place. There was not, Sir, a\nwork thrown up in it till Genl. Howe marched out, and then only here and\nthere a breast work. It was a temporary Station. Besides which, our men\nbegin to think Works in the field of little use.\n\n\"Genl. Washington keeps his Station at the Valley forge. I was there\nwhen the Army first began to build huts; they appeared to me like a\nfamily of Beavers; every one busy; some carrying Logs, others Mud, and\nthe rest fastening them together. The whole was raised in a few days,\nand is a curious collection of buildings in the true rustic order.\n\n\"As to Politics, I think we are now safely landed. The apprehension\nwhich Britain must be under from her neighbours must effectually prevent\nher sending reinforcements, could she procure them. She dare not, I\nthink, in the present situation of affairs trust her troops so far from\nhome.\n\n\"No Commissrs. are yet arrived. I think fighting is nearly over, for\nBritain, mad, wicked, and foolish, has done her utmost. The only part\nfor her now to act is frugality, and the only way for her to get out\nof debt is to lessen her Government expenses. Two Millions a year is a\nsufficient allowance, and as much as she ought to expend exclusive of\nthe interest of her Debt. The Affairs of England are approaching either\nto ruin or redemption. If the latter, she may bless the resistance of\nAmerica.\n\n\"For my own part, I thought it very hard to have the Country set on fire\nabout my Ears almost the moment I got into it; and among other pleasures\nI feel in having uniformly done my duty, I feel that of not having\ndiscredited your friendship and patronage.\n\n\"I live in hopes of seeing and advising with you respecting the History\nof the American Revolution, as soon as a turn of Affairs make it safe\nfor me to take a passage to Europe. Please to accept my thanks for the\nPamphlets, which Mr. Temple Franklin informs me he has sent. They are\nnot yet come to hand. Mr. & Mrs. Bache are at Mainheim, near Lancaster;\nI heard they were well a few days ago. I laid two nights at Mr.\nDuffield's, in the winter. Miss Nancy Clifton was there, who said the\nEnemy had destroyed or sold a great quantity of your furniture. Mr.\nDuffield has since been taken by them and carried into the City, but is\nnow at his own house. I just now hear they have burnt Col. Kirk-bride's,\nMr. Borden's, and some other houses at Borden Town. Governor Johnstone\n(House of Commons) has wrote to Mr. Robt. Morriss informing him\nof Commissioners coming from England. The letter is printed in the\nNewspapers without signature, and is dated Febry. 5th, by which you will\nknow it.*\n\n     * The arrival of the Commissioners caused Paine to address\n     his _Crisis VI_. to them instead of to Lord North, as he\n     tells Franklin is his intention. The above letter was no\n     doubt written in the old stone house at York.\n\n\"Please, Sir, to accept this, rough and incorrect as it is, as I have\n[not] time to copy it fair, which was my design when I began it; besides\nwhich, paper is most exceedingly scarce.\n\n\"I am, Dear Sir, your Obliged and Affectionate humble Servt,\n\n\"T. Paine.\n\n\"The Honble. Benj. Franklin, Esqr.\"\n\n\nPaine's prophecy at the close of his fifth _Crisis_ (March, 1778), that\nEngland, reduced by her war with America, was in peril from France, was\nspeedily confirmed. The treaty between France and America (February 6th)\nwas followed by a war-cloud in Europe, which made the Americans sanguine\nthat their own struggle was approaching an end. It was generally\nexpected that Philadelphia would be evacuated. On this subject Paine\nwrote the following letter to Washington:\n\n\"York Town, June 5th, 1778.--Sir,--As a general opinion prevails that\nthe Enemy will quit Philadelphia, I take the Liberty of transmitting\nyou my reasons why it is probable they will not. In your difficult and\ndistinguished Situation every hint may be useful.\n\n\"I put the immediate cause of their evacuation, to be a declaration of\nWar in Europe made by them or against them: in which case, their Army\nwould be wanted for other Service, and likewise because their present\nsituation would be too unsafe, being subject to be blocked up by France\nand attacked by you and her jointly.\n\n\"Britain will avoid a War with France if she can; which according to my\narrangement of Politics she may easily do--She must see the necessity of\nacknowledging, sometime or other, the Independance of America; if she is\nwise enough to make that acknowledgment now, she of consequence admits\nthe Right of France to the quiet enjoyment of her Treaty, and therefore\nno War can take place upon the Ground of having concluded a Treaty with\nrevolted British Subjects.\n\n\"This being admitted, their apprehension of being doubly attacked, or\nof being wanted elsewhere, cease of consequence; and they will then\nendeavor to hold all they can, that they may have something to restore,\nin lieu of something else which they will demand; as I know of no\nInstance where conquered Plans were surrendered up prior to, but only in\nconsequence of a Treaty of Peace.\n\n\"You will observe, Sir, that my reasoning is founded on the supposition\nof their being reasonable Beings, which if they are not, then they are\nnot within the compass of my System, I am, Sir, with every wish for your\nhappiness, Your Affectionate and Obt. humble Servant,\n\n\"Thos. Paine.\n\n\"His Excellency, Genl. Washington, Valley Forge.\"\n\n\nShortly after this letter to Washington tidings came that a French\nfleet, under Count d'Estaing, had appeared on the coast, and was about\nto blockade the Delaware. The British apparently in panic, really by\norder from England, left Philadelphia, June 18th. This seeming flight\nwas a great encouragement. Congress was soon comfortably seated in\nPhiladelphia, where Paine had the pleasure of addressing his next\n_Crisis_ to the British Peace Commissioners.\n\nIn Philadelphia Congress was still surrounded by a hostile population;\nPaine had still to plead that there should be no peace without\nrepublican independence. Even so late as November 24, 1778, the French\nMinister (Gerard) writes to his government: \"Scarcely one quarter of\nthe ordinary inhabitants of Philadelphia now here favour the cause (of\nindependence). Commercial and family ties, together with an aversion to\npopular government, seem to account for this. The same feeling exists\nin New York and Boston, which is not the case in the rural districts.\"\nWhile Franklin was offered in Paris the bribe of a peerage, and the like\nfor several revolutionary leaders, similar efforts were made in America\nto subdue the \"rebellion\" by craft. For that purpose had come the Earl\nof Carlisle, Sir George Johnstone, and William Eden. Johnstone had\nretired from the Commission in disgust. Referring to the invitation of\nthe Peace Commissioners, that America should join them against France,\nhe says: \"Unless you were capable of such conduct yourselves, you\nwould never have supposed such a character in us.\" He reminds the\ncommissioners, who had threatened that America must be laid waste so as\nto be useless to France, that increased wants of America must make her\na more valuable purchaser in France. Paine mentions Sir H. Clinton with\nsome significance, and suspects the truth that he had brought orders,\nreceived from England, overruling an intention of the peace envoys to\nburn Philadelphia if their terms were rejected. He says he has written\na _Crisis_ for the English people because there was a convenient\nconveyance; \"for the Commissioners--_poor Commissioners_!--having\nproclaimed that '_yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown?_ have\nwaited out the date, and, discontented with their God, are returning\nto their gourd. And all the harm I wish them is that it may not wither\nabout their ears, and that they may not make their exit in the belly of\na whale.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX. FRENCH AID, AND THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY.\n\nIn Bell's addenda to \"Common Sense,\" which contained Paine's Address\nto the Quakers (also letters by others), appeared a little poem which I\nbelieve his, and the expression of his creed.\n\n     \"THE  AMERICAN   PATRIOT'S   PRAYER.\n\n     \"Parent of all, omnipotent\n     In heaven, and earth below,\n     Through all creation's bounds unspent,\n     Whose streams of goodness flow,\n\n     \"Teach me to know from whence I rose,\n     And unto what designed;\n     No private aims let me propose,\n     Since link'd with human kind.\n\n     \"But chief to hear my country's voice,\n     May all my thoughts incline;\n     'T is reason's law, 't is virtue's choice,\n     'T is nature's call and thine.\n\n     \"Me from fair freedom's sacred cause\n     Let nothing e'er divide;\n     Grandeur, nor gold, nor vain applause,\n     Nor friendship false misguide.\n\n     \"Let me not faction's partial hate\n     Pursue to this Land's woe;\n     Nor grasp the thunder of the state\n     To wound a private foe.\n\n     \"If, for the right to wish the wrong\n     My country shall combine,\n     Single to serve th' erroneous throng,\n     Spight of themselves, be mine.\"\n\nEvery sacrifice contemplated in this self-dedication had to be made.\nPaine had held back nothing from the cause. He gave America the\ncopyrights of his eighteen pamphlets. While they were selling by\nthousands, at two or three shillings each, he had to apologize to a\nfriend for not sending his boots, on the ground that he must borrow the\nmoney to pay for them! He had given up the magazine so suited to his\nliterary and scientific tastes, had dismissed his lucrative school\nin Philadelphia, taken a musket on his Quaker shoulders, shared the\nprivations of the retreat to the Delaware, braved bullets at Trenton and\nbombs at Fort Mifflin. But now he was to give up more. He was\n\n     \"Single to serve th' erroneous throng,\n     Spight of themselves,\"\n\nand thereby lose applause and friendship. An ex-Congressman, sent to\nprocure aid in France, having, as Paine believed, attempted a fraud\non the scanty funds of this country, he published his reasons for so\nbelieving. In doing so he alarmed the French Ambassador in America, and\nincurred the hostility of a large party in Congress; the result being\nhis resignation of the secretaryship of its Foreign Affairs Committee.\n\nIt has been traditionally asserted that, in this controversy, Paine\nviolated his oath of office. Such is not the fact. His official oath,\nwhich was prepared for Paine himself--the first secretary of a new\ncommittee,--was framed so as to leave him large freedom as a public\nwriter.\n\n\"That the said secretary, previous to his entering on his office, take\nan oath, to be administered by the president, well and faithfully\nto execute the trust reposed in him, according to his best skill and\njudgment; and to disclose no matter, the knowledge of which shall be\nacquired in consequence of his office, _that he shall be directed to\nkeep secret._\"\n\nNot only was there no such direction of secrecy in this case, but\nCongress did not know the facts revealed by Paine. Compelled by a\ncomplaint of the French Minister to disown Paine's publication, Congress\nrefused to vote that it was \"an abuse of office,\" or to discharge him.\nThe facts should be judged on their merits, and without prejudice.\nI have searched and sifted many manuscripts in European and\nAmerican archives to get at the truth of this strange chapter in our\nrevolutionary history, concerning which there is even yet an unsettled\ncontroversy.*\n\n     * \"Beaumarchais et son Temps,\" par M. De Lomenie, Paris,\n     1856. \"Histoire de la Participation de la France a\n     l'Etablissement des Etats Unis d'Amerique.\" par M. Doniol,\n     Paris. \"Beaumarchais and 'The Lost Million,'\" by Charles\n     J. Stille (privately printed in Philadelphia). \"New\n     Materials for the History of the American Revolution,\" by\n     John Durand, New York, 1889. Magazine of American History%\n     vol. ii., p. 663. \"Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin,\" by\n     James Parton, New York, 1864. \"Papers in Relation to the\n     Case of Silas Deane,\" Philadelphia, printed for the Seventy-\n     six Society, 1855.\n\nThe reader who desires to explore the subject will find an ample\nliterature concerning it, but with confusing omissions, partly due to a\nneglect of Paine's papers.\n\nThe suggestion of French aid to America was first made in May, 1775, by\nDubourg, and a scheme was submitted by Beaumarchais to the King. This\nwas first brought to light in November, 1878, in the _Magazine of\nAmerican History_, where it is said: \"It is without date, but must have\nbeen written after the arrival of the American Commissioners in Paris.\"\nThis is an error. A letter of December 7, 1775, from Beaumarchais proves\nthat the undated one had been answered. Moreover, on June 10, 1776, a\nmonth before Deane had reached Paris, and six months before Franklin's\narrival, the million for America had been paid to Beaumarchais and\nreceipted. It was Deane's ruin that he appeared as if taking credit for,\nand bringing within the scope of his negotiations, money paid before his\narrival. It was the ruin of Beaumarchais that he deceived Deane about\nthat million.\n\nIn 1763 France had suffered by her struggle with England humiliations\nand territorial losses far heavier than those suffered by her last war\nwith Germany. With the revolt of the English colonies in America the\nhour of French revenge struck. Louis XVI. did not care much about\nit, but his minister Vergennes did. Inspired by him, Beaumarchais,\nadventurer and playwright, consulted Arthur Lee, secret agent of\nCongress in London, and it was arranged that Beaumarchais should write\na series of letters to the King, to be previously revised by Vergennes.\nThe letters are such as might be expected from the pen that wrote \"The\nMarriage of Figaro.\" He paints before the King the scene of France\ndriven out of America and India; he describes America as advancing to\nengage the conqueror of France with a force which a little help\nwould make sufficient to render England helpless beside her European\nfoes--France and Spain. Learning through Vergennes that the King was\nmindful of his treaty with England, Beau-marchais made a proposal\nthat the aid should be rendered as if by a commercial house, without\nknowledge of the government This, the most important document of the\ncase, suppressed until 1878, was unknown to any of the writers who have\ndiscussed this question, except Durand and Stille\\ the latter alone\nhaving recognized its bearing on the question of Beaumarchais' good\nfaith. Beau-marchais tells the King that his \"succor\" is not to end the\nwar in America, but \"to continue and feed it to the great damage of the\nEnglish\"; that \"to sacrifice a million to put England to the expense of\na hundred millions, is exactly the same as if you advance a million to\ngain ninety-nine.\" Half of the million (livres) is to be sent to America\nin gold, and half in powder. So far from this aid being gratuitous, the\npowder is to be taken from French magazines at \"four to six sols per\npound,\" and sent to America \"on the basis of twenty sols per pound.\"\n\"The constant view of the affair in which the mass of Congress ought to\nbe kept is the certainty that your Majesty is not willing to enter in\nany way into the affair, but that a company is very generously about to\nturn over a certain sum to the prudent management of a faithful agent\nto give successive aid to the Americans by the shortest and the surest\nmeans of return in tobacco.\"\n\nHow much of this scheme actually reached the King, and was approved\nby him, is doubtful. He still hesitated, and another appeal was made\n(February 29, 1776) embodying one from Arthur Lee, who says: \"We offer\nto France, in return for her secret assistance, a secret treaty of\ncommerce, by which she will secure for a certain number of years after\npeace is declared all the advantages with which we have enriched England\nfor the past century, with, additionally, a guarantee of her possessions\naccording to our forces.\" Nothing is said by Arthur Lee about other\npayments. The Queen had now become interested in the gallant Americans,\nand the King was brought over to the scheme in April. On May 2, 1776,\nVergennes submits to the King the order for a million livres which he is\nto sign; also a letter, to be written by the hand of the Minister's son,\naged fifteen, to Beaumarchais, who, he says, will employ M. Montandoin\n(the name was really Montieu) to transmit to the Americans \"such funds\nas your Majesty chooses to appropriate for their benefit.\" There are\nvarious indications that the pecuniary advantages, in the way of \"sols\"\nand tobacco, were not set before the King, and that he yielded to\nconsiderations of state policy.\n\nAfter receiving the million (June 10th) Beaumarchais wrote to Arthur\nLee in London (June 12, 1776): \"The difficulties I have found in my\nnegotiations with the Minister have _determined me to form a company_\nwhich will enable the munitions and powder to be transmitted sooner to\n_your friend_ on condition of his returning tobacco to Cape Francis.\"\n\nTo Arthur Lee, whom he had met at the table of Lord Mayor John Wilkes,\nBeaumarchais had emphasized the \"generous\" side of his scheme. Tobacco\nwas indeed to be sent, chiefly to give a commercial color to the\ntransaction for the King's concealment, but there appeared no reason to\ndo more with Lee, who had no power of contract, than impress him with\nthe magnanimity and friendship of the French government. This Lee was to\nreport to the Secret Committee of Congress, which would thus be\nprepared to agree to any arrangement of Beaumarchais' agent, without\nany suspicion that it might be called on to pay twenty sols a pound\nfor powder that had cost from four to six. Lee did report it, sending\na special messenger (Story) to announce to Congress the glad tidings of\nFrench aid, and much too gushingly its quasi-gratuitous character.\n\nA month later Silas Deane, belated since March 5th by wind and wave,\nreached Paris, and about July 17, 1776, by advice of Vergennes, had his\nfirst interview with Beaumarchais. Had Beaumarchais known that an agent,\nempowered by Congress to purchase munitions, was on his way to France,\nhe would have had nothing to do with Lee; now he could only repudiate\nhim, and persuade Deane to disregard him. Arthur Lee informed Deane\nthat Beaumarchais had told him that he had received two hundred thousand\npounds sterling of the French administration for the use of Congress,\nbut Deane believed Beaumarchais, who \"constantly and positively denied\nhaving said any such thing.\" It had been better for Deane if he had\nbelieved Lee.* It turned out in the end that Beaumarchais had received\nthe sum Lee named, and the French government--more anxious for treaty\nconcessions from America than for Beaumarchais' pocket--assured the\nAmerican Commissioners that the million was a royal gift.\n\n     * M. Doniol and Mr. Durand are entirely mistaken in\n     supposing that Lee was \"substantially a traitor.\" That he\n     wrote to Lord Shelburne that \"if England wanted to prevent\n     closer ties between France and the United States she must\n     not delay,\" proves indeed the reverse. He wanted recognition\n     of the independence of his country, and peace, and was as\n     willing to get it from England as from France. He was no\n     doubt well aware that French subsidies were meant, as\n     Beaumarchais reminded the King, to continue the war in\n     America, not to end it. Arthur Lee had his faults, but lack\n     of patriotism was not among them.\n\nThis claim to generosity, however, or rather the source of it, was a\nsecret of the negotiation. In October, 1777, the commissioners wrote to\nCongress a letter which, being intercepted, reached that body only in\nduplicate, March, 1778, saying they had received assurances \"that no\nrepayment will ever be required from us for what has already been given\nus either in money or military stores.\" One of these commissioners\nwas Silas Deane himself (the others Franklin and Lee). But meanwhile\nBeaumarchais had claimed of Congress, by an agent (De Francy) sent\nto America, payment of his bill, which included the million which his\ngovernment declared had been a gift. This complication caused Congress\nto recall Deane for explanations.\n\nDeane arrived in America in July, 1778. There were suspicious\ncircumstances around him. He had left his papers in Paris; he had\nborrowed money of Beaumarchais for personal expenses, and the despatch\nhe had signed in October, saying the million was a gift, had been\nintercepted, other papers in the same package having duly arrived. Thus\nappearances were against Deane. The following statement, in Paine's\nhandwriting, was no doubt prepared for submission to Congress, and\nprobably was read during one of its secret discussions of the matter. It\nis headed \"Explanatory Circumstances.\"\n\n\"1st The lost dispatches are dated Oct. 6th and Oct. 7th. They were sent\nby a private hand--that is, they were not sent by the post. Capt. Folger\nhad the charge of them. They were all under one cover containing five\nseparate Packets; three of the Packets were on commercial matters\nonly--one of these was to Mr. R[obert] Morris, Chairman of the\nCommercial Committee, one to Mr. Hancock (private concerns), another to\nBarnaby Deane, S. Deane's brother. Of the other two Packets, one of\nthem was to the Secret Committee, then stiled the Committee for foreign\nAffairs, the other was to Richard H. Lee--these two last Packets had\nnothing in them but blank white French Paper.\n\n\"2d. In Sept'r preceding the date of the dispatches Mr. B[eau-marchais]\nsent Mr. Francis [De Francy] to Congress to press payment to the amount\nmentioned in the official Letter of Oct. 6. Mr. F[rancy] brought a\nletter signed only by S. Deane--the Capt of the vessel (Landais) brought\nanother letter from Deane; both of these letters were to enforce Mr.\nB[eaumarchais'] demand. Mr. F[rancy] arrived with his letters and\ndemand. The official despatches (if I may so say) arrived blank.\nCongress therefore had no authoritative information to act by. About\nthis time Mr. D[eane] was recalled and arrived in America in Count\nD'Estaing's fleet. He gave out that he had left his accounts in France.\n\n\"With the Treaty of Alliance come over the Duplicates of the lost\nDespatches. They come into my office not having been seen by Congress;\nand as they contain an injunction not to be conceded by [to?] Congress,\nI kept them secret in the office because at that time the foreign\nCommittee were dispersed and new members not appointed.\n\n\"On the 5th of Dec. 1778, Mr. D[eane] published an inflamatory piece\nagainst Congress. As I saw it had an exceeding ill effect out of doors I\nmade some remarks upon it--with a view of preventing people running\nmad. This piece was replied to by a piece under the Signature of Plain\nTruth--in which it was stated, that Mr. D[eane] though a stranger in\nFrance and to the Language, and without money, had by himself procured\n30,000 stand of Arms, 30,000 suits of Cloathing, and more than 200\npieces of Brass Cannon. I replied that these supplies were in a train of\nExecution before he was sent to France. That Mr. Deane's private letters\nand his official despatches jointly with the other two Commissioners\ncontradicted each other.\n\n\"At this time I found Deane had made a large party in Congress--and that\na motion had been made but not decided upon for dismissing me from the\nforeign office, with a kind of censure.\"\n\nDeane was heard by Congress twice (August 9 and 21, 1778) but made a bad\nimpression, and a third hearing was refused. In wrath he appealed in the\npress \"to the free and virtuous Citizens of America,\" (December 5,\n1778) against the injustice of Congress. This Paine answered in the\n_Pennsylvania Packet_ of December 15, 1778. His motives are told in the\nfollowing letter addressed to the Hon. Henry Laurens:\n\n\"Philadelphia, Dec. 15th, 1778.--Dear Sir.--In this morning's paper is\na piece addressed to Mr. Deane, in which your name is mentioned. My\nintention in relating the circumstances with wch. it is connected is\nto prevent the Enemy drawing any unjust conclusions from an accidental\ndivision in the House on matters no ways political You will please to\nobserve that I have been exceedingly careful to preserve the honor of\nCongress in the minds of the people who have been so exceedingly fretted\nby Mr. Deane's address--and this will appear the more necessary when I\ninform you that a proposal has been made for calling a Town Meeting\nto demand justice for Mr. Deane. I have been applied to smoothly and\nroughly not to publish this piece. Mr. Deane has likewise been with the\nPrinter. I am, &c.\"\n\n\n\n\n{1779}\n\nTo Paine, who had given his all to the American cause, nothing could\nappear more natural than that France and her King should do the same\nwith pure disinterestedness. Here were Lafayette and other Frenchmen\nat Washington's side. However, the one thing he was certain of was that\nDeane had no claim to be credited with the French subsidies. Had Henry\nLaurens been President of Congress it would have been easy to act on\nthat body through him; but he had resigned, and the new president, John\nJay, was a prominent member of the Deane party. So Paine resolved to\ndefeat what he considered a fraud on the country at whatever cost. In\nthe course of the controversy he wrote (January 2, 1779):\n\n\"If Mr. Deane or any other gentleman will procure an order from Congress\nto inspect an account in my office, or any of Mr. Deane's friends in\nCongress will take the trouble of coming themselves, I will give him or\nthem my attendance, and shew them in handwriting which Mr. Deane is well\nacquainted with, that the supplies he so pompously plumes himself upon\nwere promised and engaged, and that as a present, before he ever arrived\nin France; and the part that fell to Mr. Deane was only to see it done,\nand how he has performed that service the public are acquainted with.\"\n\nAlthough Paine here gave the purport of the commissioners' letter,\nshowing plainly that Deane had nothing to do with obtaining the\nsupplies, he is not so certain that they were gratuitous, and adds, in\nthe same letter (January 2d): \"The supplies here alluded to are those\nwhich were sent from France in the Amphitrite, Seine, and Mercury,\nabout two years ago. They had at first the appearance of a present, but\nwhether so or on credit the service was a great and a friendly one.\"\nTo transfer the debt to the French government would secure such a long\ncredit that the American cause would not suffer. Perhaps no official\nnotice might have been taken of this, but in another letter (January\n5th) Paine wrote: \"Those who are now her [America's] allies, prefaced\nthat alliance by an early and generous friendship; yet that we might not\nattribute too much to human or auxiliary aid, so unfortunate were these\nsupplies that only one ship out of three arrived; the Mercury and Seine\nfell into the hands of the enemy.\"\n\nIt was this last paragraph that constituted Paine's indiscretion. Unless\nwe can suppose him for once capable of a role so Machiavellian as the\nforcing of France's hand, by revealing the connection between the\nKing and the subsidies of Beau-marchais, we can only praise him for a\ntoo-impulsive and self-forgetting patriotism. It was of course necessary\nfor the French Minister (Gerard) to complain, and for Congress to soothe\nhim by voting the fiction that his most Christian Majesty \"did not\npreface his alliance with any supplies whatever sent to America.\" But\nin order to do this, Paine had somehow to be dealt with. A serio-comical\nperformance took place in Congress. The members knew perfectly well that\nPaine had documents to prove every word he had printed; but as they\ndid not yet know these documents officially, and were required by their\nally's minister to deny Paine's statement, they were in great fear that\nPaine, if summoned, might reveal them. As the articles were only signed\n\"Common Sense,\" it was necessary that the Secretary should acknowledge\nhimself their author, and Congress, in dread of discovering its own\nsecrets, contrived that he should be allowed to utter at the bar only\none word.\n\nCongress received M. Gerard's complaint on January 5th, and on the 6th,\nto which action thereon had been adjourned, the following memorial from\nPaine.\n\n\"Honorable Sirs.--Understanding that exceptions have been taken at some\nparts of my conduct, which exceptions as I am unacquainted with I\ncannot reply to: I therefore humbly beg leave to submit every part of my\nconduct public and private, so far as relate to public measures, to the\njudgment of this Honble. House, to be by them approved or censured\nas they shall judge proper--at the same time reserving to myself that\nconscious satisfaction of having ever intended well and to the best of\nmy abilities executed those intentions.\n\n\"The Honble. Congress in April, 1777, were pleased, not only unsolicited\non my part, but wholly unknown to me, to appoint me unanimously\nSecretary to the Committee for foreign affairs, which mode of\nappointment I conceive to be the most honorable that can take place. The\nsalary they were pleased to affix to it was 70 dollars per month. It has\nremained at the same rate ever since, and is not at this time equal to\nthe most moderate expences I can live at; yet I have never complained,\nand always conceiving it my duty to bear a share of the inconveniences\nof the country, have ever cheerfully submitted to them. This being my\nsituation, I am at this time conscious of no error, unless the cheapness\nof my services, and the generosity with which I have endeavored to\ndo good in other respects, can be imputed to me as a crime, by such\nindividuals as may have acted otherwise.\n\n\"As my appointment was honorable, therefore whenever it shall appear\nto Congress that I have not fulfilled their expectations, I shall, tho'\nwith concern at any misapprehension that might lead to such an opinion,\nsurrender up the books and papers intrusted to my care.\n\n\"Were my appointment an office of profit it might become me to resign\nit, but as it is otherwise I conceive that such a step in me might imply\na dissatisfaction on account of the smallness of the pay. Therefore I\nthink it my duty to wait the orders of this Honble. House, at the\nsame time begging leave to assure them that whatever may be their\ndetermination respecting me, my disposition to serve in so honorable a\ncause, and in any character in which I can best do it, will suffer no\nalteration. I am, with profound respect, your Honors' dutiful and obt.\nhble. Servant,\n\n\"Thomas Paine.\"\n\nOn the same day Paine was summoned before Congress (sitting always\nwith closed doors), and asked by its president (Jay) if he wrote the\narticles. He replied \"Yes,\" and was instantly ordered to withdraw.\nOn the following day Paine, having discovered that Deane's party were\nresolved that he should have no opportunity to reveal any fact in\nCongress, submitted a second memorial.\n\n\"Honorable Sirs.--From the manner in which I was called before the House\nyesterday, I have reason to suspect an unfavorable disposition in them\ntowards some parts in my late publications. What the parts are against\nwhich they object, or what those objections are, are wholly unknown\nto me. If any gentleman has presented any Memorial to this House which\ncontains any charge against me, or any-ways alludes in a censurable\nmanner to my character or interest, so as to become the ground of any\nsuch charge, I request, as a servant under your authority, an attested\ncopy of that charge, and in my present character as a freeman of this\ncountry, I demand it. I attended at the bar of this House yesterday as\ntheir servant, tho' the warrant did not express my official station,\nwhich I conceive it ought to have done, otherwise it could not have been\ncompulsive unless backed by a magistrate. My hopes were that I should be\nmade acquainted with the charge, and admitted to my defence, which I am\nall times ready to make either in writing or personally.\n\n\"I cannot in duty to my character as a freeman submit to be censured\nunheard. I have evidence which I presume will justify me. And I entreat\nthis House to consider how great their reproach will be should it be\ntold that they passed a sentence upon me without hearing me, and that a\ncopy of the charge against me was refused to me; and likewise how much\nthat reproach will be aggravated should I afterwards prove the censure\nof this House to be a libel, grounded upon a mistake which they refused\nfully to inquire into.\n\n\"I make my application to the heart of every gentleman in this House,\nthat, before he decides on a point that may affect my reputation, he\nwill duly consider his own. Did I court popular praise I should not send\nthis letter. My wish is that by thus stating my situation to the House,\nthey may not commit an act they cannot justify.\n\n\"I have obtained fame, honor, and credit in this country. I am proud of\nthese honors. And as they cannot be taken from me by any unjust censure\ngrounded on a concealed charge, therefore it will become my duty\nafterwards to do justice to myself. I have no favor to ask more than to\nbe candidly and honorably dealt by; and such being my right I ought to\nhave no doubt but this House will proceed accordingly. Should Congress\nbe disposed to hear me, I have to request that they will give me\nsufficient time to prepare.\"\n\nIt was, of course, a foregone conclusion that the story of what had\noccurred in France must not be told. M. Gerard had identified himself\nwith the interests of Beaumarchais, as well as with those of his\ngovernment, and was using the privileges of the alliance to cover that\nspeculator's demand. Paine, therefore, pleaded in vain. Indeed, the\nforegoing memorial seems to have been suppressed, as it is not referred\nto in the journal of the House for that day (January 7th). On the day\nfollowing his resignation was presented in the following letter:\n\n\"Honorable Sirs.--Finding by the Journals of this House, of yesterday,\nthat I am not to be heard, and having in my letter of the same day,\nprior to that resolution, declared that I could not 'in duty to my\ncharacter as a freeman submit to be censured unheard,' therefore,\nconsistent with that declaration, and to maintain that Right, I think it\nmy duty to resign the office of Secretary to the Committee for foreign\nAffairs, and I do hereby resign the same. The Papers and documents in my\ncharge I shall faithfully deliver up to the Committee, either on honor\nor oath, as they or this House shall direct.\n\n\"Considering myself now no longer a servant of Congress, I conceive\nit convenient that I should declare what have been the motives of my\nconduct. On the appearance of Mr. Deane's Address to the Public of the\n5 of Dec, in which he said 'The ears of the Representatives were shut\nagainst him,' the honor and justice of this House were impeached and\nits reputation sunk to the lowest ebb in the opinion of the People. The\nexpressions of suspicion and degradation which have been uttered in my\nhearing and are too indecent to be related in this letter, first induced\nme to set the Public right; but so grounded were they, almost without\nexception, in their ill opinion of this House, that instead of\nsucceeding as I wished in my first address, I fell under the same\nreproach and was frequently told that I was defending Congress in their\nbad designs. This obliged me to go farther into the matters, and I\nhave now reason to believe that my endeavours have been and will be\neffectual.\n\n\"My wish and my intentions in all my late publications were to preserve\nthe public from error and imposition, to support as far as laid in my\npower the just authority of the Representatives of the People, and to\ncordiallize and cement the Union that has so happily taken place between\nthis country and France.\n\n\"I have betrayed no Trust because I have constantly employed that Trust\nto the public good. I have revealed no secrets because I have told\nnothing that was, or I conceive ought to be a secret. I have convicted\nMr. Deane of error, and in so doing I hope I have done my duty.\n\n\"It is to the interest of the Alliance that the People should know that\nbefore America had any agent in Europe the 'public-spirited gentlemen'\nin that quarter of the world were her warm friends. And I hope this\nHonorable House will receive it from me as a farther testimony of\nmy affection to that Alliance, and of my attention to the duty of my\noffice, that I mention, that the duplicates of the Dispatches of Oct. 6\nand 7, 1777, from the Commissioners, the originals of which are in the\nEnemy's possession, seem to require on that account a reconsideration.\n\n\"His Excellency, the Minister of France, is well acquainted with the\nliberality of my sentiments, and I have had the pleasure of receiving\nrepeated testimonies of his esteem for me. I am concerned that he should\nin any instance misconceive me. I beg likewise to have it understood\nthat my appeal to this Honorable House for a hearing yesterday was as\na matter of Right in the character of a Freeman, which Right I ought\nto yield up to no Power whatever. I return my utmost thanks to the\nHonorable Members of this House who endeavored to support me in that\nRight, so sacred to themselves and to their constituents; and I have the\npleasure of saying and reflecting that as I came into office an honest\nman, I go out of it with the same character.\"\n\nThis letter also was suppressed, and the same fate was secured by Mr.\nJay for several other letters written by Paine to Congress. On March\n30, 1779, he quotes a letter of the commissioners of November 30,\n1777, saying that the supplies from France were \"the effects of private\nbenevolence.\" On April 21st he reminds Congress that \"they began their\nhard treatment of me while I was defending their injured and insulted\nhonor, and which I cannot account for on any other ground than supposing\nthat a private unwarrantable connection was formed between Mr. Deane\nand certain Members of this Honorable House.\" On April 23d he again\naddresses the \"Honorable Sirs \":\n\n\"On inquiring yesterday of Mr. Thomson, your Secretary, I find that no\nanswer is given to any of my letters. I am unable to account for the\nseeming inattention of Congress in collecting information at this\nparticular time, from whatever quarter it may come; and this wonder is\nthe more increased when I recollect that a private offer was made to me,\nabout three months ago, amounting in money to L700 a year; yet however\npolite the proposal might be, or however friendly it might be designed,\nI thought it my duty to decline it; as it was accompanied with a\ncondition which I conceived had a tendency to prevent the information I\nhave since given, and shall yet give to the Country on Public Affairs.\n\n\"I have repeatedly wrote to Congress respecting Mr. Deane's dark\nincendiary conduct, and offered every information in my power. The\nopportunities I have had of knowing the state of foreign affairs is\ngreater than that of many gentlemen of this House, and I want no other\nknowledge to declare that I look on Mr. Deane to be, what Mr. Carmichael\ncalls him, a rascal.\"\n\nThe offer of money came from M. Gerard. This clever diplomatist\nperceived in all Paine's letters his genuine love of France, and esteem\nfor the King who had so generously allied himself with the Americans\nin their struggle for independence. Since M. Gerard's arrival Paine had\nbeen on friendly terms with him. I have explored the State Archives of\nFrance for M. Gerard's versions of these affairs, and find them more\ndiplomatic than exact. Immediately on the appearance of Paine's first\nattack on Deane, the Minister appears to have visited Paine. He reports\nto Vergennes, January 10th, that he had been at much pains to convince\nPaine of his error in saying that the supplies furnished by Beaumarchais\nhad been \"promised as a gift\"; but he had not retracted, and he (Gerard)\nthen thought it necessary to refer what he wrote to Congress. \"Congress,\nhowever, did not wait for this to show me its indignation.\" The journals\nof Congress do not, however, reveal any reference to the matter previous\nto M. Gerard's memorial of January 5th. In his next letter M. Gerard\nasserts that Congress had dismissed Paine, whereas Paine resigned, and a\nmotion for his dismission was lost. This letter is dated January 17th.\n\n\"When I had denounced to Congress the assertions of M. Payne, I did not\nconceal from myself the bad effects that might result to a head puffed\nup by the success of his political writings, and the importance he\naffected. I foresaw the loss of his office, and feared that, separated\nfrom the support which has restrained him, he would seek only to avenge\nhimself with his characteristic impetuosity and impudence. All means of\nrestraining him would be impossible, considering the enthusiasm here\nfor the license of the press, and in the absence of any laws to repress\naudacity even against foreign powers. The only remedy, my lord, I could\nimagine to prevent these inconveniences, and even to profit by the\ncircumstances, was to have Payne offered a salary in the King's name, in\nplace of that he had lost. He called to thank me, and I stipulated that\nhe should publish nothing on political affairs, nor about Congress,\nwithout advising with me, and should employ his pen mainly in impressing\non the people favorable sentiments towards France and the Alliance,\nof the kind fittest to foster hatred and defiance towards England. He\nappeared to accept the task with pleasure. I promised him a thousand\ndollars per annum, to begin from the time of his dismission by Congress.\nHe has already begun his functions in declaring in the Gazette that the\naffair of the military effects has no reference to the Court and is not\na political matter. You know too well the prodigious effects produced by\nthe writings of this famous personage among the people of the States to\ncause me any fear of your disapproval of my resolution.\"\n\nM. Gerard adds that he has also employed Dr. Cooper, an intimate\nfriend of Dr. Franklin. On May 29th he informs Vergennes that the Paine\narrangement did not work.\n\n\"A piece in a Gazette of the third by M. Payne, under his usual title\nof Common Sense proves his loss of it. In it he declares that he is the\nonly honest man thus far employed in American affairs, and demands that\nthe nation shall give him the title and authority of Censor-general,\nespecially to purify and reform Congress. This bit of folly shows what\nhe is capable of. He gives me marks of friendship, but that does not\ncontribute to the success of my exhortations.\"\n\nIn another despatch of the same date M. Gerard writes:\n\n\"I have had the honor to acquaint you with the project I had formed\nto engage Mr. Payne [le Sr. Payne] to insert in the public papers\nparagraphs relative to the Alliance, calculated to encourage the\nhigh idea formed by the people of the king, and its confidence in his\nfriendship; but this writer having tarnished his reputation and being\nsold to the opposition, I have found another.\"\n\nHe goes on to say that he has purchased two eminent gentlemen, who write\nunder the names \"Honest Politician\" and \"Americanus.\"\n\nM. Gerard, in his statements concerning his relations with Paine,\ndepended on the unfamiliarity of Vergennes with the Philadelphia\njournals. In these Paine had promptly made known the overtures made to\nhim.\n\n\"Had I been disposed to make money I undoubtedly had many opportunities\nfor it. The single pamphlet 'Common Sense' would at that time of day\nhave produced a tolerable fortune, had I only taken the same profits\nfrom the publication which all writers have ever done; because the sale\nwas the most rapid and extensive of anything that was ever published in\nthis country, or perhaps in any other. Instead of which I reduced the\nprice so low, that instead of getting, I stand L39, 11, 0 out of pocket\non Mr. Bradford's books, exclusive of my time and trouble; and I have\nacted the same disinterested part by every publication I have made.\n\n\"At the time the dispute arose respecting Mr. Deane's affairs, I had a\nconference with Mr. Gerard at his own request, and some matters on that\nsubject were freely talked over, which it is here necessary to mention.\nThis was on the 2d of January. On the evening of the same day, or the\nnext, Mr. Gerard through the medium of another gentleman made me a very\ngenteel and profitable offer. My answer to the offer was precisely in\nthese words: 'Any service I can render to either of the countries in\nalliance, or to both, I ever have done and shall readily do, and Mr.\nGerard's _esteem_ will be the only compensation I shall desire.'\"\n\nPaine never received a cent of M. Gerard's money, but he became\nconvinced that the French government might be compromised by his\nallusion to its early generosity to America, and on January 26th wrote\nthat the letter to which he had alluded had not mentioned \"the King of\nFrance by any name or title nor yet the nation of France.\" This was all\nthat the French Minister could get out of Paine, and it was willingly\ngiven. The more complaisant \"Honest Politician\" and \"Americanus,\"\nhowever, duly fulfilled the tasks for which they had been employed by\nthe French Ambassador. This will be seen by reference to their letters\nin the _Pennsylvania Gazette_ of June 23d. In June and July Paine\nentered on a controversy with \"Americanus\" on the terms upon which\nAmerica should insist, in any treaty of peace. He intimates his\nsuspicion that \"Americanus\" is a hireling.\n\nIt should be mentioned that the English archives prove that in Paris\nDeane and Gerard had long been intimate, and often closeted with\nVergennes. (See the reports of Wentworth and others in Stevens'\n_Facsimiles?_) Deane and Gerard came over together, on one of\nd'Estaing's ships. According to the English information Gerard was\npecuniarily interested in the supplies sent to America, and if so\nhad private reasons for resisting Paine's theory of their gratuitous\ncharacter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X. A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS\n\nThe Paine-Deane incident had a number of curious sequels, some of which\nare related in a characteristic letter of Gouverneur Morris to John\nRandolph, which has not, I believe, hitherto been printed. Gouverneur\nMorris had much to do with the whole affair; he was a member of Congress\nduring the controversy, and he was the Minister in France who, fifteen\nyears later, brought to light the receipt for the King's million livres\ncharged by Beaumarchais against this country.\n\n\"Washington, Jany. 20, 1812\n\n\"It would give me pleasure to communicate the information you ask, but\nI can only speak from memory respecting matters, some of which were\ntransacted long ago and did not command my special attention. But it is\nprobable that the material facts can be established by documents in the\nSecretary of State's office.\n\n\"It will, I believe, appear from the correspondence between Mr. Arthur\nLee and the Secret and Commercial Committee, that early in our dispute\nwith Great Britain the French Court made through him a tender of\nmilitary supplies, and employed as their agent for that purpose M.\nBeaumarchais, who, having little property and but slender standing in\nsociety, might (if needful) be disavowed, imprisoned, and punished for\npresuming to use the King's name on such an occasion. In the course of\nour Revolutionary War, large supplies were sent by M. Beaumarchais under\nthe name of Roderique Hortalez and Co., a supposed mercantile name. But\nthe operations were impeded by complaints of the British Ambassador,\nLord Stormont, which obliged the French Court to make frequent denials,\nprotestations, seizure of goods and detention of ships. Every step of\nthis kind bound them more strongly to prevent a disclosure of facts.\n\n\"After the Congress returned to Philadelphia, M. de Francy, agent of\nM. Beaumarchais, applied to Congress for payment. This application was\nsupported on the ground of justice by many who were not in the secret,\nfor the Congress had then so much good sense as not to trust itself with\nits own secrets. There happened unluckily at that time a feud between\nMr. Lee and Mr. Deane. The latter favored (in appearance at least) M.\nBeaumarchais' claim. Paine, who was clerk to the Secret and Commercial\nCommittee, took part in the dispute, wrote pieces for the Gazettes, and\nat length, to overwhelm Deane and those who defended him with confusion,\npublished a declaration of the facts confidentially communicated to the\nCommittee by Mr. Lee, and signed this declaration as American Secretary\nfor Foreign Affairs.* The French Minister, M. Gerard, immediately made\na formal complaint of that publication, and an equally formal denial of\nwhat it contained. The Congress was therefore obliged to believe, or\nat least to act as if they believed, that Paine had told a scandalous\nfalsehood. He was in consequence dismissed, which indeed he deserved for\nhis impudence if for nothing else.**\n\n     * Error.    Paine signed \"Common Sense,\" and in one instance\n     \"Thomas Paine.\"\n\n     ** Paine resigned.    Several motions for his dismissal were\n     lost.\n\n\"Beaumarchais and his agent had already received from the Committee\ntobacco and perhaps other articles of produce on account of his demand;\nwhat and how much will of course be found from investigating the files\nof the Treasury. But he wanted and finally obtained a larger and more\neffectual payment Bills were drawn in his favor on Dr. Franklin, our\nMinister in France, at long sight, for about one hundred thousand pounds\nsterling. This was done in the persuasion that the Doctor would, when\nthey were presented, communicate the fact to Comte de Vergennes, from\nwhom he would afterwards be obliged to solicit the means of payment. It\nwas hoped that the French Court would then interfere and either lay hold\nof the bills or compel M. Beaumarchais to refund the money, so that no\nreal deduction would on that account be afterwards made from the loans\nor subsidies to us. The death of all who were privy to it has spread\nan impenetrable veil over what passed on this occasion between M.\nBeaumarchais and his employer, but the bills were regularly paid, and\nwe were thereby deprived in a critical moment of the resources which so\nlarge a sum would have supplied. When this happened, M. de la Luzerne,\nthen Minister of France at Philadelphia, expressed himself with so\nmuch freedom and so much indignation respecting M. Beaumarchais and his\nclaim, that there was reason to believe nothing more would have been\nheard of it. In that persuasion, perhaps, Dr. Franklin, when he came to\nsettle our national accounts with M. de Vergennes, was less solicitous\nabout a considerable item than he otherwise might have been. He\nacknowledged as a free gift to the United States the receipt on a\ncertain day of one million livres, for which no evidence was produced.\nHe asked indeed for a voucher to establish the payment, but the Count\nreplied that it was immaterial whether we had received the money or not,\nseeing that we were not called on for repayment. With this reassuring\nthe old gentleman seems to have been satisfied, and the account was\nsettled accordingly. Perhaps the facts may have been communicated to him\nunder the seal of secrecy, and if so he showed firmness in that he had\nshared in the plunder with Deane and Beaumarchais.\n\n     * Gouverneur Morris himself.\n\n     ** This was the receipt dated June 10, 1776, on which the\n     King had marked \"Bon,\" and was obtained by Morris in 1794.\n\n\"Things remained in that state till after the late king of France was\ndethroned. The Minister of the United States at Paris' was then directed\nto enquire what had become of the million livres. The correspondence\nwill of course be found in the office of the Secretary of State. It\nseems that he had the good fortune to obtain copies of M. Beaumarchais'\nreceipt for a million, bearing date on the day when the gift was said\nto have been made, so that no reasonable doubt could exist as to the\nidentity of the sum.'\n\n\"So much, my dear Sir, for what memory can command. You will, I think,\nfind papers containing a more accurate statement in the New York\n'Evening Post,' about the time when Mr. Rodney's opinion was made\npublic. At least I recollect having seen in that gazette some facts with\nwhich I had not been previously acquainted, or which I had forgotten.\nA gentleman from Connecticut, who was on the Committee of Claims last\nyear, can I believe give you the papers. I remember also to have been\ntold by a respectable young gentleman, son of the late Mr. Richard Henry\nLee, that important evidence on this subject, secured from his uncle\nArthur, was in his possession, and I believe it may be obtained from Mr.\nCarroll of Annapolis, or his son-in-law Mr. Harper of Baltimore.\"\n\n\"The Hon'le Mr. John Randolph, of Roanoke.\"\n\nBeaumarchais, barely escaping the guillotine, died in poverty in\nHolland. He bequeathed his claim to his daughter who (1835) was Paid\n800,000 francs, but the million which he had received from the King and\nthen charged on the United States, was never paid. Silas Deane suffered\na worse fate. His claims for commissions and services in France remained\nunpaid, and after his return to France he occupied himself with writing\nto his brother Simeon the letters meant to be intercepted, printed by\nRivington in 1782. In these letters he urges submission to England.\nFranklin took the charitable view that his head had been turned by his\nmisfortunes. He went over to England, where he became the friend of\nBenedict Arnold, and died in poverty in 1789. In recent years his heirs\nwere paid $35,000 by Congress. But had his treachery, as now revealed in\nthe letters of George III., been known, there had been no such payment.\n\n     * The documents referred to are no doubt among the Lee\n     Papers preserved at the University of Virginia, which I have\n     examined.\n\nThe determination with which Paine, to his cost, withstood Deane, may\nseem at first glance quixotic His attack was animated by a belief that\nthe supplies sent from France were a covert gift, and at any rate, that\nthe demand for instant payment to agents was fraudulent. Evidence having\nbeen supplied, by the publication of Beaumarchais notes to Arthur\nLee, under pseudonym of \"Mary Johnston,\" that returns in tobacco were\nexpected, this, if not a mercantile mask, was still a matter of credit,\nand very different from payments demanded by Beaumarchais and Deane from\nthe scanty treasury of the struggling colonies.* But there was something\nmore behind the vehemence of Paine's letters.\n\n     * In one of Deane's intercepted letters (May 20, 1781) there\n     is an indication that he had found more truth in what Paine\n     had said about the gratuitous supplies than Beaumarchais had\n     led him to believe. \"The first plan of the French government\n     evidently was to assist us just so far as might be\n     absolutely necessary to prevent an accommodation, and to\n     give this assistance with so much secresy as to avoid any\n     rupture with Great Britain. On this plan succors were first\n     permitted to be sent out to us by private individuals, and\n     only on condition of future payment, but afterward we were\n     thought to be such cheap and effectual instruments of\n     mischief to the British nation that more direct and\n     gratuitous aids were furnished us.\" But now M. Doniol has\n     brought to light the Reflexions and Considerations of the\n     French Minister, Count de Vergennes, which led to his\n     employment of Beaumarchais, which contain such propositions\n     as these: \"It is essential that France shall at present\n     direct its care towards this end: she must nourish the\n     courage and perseverance of the insurgents by flattering\n     their hope of effectual assistance when circumstances\n     permit.\" \"It will be expedient to give the insurgents secret\n     aid in munitions and money; utility suggests this small\n     sacrifice,\" \"Should France and Spain give succors, they\n     should seek compensation only in the political object they\n     have at heart, reserving to themselves subsequent decision,\n     after the events and according to the situations.\" \"It would\n     be neither for the king's dignity or interest to bargain\n     with the insurgents.\" It is certain that Beaumarchais was\n     required to impress these sentiments on Arthur Lee, who\n     continued to take them seriously, and made Paine take them\n     so, after Beaumarchais was taking only his own interests\n     seriously.\n\nThis he intimated, but his revelation seems to have received no\nattention at the time. He says (January 5th): \"In speaking of Mr.\nDeane's contracts with foreign officers, I concealed, out of pity to\nhim, a circumstance that must have sufficiently shown the necessity of\nrecalling him, and either his want of judgment or the danger of trusting\nhim with discretionary power. It is no less than that of his throwing\nout a proposal, in one of his foreign letters, for contracting with a\nGerman prince to command the American army.\" This personage, who was\n\"to supersede General Washington,\" he afterwards declares to be Prince\nFerdinand. It is known that Count de Broglie had engaged Kalb and Deane\nto propose him as generalissimo of America, but the evidence of this\nother proposal has disappeared with other papers missing from Deane's\ndiplomatic correspondence. I find, however, that ex-provost Stille who\nhas studied the proceedings of Beaumarchais thoroughly, has derived\nfrom another source an impression that he (Beaumarchais) made an earlier\nproposition of the same kind concerning Prince Ferdinand. It would be\nunsafe to affirm that Deane did more than report the proposals made\nto him, but his silence concerning this particular charge of his\nantagonist, while denying every other categorically, is suspicious. At\nthat early period Washington had not loomed up in the eye of the world.\nThe French and Germans appear to have thought of the Americans and their\ncommander as we might think of rebellious red men and their painted\nchief. There is nothing in Deane's letters from Europe to suggest that\nhe did not share their delusion, or that he appreciated the necessity of\nindependence. Paine, who conducted the foreign correspondence, knew that\nthe secrets of the American office in Paris were open to Lord Stormont,\nwho stopped large supplies prepared for America, and suspected Deane of\ntreachery. It now appears that one of Deane's assistants, George Lupton,\nwas an English \"informer.\" (Stevens' Facsimiles, vii., No. 696.) Deane\nhad midnight meetings in the Place Vendome with an English \"Unknown\"\n(now known as the informer Paul Wentworth) to whom he suggested that\nthe troubles might be ended by England's forming a \"federal union\" with\nAmerica. All of which shows Deane perilously unfit for his mission, but\none is glad to find him appearing no worse in Wentworth's confidental\nportraiture (January 4, 1778) of the American officials:\n\n\"Dr. Franklin is taciturn, deliberate, and cautious; Mr. Deane is vain,\ndesultory, and subtle; Mr. Arthur Lee, suspicious and indolent; Alderman\nLee, peevish and ignorant; Mr. Izzard, costive and dogmatical--all of\nthese insidious, and Edwards vibrating between hope and fear, interest\nand attachment.\"\n\nThe venal character of Deane's subsequent treason clearly appears in the\ncorrespondence of George III. with Lord North (Donne, pp. 145, 363, 380,\n381, 384) It also appears, by a letter of January 9, 1778, that George\nIII. was aware that the proposal had been sent to his brother-in-law,\nPrince Ferdinand of Brunswick, to become commander of the American\nrevolutionists!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI. CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF\n\nWhatever might be thought of Paine's course in the Deane-Beaumarchais\naffair, there could be no doubt that the country was saved from a\nquestionable payment unjustly pressed at a time when it must have\ncrippled the Revolution, for which the French subsidies were given.\nCongress was relieved, and he who relieved it was the sufferer. From the\nmost important congressional secretaryship he was reduced to a clerkship\nin Owen Bid-die's law office.\n\nPaine's patriotic interest in public affairs did not abate. In the\nsummer of 1779 he wrote able articles in favor of maintaining our right\nto the Newfoundland fisheries in any treaty of peace that might be made\nwith England. Congress was secretly considering what instructions should\nbe sent to its representatives in Europe; in case negotiations should\narise, and the subject was discussed by \"Americanus\" in a letter to the\n_Pennsylvania Gazette_, June 23d. This writer argued that the fisheries\nshould not be mentioned in such negotiations; England would stickle at\nthe claim, and our ally, France, should not be called on to guarantee\na right which should be left to the determination of natural laws.\nThis position Paine combated; he maintained that independence was not a\nchange of ministry, but a real thing; it should mean prosperity as well\nas political liberty. Our ally would be aggrieved by a concession to\nGreat Britain of any means of making our alliance useful. \"There are but\ntwo natural sources of wealth--the Earth and the Ocean,--and to lose the\nright to either is, in our situation, to put up the other for sale.\"\nThe fisheries are needed, \"_first_, as an Employment _Secondly_, as\nproducing national Supply and Commerce, and a means of national wealth.\n_Thirdly_, as a Nursery for Seamen.\" Should Great Britain be in such\nstraits as to ask for peace, that would be the right opportunity to\nsettle the matter. \"To leave the Fisheries wholly out, on any pretence\nwhatever, is to sow the seeds of another war.\" (_Pennsylvania Gazette_,\nJune 30th, July 14th, 21st.) The prospects of peace seemed now\nsufficiently fair for Paine to give the attention which nobody else did\nto his own dismal situation. His scruples about making money out of the\nnational cause were eccentric. The manuscript diary of Rickman, just\nfound by Dr. Clair Grece, contains this note:\n\n\"Franklin, on returning to America from France, where he had been\nconducting great commercial and other concerns of great import and\nbenefit to the States of America, on having his accounts looked over by\nthe Committee appointed to do so, there was a deficit of L100,000. He\nwas asked how this happened. 'I was taught,' said he very gravely, 'when\na boy to read the scriptures and to attend to them, and it is there\nsaid: muzzle not the ox that treadeth out his master's grain.' No\nfurther inquiry was ever made or mention of the deficient L100,000,\nwhich, it is presumed, he devoted to some good and great purpose to\nserve the people,--his own aim through life.\"\n\nRickman, who named a son after Franklin, puts a more charitable\nconstruction on the irregularities of the Doctor's accounts than\nGouverneur Morris (p. 140). The anecdote may not be exact, but it was\ngenerally rumored, in congressional circles, that Franklin had by no\nmeans been muzzled. Nor does it appear to have been considered a serious\nmatter. The standard of political ethics being thus lowered, it is easy\nto understand that Paine gave more offence by his Diogenes-lantern than\nif he had quietly taken his share of the grain he trod out The security\nof independence and the pressure of poverty rendered it unnecessary\nto adhere to his quixotic Quaker repugnance to the sale of his\ninspirations, and he now desired to collect these into marketable shape.\nHis plans are stated in a letter to Henry Laurens.\n\n\"Philadelphia, Sepr. 14th, 1779.--Dear Sir,--It was my intention to have\ncommunicated to you the substance of this letter last Sunday had I not\nbeen prevented by a return of my fever; perhaps finding myself unwell,\nand feeling, as well as apprehending, inconveniences, have produced in\nme some thoughts for myself as well as for others. I need not repeat\nto you the part I have acted or the principle I have acted upon; and\nperhaps America would feel the less obligation to me, did she know,\nthat it was neither the place nor the people but the Cause itself that\nirresistibly engaged me in its support; for I should have acted the same\npart in any other Country could the same circumstances have arisen\nthere which have happened here. I have often been obliged to form\nthis distinction to myself by way of smoothing over some disagreeable\ningratitudes, which, you well know, have been shewn to me from a certain\nquarter.\n\n\"I find myself so curiously circumstanced that I have both too many\nfriends and too few, the generality of them thinking that from the\npublic part I have so long acted I cannot have less than a mine to draw\nfrom--What they have had from me they have got for nothing, and they\nconsequently suppose I must be able to afford it. I know but one kind of\nlife I am fit for, and that is a thinking one, and, of course, a\nwriting one--but I have confined myself so much of late, taken so little\nexercise, and lived so very sparingly, that unless I alter my way of\nlife it will alter me. I think I have a right to ride a horse of my own,\nbut I cannot now even afford to hire one, which is a situation I never\nwas in before, and I begin to know that a sedentary life cannot be\nsupported without jolting exercise. Having said thus much, which, in\ntruth, is but loss of time to tell to you who so well know how I am\nsituated, I take the liberty of communicating to you my design of doing\nsome degree of justice to myself, but even this is accompanied with some\npresent difficulties, but it is the easiest, and, I believe, the most\nuseful and reputable of any I can think of. I intend this winter to\ncollect all my Publications, beginning with Common Sense and ending with\nthe fisheries, and publishing them in two volumes Octavo, with notes. I\nhave no doubt of a large subscription. The principal difficulty will be\nto get Paper and I can think of no way more practicable than to desire\nArthur Lee to send over a quantity from France in the Confederacy if she\ngoes there, and settling for it with his brother. After that work is com\npleated, I intend prosecuting a history of the Revolution by means of a\nsubscription--but this undertaking will be attended with such an amazing\nexpense, and will take such a length of Time, that unless the States\nindividually give some assistance therein, scarcely any man could afford\nto go through it. Some kind of an history might be easily executed\nmade up of daily events and triffling matters which would lose their\nImportance in a few years. But a proper history cannot even be began\nunless the secrets of the other side of the water can be obtained, for\nthe first part is so interwoven with the Politics of England, that, that\nwhich will be the last to get at must be the first to begin with--and\nthis single instance is sufficient to show that no history can take\nplace of some time. My design, if I undertake it, is to comprise it\nin three quarto volumes and to publish one each year from the time of\nbeginning, and to make an abridgment afterwards in an easy agreeable\nlanguage for a school book.\n\n\"All the histories of ancient wars that are used for this purpose,\npromotes no Moral Reflection, but like the beggars opera renders the\nvillain pleasing in the hero. Another thing that will prolong the\ncompletion of an history is the want of Plates which only can be done\nin Europe, for that part of a history which is intended to convey\ndiscription of places or persons will ever be imperfect without them. I\nhave now, Sir, acquainted you with my design, and unwilling, as you know\nI am, to make use of a friend while I can possibly avoid it, I am really\nobliged to say that I should now be glad to consult with two or three on\nsome matters that regard my situation till such time as I can bring the\nfirst of those subscriptions to bear, or set them on foot, which cannot\nwell be until I can get the paper; for should I [be] disappointed of\nthat, with the subscriptions in my hand, I might be reflected upon, and\nthe reason, tho' a true one, would be subject to other explanations.\n\n\"Here lies the difficulty I alluded to in the beginning of this letter,\nand I would rather wish to borrow something of a friend or two in\nthe interim than run the risk I have mentioned, because should I be\ndisappointed by the Paper being taken or not arriving in time, the\nreason being understood by them beforehand will not injure me, but in\nthe other case it would, and in the mean Time I can be preparing for\npublication. I have hitherto kept all my private matters a secret, but\nas I know your friendship and you a great deal of my situation, I can\nwith more ease communicate them to you than to another.\n\n\"P. S. If you are not engaged to-morrow evening I should be glad to\nspend part of it with you--if you are, I shall wait your opportunity.\"*\n\n     * I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia for a\n     copy of this letter.\n\nIt was a cruel circumstance of Paine's poverty that he was compelled to\ncall attention not only to that but to his services, and to appraise the\nvalue of his own pen. He had to deal with hard men, on whom reserve\nwas wasted. On September 28th he reminded the Executive Council of\nPennsylvania of his needs and his uncompensated services, which, he\ndeclared, he could not afford to continue without support. The Council\nrealized the importance of Paine's pen to its patriotic measures, but\nwas afraid of offending the French Minister. Its president, Joseph Reed,\non the following day (September 29th) wrote to that Minister intimating\nthat they would like to employ Paine if he (the minister) had no\nobjection. On October 11th Gerard replies with a somewhat equivocal\nletter, in which he declares that Paine had agreed to terms he\nhad offered through M. de Mirales, but had not fulfilled them. \"I\nwillingly,\" he says, \"leave M. Payne to enjoy whatever advantages he\npromises himself by his denial of his acceptance of the offers of M.\nde Mirales and myself. I would even add, Sir, that if you feel able to\ndirect his pen in a way useful to the public welfare--which will perhaps\nnot be difficult to your zeal, talents, and superior lights,--I will be\nthe first to applaud the success of an attempt in which I have failed.\"*\nOn the same date Paine, not having received any reply to his previous\nletter, again wrote to the Council.\n\n     * \"Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed.\"   By his\n     grandson.    1847.\n\n\"Honble. Sirs.--Some few days ago I presented a letter to this Honble.\nBoard stating the inconveniences which I lay under from an attention to\npublic interest in preference to my own, to which I have recd, no reply.\nIt is to me a matter of great concern to find in the government of this\nState, that which appears to be a disposition in them to neglect their\nfriends and to throw discouragements in the way of genius and Letters.\n\n\"At the particular request of the Gentleman who presides at this board,\nI took up the defence of the Constitution, at a time when he declared\nto me that unless he could be assisted he must give it up and quit the\nstate; as matters then pressed too heavy upon him, and the opposition\nwas gaining ground; yet this Board has since suffered me to combat with\nall the inconveniences incurred by that service, without any attention\nto my interest or my situation. For the sake of not dishonoring a cause,\ngood in itself, I have hitherto been silent on these matters, but\nI cannot help expressing to this board the concern I feel on this\noccasion, and the ill effect which such discouraging examples will have\non those who might otherwise be disposed to act as I have done.\n\n\"Having said this much, which is but a little part of which I am\nsensible, I have a request to make which if complied with will enable me\nto overcome the difficulties alluded to and to withdraw from a service\nin which I have experienced nothing but misfortune and neglect. I have\nan opportunity of importing a quantity of printing paper from France,\nand intend collecting my several pieces, beginning with Common Sense,\ninto two Volumes, and publishing them by Subscription, with notes; but\nas I cannot think of beginning the Subscription until the paper arrive,\nand as the undertaking, exclusive of the paper, will be attended with\nmore expense than I, who have saved money both in the Service of the\nContinent and the State, can bear, I should be glad to be assisted with\nthe loan of fifteen hundred pounds for which I will give bond payable\nwithin a year. If this should not be complied with, I request that\nthe services I have rendered may be taken into consideration and such\ncompensation made me therefor as they shall appear to deserve.\n\n\"I am, Honble. Sirs, your obt. and humble servt.,\n\n\"Thomas Paine.\"\n\nThe constitution which Paine, in the above letter, speaks of defending\nwas that of 1776, which he had assisted Dr. Franklin, James Cannon\nand others in framing for Pennsylvania. It was a fairly republican\nconstitution, and by its enfranchisement of the people generally\nreduced the power enjoyed by the rich and reactionary under the\ncolonial government In Still's biography of John Dickinson the continued\nconflicts concerning this constitution are described. In 1805, when a\nconstitutional convention was proposed in Pennsylvania, Paine pointed\nout the superiority of its constitution of 1776, which \"was conformable\nto the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Rights, which\nthe present constitution [framed in 1790] is not\".* The constitution\nof 1776, and Paine's exposure of the services rendered to the enemy\nby Quakers, cleared the Pennsylvania Assembly of the members of that\nsociety who had been supreme. This process had gone on. The oath of\nallegiance to the State, proposed by Paine in 1777, and adopted, had\nbeen followed in 1778 (April 1st) by one imposing renunciation of all\nallegiance to George III., his heirs and successors, to be taken by all\ntrustees, provosts, professors, and masters. This was particularly aimed\nat the nest of \"Tories\" in the University of Philadelphia, whose head\nwas the famous Dr. William Smith. This provost, and all members of the\nUniversity except three trustees, took the oath, but the influence of\nthose who had been opposed to independence remained the same.\n\n     * Paine forgot the curious inconsistency in this\n     constitution of 1776, between the opening Declaration of\n     Rights in securing religious freedom and equality to all who\n     \"acknowledge the being of a God,\" and the oath provided for\n     all legislators, requiring belief in future rewards and\n     punishments, and in the divine inspiration of the Old and\n     New Testaments. This deistical oath, however, was probably\n     considered a victory of latitudiarianism, for the members\n     of the convention had taken a rigid trinitarian oath on\n     admission to their seats.\n\nIn 1779 the Assembly got rid of the provost (Smith), and this was done\nby the act of November which took away the charter of the University.*\nIt was while this agitation was going on, and the Philadelphia \"Tories\"\nsaw the heads of their chieftains falling beneath Paine's pen, that his\nown official head had been thrown to them by his own act. The sullen\nspite of the \"Tories\" did not fail to manifest itself. In conjunction\nwith Deane's defeated friends, they managed to give Paine many a\npersonal humiliation. This was, indeed, easy enough, since Paine, though\nwilling to fight for his cause, was a non-resistant in his own behalf.\nIt may have been about this time that an incident occurred which was\nremembered with gusto by the aged John Joseph Henry after the \"Age of\nReason\" had added horns and cloven feet to his early hero. Mr. Mease,\nClothier-General, gave a dinner party, and a company of his guests,\non their way home, excited by wine, met Paine. One of them remarking,\n\"There comes 'Common Sense'\"; Matthew Slough said, \"Damn him, I shall\ncommon-sense him,\" and thereupon tripped Paine into the gutter.** But\npatriotic America was with Paine, and missed his pen; for no _Crisis_\nhad appeared for nearly a year. Consequently on November 2, 1779, the\nPennsylvania Assembly elected him its Clerk.\n\n     * See \"A Memoir of the Rev. William Smith, D.D.,\" by Charles\n     J. Stille, Philadelphia, 1869. Provost Stille, in this\n     useful historical pamphlet, states all that can be said in\n     favor of Dr. Smith, but does not refer to his controversy\n     with Paine.\n\n     ** This incident is related in the interest of religion in\n     Mr. Henry's \"Account of Arnold's Campaign against Quebec.\"\n     The book repeats the old charge of drunkenness against\n     Paine, but the untrustworthiness of the writer's memory is\n     shown in his saying that his father grieved when Paine's\n     true character appeared, evidently meaning his \"infidelity.\"\n     His father died in 1786, when no suspicion either of Paine's\n     habits or orthodoxy had been heard.\n\n\n\n\n{1780}\n\nOn the same day there was introduced into that Assembly an act for the\nabolition of slavery in the State, which then contained six thousand\nnegro slaves. The body of this very moderate measure was prepared by\nGeorge Bryan, but the much admired preamble has been attributed by\ntradition to the pen of Paine.* That this tradition is correct is now\neasily proved by a comparison of its sentiments and phraseology with the\nantislavery writings of Paine presented in previous pages of this work.\nThe author, who alone seems to have been thinking of the negroes and\ntheir rights during that revolutionary epoch, thus had some reward\nin writing the first proclamation of emancipation in America. The act\npassed March 1, 1780.\n\n     * \"Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed,\" ii., p. 177;\n     North American Review, vol. lvii., No. cxx.\n\nThe Preamble is as follows:\n\n\"I. When we contemplate our abhorrence of that condition, to which the\narms and tyranny of Great Britain were exerted to reduce us, when we\nlook back on the variety of dangers to which we have been exposed, and\nhow miraculously our wants in many instances have been supplied, and\nour deliverances wrought, when even hope and human fortitude have\nbecome unequal to the conflict, we are unavoidably led to a serious and\ngrateful sense of the manifold blessings, which we have undeservedly\nreceived from the hand of that Being, from whom every good and perfect\ngift cometh. Impressed with these ideas, we conceive that is is our\nduty, and we rejoice that it is in our power, to extend a portion of\nthat freedom to others, which hath been extended to us, and release from\nthat state of thraldom, to which we ourselves were tyrannically doomed,\nand from which we have now every prospect of being delivered. It is not\nfor us to enquire why, in the creation of mankind, the inhabitants of\nthe several parts of the earth were distinguished by a difference in\nfeature or complexion. It is sufficient to know that all are the work\nof the Almighty Hand. We find in the distribution of the human species,\nthat the most fertile as well as the most barren parts of the earth\nare inhabited by men of complexions different from ours, and from each\nother; from whence we may reasonably as well as religiously infer, that\nHe, who placed them in their various situations, hath extended\nequally his care and protection to all, and that it becometh not us to\ncounteract his mercies. We esteem it a peculiar blessing granted to\nus, that we are enabled this day to add one more step to universal\ncivilization, by removing, as much as possible, the sorrows of those,\nwho have lived in undeserved bondage, and from which, by the assumed\nauthority of the Kings of Great Britain, no effectual, legal relief\ncould be obtained. Weaned, by a long course of experience, from those\nnarrow prejudices and partialities we had imbibed, we find our hearts\nenlarged with kindness and benevolence towards men of all conditions\nand nations; and we conceive ourselves at this particular period\nparticularly called upon by the blessings which we have received, to\nmanifest the sincerity of our profession, and to give a substantial\nproof of our gratitude.\n\n\"II. And whereas the condition of those persons, who have heretofore\nbeen denominated Negro and Mulatto slaves, has been attended with\ncircumstances, which not only deprived them of the common blessings\nthat they were by nature entitled to, but has cast them into the deepest\nafflictions, by an unnatural separation and sale of husband and wife\nfrom each other and from their children, an injury, the greatness\nof which can only be conceived by supposing that we were in the\nsame unhappy case. In justice, therefore, to persons so unhappily\ncircumstanced, and who, having no prospect before them whereon they may\nrest their sorrows and their hopes, have no reasonable inducement to\nrender their service to society, which they otherwise might, and also in\ngrateful commemoration of our own happy deliverance from that state\nof unconditional submission to which we were doomed by the tyranny of\nBritain.\n\n\"III. Be it enacted, &c.\"\n\n\nThe New Year, 1780, found Washington amid much distress at Morristown.\nBesides the published letters which attest this I have found an extract\nfrom one which seems to have escaped the attention of Washington's\neditors.* It was written at Morristown, January 5th.\n\n     * It is in the Ward Collection at Lafayette College, Easton,\n     Pa., copied by a (probably) contemporary hand.\n\n\"It gives me extreme Pain that I should still be holding up to Congress\nour wants on the score of Provision, when I am convinced that they are\ndoing all that they can for our relief. Duty and necessity, however,\nconstrain me to it. The inclosed copies of Letters from Mr. Flint, the\nAssistant Commissary, and from Gen. Irvine, who commands at present our\nadvanced troops, contain a just Representation of our situation. To add\nto our Difficulties I very much fear that the late violent snow storm\nhas so blocked up the Roads, that it will be some days before the\nscanty supplies in this quarter can be brought to camp. The troops, both\nofficers and men, have borne their Distress, with a patience scarcely\nto be conceived. Many of the latter have been four or five days\nwithout meat entirely and short of Bread, and none but very scanty\nSupplies--Some for their preservation have been compelled to maraud and\nrob from the Inhabitants, and I have it not in my power to punish or\nreprove the practice. If our condition should not undergo a very speedy\nand considerable change for the better, it will be difficult to point\nout all the consequences that may ensue. About forty of the Cattle\nmentioned by Mr. Flint got in last night.\"\n\nThe times that tried men's souls had come again. The enemy, having\ndiscovered the sufferings of the soldiers at Morristown, circulated\nleaflets inviting them to share the pleasures of New York. Nor were\nthey entirely unsuccessful. On May 28th was penned the gloomiest\nletter Washington ever wrote. It was addressed to Reed, President of\nPennsylvania, and the Clerk (Paine) read it to the Assembly. \"I assure\nyou,\" said the Commander's letter, \"every idea you can form of our\ndistresses will fall short of the reality. There is such a combination\nof circumstances to exhaust the patience of the soldiery that it begins\nat length to be worn out, and we see in every line of the army the most\nserious features of mutiny and sedition.\" There was throughout the long\nletter a tone of desperation which moved the Assembly profoundly. At\nthe close there was a despairing silence, amid which a member arose and\nsaid, \"We may as well give up first as last.\" The treasury was nearly\nempty, but enough remained to pay Paine his salary, and he headed\na subscription of relief with $500.* The money was enclosed to Mr.\nM'Clenaghan, with a vigorous letter which that gentleman read to a\nmeeting held in a coffee-house the same evening. Robert Morris and\nM'Clenaghan subscribed L200 each, hard money. The subscription, dated\nJune 8th, spread like wildfire, and resulted in the raising of L300,000,\nwhich established a bank that supplied the army through the campaign,\nand was incorporated by Congress on December 21st.\n\n     * The salary was drawn on June 7th, and amounted to $1,699.\n     For particulars concerning Paine's connection with the\n     Assembly I am indebted to Dr. William H. Egle, State\n     Librarian of Pennsylvania.\n\nPaine, by his timely suggestion of a subscription, and his \"mite,\" as he\ncalled it, proved that he could meet a crisis as well as write one.\nHe had written a cheery _Crisis_ in March, had helped to make good\nits hopefulness in May, and was straightway busy on another. This\nwas probably begun on the morning when M'Clenaghan came to him with a\ndescription of the happy effect and result produced by his letter and\nsubscription on the gentlemen met at the coffee-house. This _Crisis_\n(June 9, 1780) declares that the reported fate of Charleston, like the\nmisfortunes of 1776, had revived the same spirit; that such piecemeal\nwork was not conquering the continent; that France was at their side;\nthat an association had been formed for supplies, and hard-money\nbounties. In a postscript he adds: \"Charleston is gone, and I believe\nfor the want of a sufficient supply of provisions. The man that does not\nnow feel for the honor of the best and noblest cause that ever a country\nengaged in, and exert himself accordingly, is no longer worthy of a\npeaceable residence among a people determined to be free.\"\n\nMeanwhile, on \"Sunday Morning, June 4th,\" Paine wrote to President Reed\na private letter:\n\n\"Sir,--I trouble you with a few thoughts on the present state of\naffairs. Every difficulty we are now in arises from an empty treasury\nand an exhausted credit. These removed and the prospect were brighter.\nWhile the war was carried on by emissions at the pleasure of Congress,\nany body of men might conduct public business, and the poor were of\nequal use in government with the rich. But when the means must be drawn\nfrom the country the case becomes altered, and unless the wealthier part\nthrow in their aid, public measures must go heavily on.\n\n\"The people of America understand rights better than politics. They have\na clear idea of their object, but are greatly deficient in comprehending\nthe means. In the first place, they do not distinguish between sinking\nthe debt, and raising the current expenses. They want to have the war\ncarried on, the Lord knows how.\n\n\"It is always dangerous to spread an alarm of danger unless the prospect\nof success be held out with it, and that not only as probable, but\nnaturally essential. These things premised, I beg leave to mention, that\nsuppose you were to send for some of the richer inhabitants of the City,\nand state to them the situation of the army and the treasury, not as\narising so much from defect in the departments of government as from\na neglect in the country generally, in not contributing the necessary\nsupport in time. If they have any spirit, any foresight of their own\ninterest or danger, they will promote a subscription either of money or\narticles, and appoint a committee from among themselves to solicit the\nsame in the several Counties; and one State setting the example, the\nrest, I presume, will follow. Suppose it was likewise proposed to them\nto deposit their plate to be coined for the pay of the Army, crediting\nthe government for the value, by weight.\n\n\"If measures of this kind could be promoted by the richer of the Whigs,\nit would justify your calling upon the other part to furnish their\nproportion without ceremony, and these two measures carried, would make\na draft or call for personal service the more palatable and easy.\n\n\"I began to write this yesterday. This morning, it appears clear to me\nthat Charleston is in the hands of the enemy, and the garrison\nprisoners of war. Something must be done, and that something, to give it\npopularity, must begin with men of property. Every care ought now to be\ntaken to keep goods from rising. The rising of goods will have a most\nruinous ill effect in every light in which it can be viewed.\n\n\"The army must be reunited, and that by the most expeditious possible\nmeans. Drafts should first be countenanced by subscriptions, and if men\nwould but reason rightly, they would see that there are some thousands\nin this State who had better subscribe thirty, forty, or fifty guineas\napiece than run the risk of having to settle with the enemy. Property is\nalways the object of a conqueror, wherever he can find it. A rich man,\nsays King James, makes a bonny traitor; and it cannot be supposed that\nBritain will not reimburse herself by the wealth of others, could she\nonce get the power of doing it. We must at least recruit eight or ten\nthousand men in this State, who had better raise a man apiece, though\nit should cost them a thousand pounds apiece, than not have a sufficient\nforce, were it only for safety sake. Eight or ten thousand men, added to\nwhat we have now got, with the force that may arrive, would enable us\nto make a stroke at New York, to recover the loss of Charleston--but the\nmeasure must be expeditious.\n\n\"I suggest another thought. Suppose every man, working a plantation,\nwho has not taken the oath of allegiance, in Philadelphia County, Bucks,\nChester, Lancaster, Northampton, and Berks, were, by the new power\nvested in the Council, called immediately upon for taxes in kind at a\ncertain value. Horses and wagons to be appraised. This would not only\ngive immediate relief, but popularity to the new power. I would remark\nof taxes in kind, that they are hard-money taxes, and could they be\nestablished on the non-jurors, would relieve us in the articles of\nsupplies.\n\n\"But whatever is necessary or proper to be done, must be done\nimmediately. We must rise vigorously upon the evil, or it will rise upon\nus. A show of spirit will grow into real spirit, but the Country must\nnot be suffered to ponder over their loss for a day. The circumstance\nof the present hour will justify any means from which good may arise. We\nwant rousing.\n\n\"On the loss of Charleston I would remark--the expectation of a foreign\nforce arriving will embarrass them whether to go or to stay; and in\neither case, what will they do with their prisoners? If they return,\nthey will be but as they were as to dominion; if they continue, they\nwill leave New York an attackable post. They can make no new movements\nfor a considerable time. They may pursue their object to the Southward\nin detachments, but then in every main point they will naturally be at a\nstand; and we ought immediately to lay hold of the vacancy.\n\n\"I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant,\n\n\"Thomas Paine.\"\n\nIf Paine had lost any popularity in consequence of his indirect censure\nby Congress, a year before, it had been more than regained by his action\nin heading the subscription, and the inspiriting effect of his pamphlets\nof March and June, 1780. The University of the State of Pennsylvania,\nas it was now styled, celebrated the Fourth of July by conferring on him\nthe degree of Master of Arts.* Among the trustees who voted to confer\non him this honor were some who had two years before refused to take the\nAmerican oath of allegiance.\n\nIn the autumn appeared Paine's _Crisis Extraordinary_. It would appear\nby a payment made to him personally, that in order to make his works\ncheap he had been compelled to take his publications into his own\nhands.** The sum of $360 paid for ten dozen copies of this pamphlet was\nreally at the rate of five cents per copy. It is a forcible reminder of\nthe depreciation of the Continental currency. At one period Paine says\nhe paid $300 for a pair of woollen stockings.\n\n     * Mr. Burk, Secretary of the University of Pennsylvania,\n     sends me some interesting particulars. The proposal to\n     confer the degree on Paine was unanimously agreed to by the\n     trustees present, who were the Hon. Joseph Reed, President\n     of the Province; Mr. Moore, Vice-President; Mr. Sproat\n     (Presbyterian minister), Mr. White (the Bishop), Mr.\n     Helmuth, Mr. Wei-borg (minister of the German Calvinist\n     Church), Mr. Farmer (Roman Catholic Rector of St. Mary's),\n     Dr. Bond, Dr. Hutchkinson, Mr. Muhlenberg (Lutheran\n     minister). There were seven other recipients of the honor on\n     that day, all eminent ministers of religion; and M.D. was\n     conferred on David Ramsay, a prisoner with the enemy.\n\n     ** \"In Council. Philadelphia, October 10th, 1780. Sir,--Pay\n     to Thomas Paine Esquire, or his order, the amount of three\n     hundred and sixty dollars Continental money in State money,\n     at sixty to one, amount of his account for 10 dozen of the\n     Crisis Extraordinary. Wm. Moore, Vice President.--To David\n     Rittenhouse Esquire, Treasurer.\"\n\nAlthough the financial emergency had been tided over by patriotic\nsacrifices, it had disclosed a chaos.\n\n\"Sir,--Please to pay the within to Mr. Willm. Harris, and you will\noblige yr. obt. Hble. Sert., Thos. Paine.--David Rittenhouse Esq.\"\n\n\"Red. in full, H. Wm. Harris.\" [Harris printed the pamphlet].\n\nCongress, so far from being able to contend with Virginia on a point\nof sovereignty, was without power to levy taxes. \"One State,\" writes\nWashington (May 31st) \"will comply with a requisition of Congress;\nanother neglects to do it; a third executes it by halves; and all differ\neither in the manner, the matter, or so much in point of time, that we\nare always working up hill, and ever shall be; and, while such a system\nas the present one or rather want of one prevails, we shall ever be\nunable to apply our strength or resources to any advantage.\" In the\nletter of May 28th, to the President of Pennsylvania, which led to the\nsubscription headed by Paine, Washington pointed out that the resources\nof New York and Jersey were exhausted, that Virginia could spare nothing\nfrom the threatened South, and Pennsylvania was their chief dependence.\n\"The crisis, in every point of view, is extraordinary.\" This sentence of\nWashington probably gave Paine his title, Crisis Extraordinary. It is in\nevery sense a masterly production. By a careful estimate he shows that\nthe war and the several governments cost two millions sterling annually.\nThe population being 3,000,000, the amount would average 13s. 4d. per\nhead. In England the taxation was L2 per head. With independence a peace\nestablishment in America would cost 5s. per head; with the loss of it\nAmericans would have to pay the L2 per head like other English subjects.\nOf the needed annual two millions, Pennsylvania's quota would be an\neighth, or L250,000; that is, a shilling per month to her 375,000\ninhabitants,--which subjugation would increase to three-and-threepence\nper month. He points out that the Pennsylvanians were then paying only\nL64,280 per annum, instead of their real quota of L250,000, leaving\na deficiency of L185, 720, and consequently a distressed army. After\nshowing that with peace and free trade all losses and ravages would be\nspeedily redressed, Paine proposes that half of Pennsylvania's quota,\nand L60,000 over, shall be raised by a tax of 7s. per head. With this\nsixty thousand (interest on six millions) a million can be annually\nborrowed. He recommends a war-tax on landed property, houses, imports,\nprize goods, and liquors. \"It would be an addition to the pleasures\nof society to know that, when the health of the army goes round, a few\ndrops from every glass become theirs.\"\n\nOn December 30, 1780, Dunlap advertised Paine's pamphlet \"Public Good.\"\nUnder a charter given the Virginia Company in 1609 the State of Virginia\nclaimed that its southern boundary extended to the Pacific; and that its\nnorthern boundary, starting four hundred miles above, on the Atlantic\ncoast, stretched due northwest. To this Paine replies that the charter\nwas given to a London company extinct for one hundred and fifty years,\nduring which the State had never acted under that charter. Only the\nheirs of that company's members could claim anything under its extinct\ncharter. Further, the State unwarrantably assumed that the northwestern\nline was to extend from the northern point of its Atlantic base; whereas\nthere was more reason to suppose that it was to extend from the southern\npoint, and meet a due west line from the northern point, thus forming a\ntriangular territory of forty-five thousand square miles. Moreover, the\ncharter of 1609 said the lines should stretch \"from sea to sea.\" Paine\nshows by apt quotations that the western sea was supposed to be a short\ndistance from the Atlantic, and that the northwestern boundary claimed\nby Virginia would never reach the said sea, \"but would form a spiral\nline of infinite windings round the globe, and after passing over\nthe northern parts of America and the frozen ocean, and then into the\nnorthern parts of Asia, would, when eternity should end, and not before,\nterminate in the north pole.\" Such a territory is nondescript, and a\ncharter that describes nothing gives nothing. It may be remarked here\nthat though the Attorney-General of Virginia, Edmund Randolph, had to\nvindicate his State's claim, he used a similar argument in defeating\nLord Fairfax's claim to lands in Virginia which had not been discovered\nwhen his grant was issued.* All this, however, was mere fencing\npreliminary to the real issue. The western lands, on the extinction\nof the Virginia companies, had reverted to the Crown, and the point\nin which the State was really interested was its succession to the\nsovereignty of the Crown over all that territory. It was an early\ncropping up of the question of State sovereignty. By royal proclamation\nof 1763 the province of Virginia was defined so as not to extend beyond\nheads of rivers emptying in the Atlantic.\n\n     * \"Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and\n     Papers of Edmund Randolph,\" pp. 47, 60.\n\nPaine contended that to the sovereignty of the Crown over all\nterritories beyond limits of the thirteen provinces the United States\nhad succeeded. This early assertion of the federal doctrine, enforced\nwith great historical and legal learning, alienated from Paine some of\nhis best Southern friends. The controversy did not end until some\nyears later. After the peace, a proposal in the Virginia Legislature to\npresent Paine with something for his services, was lost on account of\nthis pamphlet.*\n\n     * Of course this issue of State v. National sovereignty was\n     adjourned to the future battle-field, where indeed it was\n     not settled. Congress accepted Virginia's concession of the\n     territory in question (March I, 1784), without conceding\n     that it was a donation; it accepted some of Virginia's\n     conditions, but refused others, which the State surrendered.\n     A motion that this acceptance did not imply endorsement of\n     Virginia's claim was lost, but the contrary was not\n     affirmed. The issue was therefore settled only in Paine's\n     pamphlet, which remains a document of paramount historical\n     interest.\n\n     There was, of course, a rumor that Paine's pamphlet was a\n     piece of paid advocacy. I remarked among the Lee MSS., at\n     the University of Virginia, an unsigned scrap of paper\n     saying he had been promised twelve thousand acres of western\n     land. Such a promise could only have been made by the old\n     Indiana, or Vandalia, Company, which was trying to revive\n     its defeated claim for lands conveyed by the Indians in\n     compensation for property they had destroyed. Their agent,\n     Samuel Wharton, may have employed Paine's pen for some kind\n     of work. But there is no faintest trace of advocacy in\n     Paine's \"Public Good.\" He simply maintains that the\n     territories belong to the United States, and should be sold\n     to pay the public debt,--a principle as fatal to the claim\n     of a Company as to that of a State.\n\nThe students of history will soon be enriched by a \"Life of Patrick\nHenry,\" by his grandson, William Wirt Henry, and a \"Life of George\nMason,\" by his descendant, Miss Rowland. In these works by competent\nhands important contributions will be made (as I have reason to know) to\nright knowledge of the subject dealt with by Paine in his \"Public Good.\"\nIt can here only be touched on; but in passing I may say that Virginia\nhad good ground for resisting even the semblance of an assertion of\nsovereignty by a Congress representing only a military treaty between\nthe colonies; and that Paine's doctrine confesses itself too idealistic\nand premature by the plea, with which his pamphlet closes, for the\nsummoning of a \"continental convention, for the purpose of forming\na continental constitution, defining and describing the powers and\nauthority of Congress.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII. A JOURNEY TO FRANCE\n\nThe suggestion of Franklin to Paine, in October, 1775, that he should\nwrite a history of the events that led up to the conflict, had never\nbeen forgotten by either. From Franklin he had gathered important facts\nand materials concerning the time antedating his arrival in America, and\nhe had been a careful chronicler of the progress of the Revolution. He\nwas now eager to begin this work. At the close of the first year of his\noffice as Clerk of the Assembly, which left him with means of support\nfor a time, he wrote to the Speaker (November 3, 1780) setting forth his\nintention of collecting materials for a history of the Revolution, and\nsaying that he could not fulfil the duties of Clerk if re-elected.*\n\n     * Dr. Egle informs me that the following payments to Paine\n     appear in the Treasurer's account: 1779, November 27, L450.\n     1780, February 14. For public service at a treaty held at\n     Easton in 1777, L300. February 14. Pay as clerk, L582. 10.\n     o. March 18. On account as clerk, L187. 10. o. March 27,\n     \"for his services \"(probably those mentioned on p. 94),\n     L2,355, 7. 6. June 7, \"for 60 days attendance and extra\n     expenses,\" L1,699. j. 6, (This was all paper money, and of\n     much less value than it seems. The last payment was drawn on\n     the occasion of his subscription of the $500, apparently\n     hard money, in response to Washington's appeal.) In March,\n     1780, a Fee Act was passed regulating the payment of\n     officers of the State in accordance with the price of wheat;\n     but this was ineffectual to preserve the State paper from\n     depreciation. In June, 1780, a list of lawyers and State-\n     officers willing to take paper money of the March issue as\n     gold and silver was published, and in it appears \"Thomas\n     Paine, clerk to the General Assembly.\"\n\nThis and another letter (September 14, 1780), addressed to the Hon. John\nBayard, Speaker of the late Assembly, were read, and ordered to lie on\nthe table. Paine's office would appear to have ended early in November;\nthe next three months were devoted to preparations for his history.\n\nBut events determined that Paine should make more history than he was\nable to chronicle. Soon after his _Crisis Extraordinary_ (dated October\n6, 1780) had appeared, Congress issued its estimate of eight million\ndollars (a million less than Paine's) as the amount to be raised. It was\nplain that the money could not be got in the country, and France must be\ncalled on for help. Paine drew up a letter to Vergennes, informing\nhim that a paper dollar was worth only a cent, that it seemed almost\nimpossible to continue the war, and asking that France should supply\nAmerica with a million sterling per annum, as subsidy or loan. This\nletter was shown to M. Marbois, Secretary of the French Legation, who\nspoke discouragingly. But the Hon. Ralph Izard showed the letter to some\nmembers of Congress, whose consultation led to the appointment of\nCol. John Laurens to visit France. It was thought that Laurens, one of\nWashington's aids, would be able to explain the military situation. He\nwas reluctant, but agreed to go if Paine would accompany him.\n\nIt so happened that Paine had for some months had a dream of crossing\nthe Atlantic, with what purpose is shown in the following confidential\nletter (September 9, 1780), probably to Gen. Nathaniel Greene.\n\n\"Sir,--Last spring I mentioned to you a wish I had to take a passage\nfor Europe, and endeavour to go privately to England. You pointed\nout several difficulties in the way, respecting my own safety, which\noccasioned me to defer the matter at that time, in order not only to\nweigh it more seriously, but to submit to the government of subsequent\ncircumstances. I have frequently and carefully thought of it since, and\nwere I now to give an opinion on it as a measure to which I was not a\nparty, it would be this:--that as the press in that country is free and\nopen, could a person possessed of a knowledge of America, and capable of\nfixing it in the minds of the people of England, go suddenly from this\ncountry to that, and keep himself concealed, he might, were he to manage\nhis knowledge rightly, produce a more general disposition for peace than\nby any method I can suppose. I see my way so clearly before me in\nthis opinion, that I must be more mistaken than I ever yet was on any\npolitical measure, if it fail of its end. I take it for granted that the\nwhole country, ministry, minority, and all, are tired of the war; but\nthe difficulty is how to get rid of it, or how they are to come down\nfrom the high ground they have taken, and accommodate their feelings to\na treaty for peace. Such a change must be the effect either of necessity\nor choice. I think it will take, at least, three or four more campaigns\nto produce the former, and they are too wrong in their opinions of\nAmerica to act from the latter. I imagine that next spring will begin\nwith a new Parliament, which is so material a crisis in the politics of\nthat country, that it ought to be attended to by this; for, should it\nstart wrong, we may look forward to six or seven years more of war. The\ninfluence of the press rightly managed is important; but we can derive\nno service in this line, because there is no person in England who\nknows enough of America to treat the subject properly. It was in a great\nmeasure owing to my bringing a knowledge of England with me to America,\nthat I was enabled to enter deeper into politics, and with more success,\nthan other people; and whoever takes the matter up in England must in\nlike manner be possessed of a knowledge of America. I do not suppose\nthat the acknowledgment of Independence is at this time a more\nunpopular doctrine in England than the declaration of it was in America\nimmediately before the publication of the pamphlet 'Common Sense,' and\nthe ground appears as open for the one now as it did for the other then.\n\n\"The manner in which I would bring such a publication out would be under\nthe cover of an Englishman who had made the tour of America incog. This\nwill afford me all the foundation I wish for and enable me to place\nmatters before them in a light in which they have never yet viewed\nthem. I observe that Mr. Rose in his speech on Governor Pownall's bill,\nprinted in Bradford's last paper, says that 'to form an opinion on\nthe propriety of yielding independence to America requires an accurate\nknowledge of the state of that country, the temper of the people, the\nresources of their Government,' &c. Now there is no other method to\ngive this information a national currency but this,--the channel of the\npress, which I have ever considered the tongue of the world, and which\ngoverns the sentiments of mankind more than anything else that ever did\nor can exist.\n\n\"The simple point I mean to aim at is, to make the acknowledgment of\nIndependence a popular subject, and that not by exposing and attacking\ntheir errors, but by stating its advantages and apologising for their\nerrors, by way of accomodating the measure to their pride. The present\nparties in that country will never bring one another to reason. They are\nheated with all the passion of opposition, and to rout the ministry, or\nto support them, makes their capital point. Were the same channel open\nto the ministry in this country which is open to us in that, they would\nstick at no expense to improve the opportunity. Men who are used to\ngovernment know the weight and worth of the press, when in hands which\ncan use it to advantage. Perhaps with me a little degree of literary\npride is connected with principle; for, as I had a considerable share\nin promoting the declaration of Independence in this country, I likewise\nwish to be a means of promoting the acknowledgment of it in that;\nand were I not persuaded that the measure I have proposed would be\nproductive of much essential service, I would not hazard my own safety,\nas I have everything to apprehend should I fall into their hands; but,\ncould I escape in safety, till I could get out a publication in England,\nmy apprehensions would be over, because the manner in which I mean to\ntreat the subject would procure me protection.\n\n\"Having said thus much on the matter, I take the liberty of hinting to\nyou a mode by which the expense may be defrayed without any new charge.\nDrop a delegate in Congress at the next election, and apply the pay to\ndefray what I have proposed; and the point then will be, whether you can\npossibly put any man into Congress who could render as much service in\nthat station as in the one I have pointed out. When you have perused\nthis, I should be glad of some conversation upon it, and will wait on\nyou for that purpose at any hour you may appoint. I have changed my\nlodgings, and am now in Front Street opposite the Coffee House, next\ndoor to Aitkin's bookstore.\n\n\"I am, Sir, your ob't humble servant,\n\n\"Thomas Paine.\"\n\n\n\n\n{1781}\n\nThe invitation of Colonel Laurens was eagerly accepted by Paine, who\nhoped that after their business was transacted in France he might fulfil\nhis plan of a literary descent on England. They sailed from Boston early\nin February, 1781, and arrived at L'Orient in March.\n\nYoung Laurens came near ruining the scheme by an imprudent advocacy,\nof which Vergennes complained, while ascribing it to his inexperience.\nAccording to Lamartine, the King \"loaded Paine with favors.\" The gift\nof six millions was \"confided into the hands of Franklin and Paine.\" The\nauthor now revealed to Laurens, and no doubt to Franklin, his plan for\ngoing to England, but was dissuaded from it. From Brest, May 28th, he\nwrites to Franklin in Paris:\n\n\"I have just a moment to spare to bid you farewell. We go on board in\nan hour or two, with a fair wind and everything ready. I understand that\nyou have expressed a desire to withdraw from business, and I beg leave\nto assure you that every wish of mine, so far as it can be attended with\nany service, will be employed to make your resignation, should it be\naccepted, attended with every possible mark of honor which your long\nservices and high character in life justly merit.\"*\n\n     * He confides to Franklin a letter to be forwarded to Bury\n     St. Edmunds, the region of his birth. Perhaps he had already\n     been corresponding with some one there about his projected\n     visit. Ten years later the Bury Post vigorously supported\n     Paine and his \"Rights of Man.\"\n\nThey sailed from Brest on the French frigate _Resolve_ June 1st,\nreaching Boston August 25th, with 2,500,000 livres in silver, and in\nconvoy a ship laden with clothing and military stores.\n\nThe glad tidings had long before reached Washington, then at New\nWindsor. On May 14, 1781, the General writes to Philip Schuyler:\n\n\"I have been exceedingly distressed by the repeated accounts I have\nreceived of the sufferings of the troops on the frontier, and the\nterrible consequences which must ensue unless they were speedily\nsupplied. What gave a particular poignancy to the sting I felt on the\noccasion was my inability to afford relief.\"\n\nOn May 26th his diary notes a letter from Laurens reporting the relief\ncoming from France. The information was confided by Washington only\nto his diary, lest it should forestall efforts of self-help. Of course\nWashington knew that the starting of convoys from France could not\nescape English vigilance, and that their arrival was uncertain; so he\npassed near three months in preparations, reconnoitrings, discussions.\nBy menacing the British in New York he made them draw away some of the\nforces of Cornwallis from Virginia, where he meant to strike; but\nhis delay in marching south brought on him complaints from Governor\nJefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and others, who did not know the secret\nof that delay. Washington meant to carry to Virginia an army well clad,\nwith hard money in their pockets, and this he did. The arrival of the\nFrench supplies at Boston, August 25th, was quickly heralded, and while\nsixteen ox-teams were carrying them to Philadelphia, Washington was\nthere getting, on their credit, all the money and supplies he wanted for\nthe campaign that resulted in the surrender of Cornwallis.\n\nFor this great service Paine never received any payment or\nacknowledgment. The plan of obtaining aid from France was conceived by\nhim, and mainly executed by him. It was at a great risk that he went\non this expedition; had he been captured he could have hoped for little\nmercy from the British. Laurens, who had nearly upset the business,\ngot the glory and the pay; Paine, who had given up his clerkship of the\nAssembly, run the greater danger, and done the real work, got nothing.\nBut it was a role he was used to. The young Colonel hastened to resume\nhis place in Washington's family, but seems to have given little\nattention to Paine's needs, while asking attention to his own. So it\nwould appear by the following friendly letter of Paine, addressed to\n\"Col. Laurens, Head Quarters, Virginia:\n\n\"Philadelphia, Oct. 4,1781.--Dear Sir,--I received your favor (by the\npost,) dated Sep. 9th, Head of Elk, respecting a mislaid letter. A\ngentleman who saw you at that place about the same time told me he\nhad likewise a letter from you to me which he had lost, and that\nyou mentioned something to him respecting baggage. This left me in a\ndifficulty to judge whether after writing to me by post, you had not\nfound the letter you wrote about, and took that opportunity to inform me\nabout it. However, I have wrote to Gen. Heath in case the trunk should\nbe there, and inclosed in it a letter to Blodget in case it should not.\nI have yet heard nothing from either. I have preferred forwarding the\ntrunk, in case it can be done in a reasonable time, to the opening it,\nand if it cannot, then to open it agreeably to your directions, tho' I\nhave no idea of its being there.\n\n\"I went for your boots, the next day after you left town, but they\nwere not done, and I directed the man to bring them to me as soon as\nfinished, but have since seen nothing of him, neither do wish him to\nbring them just now, as I must be obliged to borrow the money to pay for\nthem; but I imagine somebody else has taken them off his hands. I expect\nCol. Morgan in town on Saturday, who has some money of mine in his\nhands, and then I shall renew my application to the bootmaker.\n\n\"I wish you had thought of me a little before you went away, and at\nleast endeavored to put matters in a train that I might not have to\nreexperience what has already past. The gentleman who conveys this to\nyou, Mr. Burke, is an assistant judge of South Carolina, and one to\nwhose friendship I am much indebted. He lodged some time in the house\nwith me.\n\n\"I enclose you the paper of this morning, by which you will see that\nGillam had not sailed (or at least I conclude so) on the 4th of July, as\nMajor Jackson was deputy toast master, or Burgos-master, or something,\nat an entertainment on that day. As soon as I can learn anything\nconcerning Gillam I will inform you of it.\n\n\"I am with every wish for your happiness and success, &c.\n\n\"Please to present my Compts. and best wishes to the General. I have\nwrote to the Marquis and put all my politics into his letter. A paper\nwith Rivington's account of the action is enclosed in the Marquis'\nletter.\"'\n\n     * The original is in Mr. W. F. Haveraeyer's collection.\n\nIt will be seen by the following letter to Franklin's nephew that Paine\nwas now on good terms with the Congressmen who had opposed him in the\nDeane matter. The letter (in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania)\nis addressed to \"Mr. Jonathan Williams, Merchant, Nantz,\" per \"Brig\nBetsey.\"\n\n\"Philadelphia, Nov. 26, 1781.--Dear Sir,--Since my arrival I have\nreceived a letter from you dated Passy May 18, and directed to me\nat Brest. I intended writing to you by Mr. Baseley who is consul at\nL'Orient but neglected it till it was too late.--Mem: I desired Baseley\nto mention to you that Mr. Butler of S: Carolina is surprised at Capt\nRob------n's drawing on him for money; this Mr. Butler mentioned to\nme, and as a friend I communicate it to you.--I sent you Col. Laurens's\ndraft on Madam Babut (I think that is her name) at Nantz for 12 L. d'ors\nfor the expence of the Journey but have never learned if you received\nit.\n\n\"Your former friend Silas Deane has run his last length. In france he\nis reprobating America, and in America (by letters) he is reprobating\nfrance, and advising her to abandon her alliance, relinquish her\nindependence, and once more become subject to Britain. A number of\nletters, signed Silas Deane, have been published in the New York papers\nto this effect: they are believed, by those who formerly were his\nfriends, to be genuine; Mr. Robt. Morris assured me that he had been\ntotally deceived in Deane, but that he now looked upon him to be a bad\nman, and his reputation totally ruined. Gouverneur Morris hopped round\nupon one leg, swore they had all been duped, himself among the rest,\ncomplimented me on my quick sight,--and by Gods says he nothing carries\na man through the world like honesty:--and my old friend Duer 'Sometimes\na sloven and sometimes a Beau,' says, Deane is a damned artful rascal.\nHowever Duer has fairly cleared himself. He received a letter from him\na considerable time before the appearance of these in the New York\npapers--which was so contrary to what he expected to receive, and of\nsuch a traitorous cast, that he communicated it to Mr. Luzerne the\nMinister.\n\n\"Lord Cornwallis with 7247 officers and men are nAbbed nicely in the\nCheasepeake, which I presume you have heard already, otherwise I should\nsend you the particulars. I think the enemy can hardly hold out another\ncampaign. General Greene has performed wonders to the southward, and our\naffairs in all quarters have a good appearance. The french Ministry have\nhit on the right scheme, that of bringing their force and ours to act in\nconjunction against the enemy.\n\n\"The Marquis de la fayette is on the point of setting out for france,\nbut as I am now safely on this side the water again, I believe I shall\npostpone my second journey to france a little longer.--Lest Doctr.\nFranklin should not have heard of Deane I wish you would write to him,\nand if anything new transpires in the meantime and the Marquis do not\nset off too soon, I shall write by him.\n\n\"Remember me to Mr. & Mrs. Johnstone, Dr. Pierce, Mr. Watson & Ceasey\nand Mr. Wilt. Make my best wishes to Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Alexander, and\nall the good girls at St. Germain.\n\n\"I am your friend &c.\n\n\"Thomas Paine.\n\n\"P. S. Mind, I 'll write no more till I hear from you. The French fleet\nis sailed from the Cheasepeake, and the British fleet from New York--and\nsince writing the above, a vessel is come up the Delaware, which\ninforms that he was chased by two french frigates to the southward of\nCheasepeake, which on their coming up acquainted him that the french\nfleet was a head in chase of a fleet which they supposed to be the\nBritish.\n\n\"N. B. The french fleet sailed the 4th of this month, and the british\nmuch about the same time--both to the southward.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII. THE MUZZLED OX TREADING OUT THE GRAIN.\n\nWhile Washington and Lafayette were in Virginia, preparing for their\ngrapple with Cornwallis, Philadelphia was in apprehension of an attack\nby Sir Henry Clinton, for which it was not prepared. It appeared\nnecessary to raise for defence a body of men, but the money was wanting.\nPaine (September 20th) proposed to Robert Morris the plan of \"empowering\nthe tenant to pay into the Treasury one quarter's rent, to be applied as\nabove [_i. e._, the safety of Philadelphia], and in case it should not\nbe necessary to use the money when collected, the sums so paid to be\nconsidered a part of the customary taxes.\" This drastic measure would\nprobably have been adopted had not the cloud cleared away. The winter\nwas presently made glorious summer by the sun of Yorktown.\n\nWashington was received with enthusiasm by Congress on November 28th.\nIn the general feasting and joy Paine participated, but with an aching\nheart. He was an unrivalled literary lion; he had to appear on festive\noccasions; and he was without means. Having given his all,--copyrights,\nsecretaryship, clerkship,--to secure the independence of a nation, he\nfound himself in a state of dependence. He fairly pointed the moral of\nSolomon's fable: By his wisdom he had saved the besieged land, yet none\nremembered that poor man, so far as his needs were concerned. If in his\nconfidential letter to Washington, given below, Paine seems egotistical,\nit should be borne in mind that his estimate of his services falls short\nof their appreciation by the national leaders. It should not have been\nleft to Paine to call attention to his sacrifices for his country's\ncause, and the want in which it had left him. He knew also that plain\nspeaking was necessary with Washington.\n\n\"Second Street, opposite the Quaker Meetinghouse, Nov. 30th, 1781.\n\n\"Sir,--As soon as I can suppose you to be a little at leisure from\nbusiness and visits, I shall, with much pleasure, wait on you, to\npay you my respects and congratulate you on the success you have most\ndeservedly been blest with.\n\n\"I hope nothing in the perusal of this letter will add a care to the\nmany that employ your mind; but as there is a satisfaction in speaking\nwhere one can be conceived and understood, I divulge to you the secret\nof my own situation; because I would wish to tell it to somebody, and as\nI do not want to make it public, I may not have a fairer opportunity.\n\n\"It is seven years, this day, since I arrived in America, and tho'\nI consider them as the most honorary time of my life, they have\nnevertheless been the most inconvenient and even distressing. From an\nanxiety to support, as far as laid in my power, the reputation of the\nCause of America, as well as the Cause itself, I declined the customary\nprofits which authors are entitled to, and I have always continued to do\nso; yet I never thought (if I thought at all on the matter,) but that as\nI dealt generously and honorably by America, she would deal the same by\nme. But I have experienced the contrary--and it gives me much concern,\nnot only on account of the inconvenience it has occasioned to me, but\nbecause it unpleasantly lessens my opinion of the character of a country\nwhich once appeared so fair, and it hurts my mind to see her so cold and\ninattentive to matters which affect her reputation.\n\n\"Almost every body knows, not only in this country but in Europe, that\nI have been of service to her, and as far as the interest of the heart\ncould carry a man I have shared with her in the worst of her fortunes,\nyet so confined has been my private circumstances that for one summer I\nwas obliged to hire myself as a common clerk to Owen Biddle of this\ncity for my support: but this and many others of the like nature I have\nalways endeavored to conceal, because to expose them would only serve to\nentail on her the reproach of being ungrateful, and might start an ill\nopinion of her honor and generosity in other countries, especially as\nthere are pens enough abroad to spread and aggravate it.\n\n\"Unfortunately for me, I knew the situation of Silas Deane when no other\nperson knew it, and with an honesty, for which I ought to have been\nthanked, endeavored to prevent his fraud taking place. He has himself\nproved my opinion right, and the warmest of his advocates now very\ncandidly acknowledge their deception.\n\n\"While it was every body's fate to suffer I chearfully suffered with\nthem, but tho' the object of the country is now nearly established and\nher circumstances rising into prosperity, I feel myself left in a very\nunpleasant situation. Yet I am totally at a loss what to attribute it\nto; for wherever I go I find respect, and every body I meet treats me\nwith friendship; all join in censuring the neglect and throwing blame on\neach other, so that their civility disarms me as much as their conduct\ndistresses me. But in this situation I cannot go on, and as I have\nno inclination to differ with the Country or to tell the story of her\nneglect, it is my design to get to Europe, either to France or Holland.\nI have literary fame, and I am sure I cannot experience worse fortune\nthan I have here. Besides a person who understood the affairs of\nAmerica, and was capable and disposed to do her a kindness, might\nrender her considerable service in Europe, where her situation is but\nimperfectly understood and much misrepresented by the publications which\nhave appeared on that side the water, and tho' she has not behaved to me\nwith any proportionate return of friendship, my wish for her prosperity\nis no ways abated, and I shall be very happy to see her character as\nfair as her cause.\n\n\"Yet after all there is something peculiarly hard that the country which\nought to have been to me a home has scarcely afforded me an asylum.\n\n\"In thus speaking to your Excellency, I know I disclose myself to one\nwho can sympathize with me, for I have often cast a thought at your\ndifficult situation to smooth over the unpleasantness of my own.\n\n\"I have began some remarks on the Abbe Raynal's 'History of the\nRevolution.' In several places he is mistaken, and in others injudicious\nand sometimes cynical. I believe I shall publish it in America, but my\nprincipal view is to republish it in Europe both in French and English.\n\n\"Please, Sir, to make my respectful compts. to your Lady, and accept to\nyourself the best wishes of,\n\n\"Your obedt. humble servant,\n\n\"Thomas Paine.*\n\n\"His Excellency General Washington.\"\n\n     * I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia for a\n     copy of this letter.\n\n\n\n\n{1782}\n\nPaine's determination to make no money by his early pamphlets arose\npartly from his religious and Quaker sentiments. He could not have\nentered into any war that did not appear to him sacred, and in such a\ncause his \"testimony\" could not be that of a \"hireling.\" His \"Common\nSense,\" his first _Crisis_, were inspirations, and during all the time\nof danger his pen was consecrated to the cause. He had, however, strict\nand definite ideas of copyright, and was the first to call attention\nof the country to its necessity, and even to international justice in\nliterary property. In the chaotic condition of such matters his own\nsacrifices for the national benefit had been to some extent defeated\nby the rapacity of his first publisher, Bell, who pocketed much of what\nPaine had intended for the nation. After he had left Bell for Bradford,\nthe former not only published another edition of \"Common Sense,\" but\nwith \"large additions,\" as if from Paine's pen. When the perils of the\ncause seemed past Paine still desired to continue his literary record\nclear of any possible charge of payment, but he believed that the\ncountry would appreciate this sensitiveness, and, while everybody was\nclaiming something for services, would take care that he did not starve.\nIn this he was mistaken. In that very winter, after he had ventured\nacross the Atlantic and helped to obtain the six million livres, he\nsuffered want. Washington appears to have been the first to consider his\ncase. In the diary of Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance, there is\nan entry of January 26, 1782, in which he mentions that Washington had\ntwice expressed to him a desire that some provision should be made for\nPaine.*\n\n     * Sparks' \"Diplomatic Correspondence,\" xii., p. 95.\n\nMorris sent for Paine and, in the course of a long conversation,\nexpressed a wish that the author's pen should continue its services\nto the country; adding that though he had no position to offer him\nsomething might turn up. In February Morris mentions further interviews\nwith Paine, in which his assistant, Gouverneur Morris, united; they\nexpressed their high appreciation of his services to the country, and\ntheir desire to have the aid of his pen in promoting measures necessary\nto draw out the resources of the country for the completion of its\npurpose. They strongly disclaimed any private or partial ends, or a wish\nto bind his pen to any particular plans. They proposed that he should\nbe paid eight hundred dollars per annum from some national fund. Paine\nhaving consented, Robert Morris wrote to Robert R. Livingston on the\nsubject, and the result was a meeting of these two with Washington, at\nwhich the following was framed:\n\n\"Philadelphia, Feb. 10, 1782.--The subscribers, taking into\nconsideration the important situation of affairs at the present moment,\nand the propriety and even necessity of informing the people and rousing\nthem into action; considering also the abilities of Mr. Thomas Paine\nas a writer, and that he has been of considerable utility to the common\ncause by several of his publications: They are agreed that it will be\nmuch for the interest of the United States that Mr. Paine be engaged in\ntheir service for the purpose above mentioned. They are therefore agreed\nthat Mr. Paine be offered a salary of $800 per annum, and that the same\nbe paid him by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. The salary to commence\nfrom this day, and to be paid by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs out\nof monies to be allowed by the Superintendent of Finance for secret\nservices. The subscribers being of opinion that a salary publicly and\navowedly given for the above purpose would injure the effect of Mr.\nPaine's publications, and subject him to injurious personal reflections.\n\n\"Robt. Morris.\n\n\"Robt. Livingston.\n\n\"Go. Washington.\"\n\nBefore this joint note was written, Paine's pen had been resumed. March\n5th is the date of an extended pamphlet, that must long have been in\nhand. It is introduced by some comments on the King's speech, which\nconcludes with a quotation of Smollett's fearful description of the\nmassacres and rapine which followed the defeat of the Stuarts at\nCulloden in 1746. This, a memory from Paine's boyhood at Thetford, was\nan effective comment on the King's expression of his desire \"to restore\nthe public tranquillity,\" though poor George III., who was born in the\nsame year as Paine, would hardly have countenanced such vengeance.\nHe then deals--no doubt after consultation with Robert Morris,\nSuperintendent of Finance--with the whole subject of finance and\ntaxation, in the course of which he sounds a brave note for a more\nperfect union of the States, which must be the foundation-stone of their\nindependence. As Paine was the first to raise the flag of republican\nindependence he was the first to raise that of a Union which, above\nthe States, should inherit the supremacy wrested from the Crown. These\npassages bear witness by their nicety to the writer's consciousness that\nhe was touching a sensitive subject. The States were jealous of their\n\"sovereignty,\" and he could only delicately intimate the necessity of\nsurrendering it But he manages to say that \"each state (with a small s)\nis to the United States what each individual is to the state he lives\nin. And it is on this grand point, this movement upon one centre, that\nour existence as a nation, our happiness as a people, and our safety\nas individuals, depend.\" He also strikes the federal keynote by saying:\n\"The United States will become heir to an extensive quantity of vacant\nland\"--the doctrine of national inheritance which cost him dear.\n\nBefore the Declaration, Paine minted the phrases \"Free and Independent\nStates of America,\" and \"The Glorious Union.\" In his second _Crisis_,\ndated January 13, 1777, he says to Lord Howe: \"'The United States of\nAmerica' will sound as pompously in the world or in history as 'the\nkingdom of Great Britain.'\"\n\n     * Almon's Remembrancer 1778-9, p. 38a.\n\nThe friendliness of Robert Morris to the author is creditable to him.\nIn the Deane controversy, Paine had censured him and other members of\nCongress for utilizing that agent of the United States to transact their\ncommercial business in Europe. Morris frankly stated the facts, and,\nthough his letter showed irritation, he realized that Paine was no\nrespecter of persons where the American cause was concerned.* In 1782\nthe Revolution required nicest steering. With the port in sight, the\npeople were prone to forget that it is on the coast that dangerous\nrocks are to be found. Since the surrender of Cornwallis they were\nover-confident, and therein likely to play into the hands of the enemy,\nwhich had lost confidence in its power to conquer the States by arms.\nEngland was now making efforts to detach America and France from each\nother by large inducements. In France Paine was shown by Franklin and\nVergennes the overtures that had been made, and told the secret history\nof the offers of mediation from Russia and Austria. With these delicate\nmatters he resolved to deal, but before using the documents in his\npossession consulted Washington and Morris. This, I suppose, was the\nmatter alluded to in a note of March 17, 1782, to Washington, then in\nPhiladelphia:\n\n\"You will do me a great deal of pleasure if you can make it convenient\nto yourself to spend a part of an evening at my apartments, and eat a\nfew oysters or a crust of bread and cheese; for besides the favour\nyou will do me, I want much to consult with you on a matter of public\nbusiness, tho' of a secret nature, which I have already mentioned to Mr.\nMorris, whom I likewise intend to ask, as soon as yourself shall please\nto mention the evening when.\"\n\nA similar note was written to Robert Morris four days before. No doubt\nafter due consultation the next _Crisis_, dated May 22, 1782, appeared.\nIt dealt with the duties of the alliance:\n\n\"General Conway,\" he says, \"who made the motion in the British\nparliament for discontinuing _offensive_ war in America, is a gentleman\nof an amiable character. We have no personal quarrel with him. But he\nfeels not as we feel; he is not in our situation, and that alone without\nany other explanation is enough. The British parliament suppose they\nhave many friends in America, and that, when all chance of conquest is\nover, they will be able to draw her from her alliance with France. Now\nif I have any conception of the human heart, they will fail in this more\nthan in anything that they have yet tried. This part of the business is\nnot a question of policy only, but of honor and honesty.\"\n\nPaine's next production was a public letter to Sir Guy Carleton,\ncommanding in New York, concerning a matter which gave Washington\nmuch anxiety. On April 12th Captain Huddy had been hanged by a band of\n\"refugees,\" who had sallied from New York into New Jersey (April\n12th). The crime was traced to one Captain Lippencott, and, after\nfull consultation with his officers, Washington demanded the murderer.\nSatisfaction not being given, Washington and his generals determined\non retaliation, and Colonel Hazen, who had prisoners under guard at\nLancaster, was directed to have an officer of Captain Huddy's rank\nchosen by lot to suffer death. Hazen included the officers who had\ncapitulated with Cornwallis, though they were expressly relieved from\nliability to reprisals (Article 14). The lot fell upon one of these,\nyoung Captain Asgill (May 27th). It sufficiently proves the formidable\ncharacter of the excitement Huddy's death had caused in the army that\nWashington did not at once send Asgill back. The fact that he was one of\nthe capitulation officers was not known outside the military circle. Of\nthis circumstance Paine seems ignorant when he wrote his letter to\nSir Guy Carleton, in which he expresses profound sympathy with Captain\nHuddy, and warns Carle-ton that by giving sanctuary to the murderer\nhe becomes the real executioner of the innocent youth. Washington was\nresolved to hang this innocent man, and, distressing as the confession\nis, no general appears to have warned him of the wrong he was about\nto commit.* But Paine, with well-weighed words, gently withstood the\ncommander, prudently ignoring the legal point, if aware of it.\n\n     * Historians have evaded this ugly business. I am indebted\n     to the family of General Lincoln, then Secretary of War, for\n     the following letter addressed to him by Washington, June 5,\n     1782: \"Col. Hazen's sending me an officer under the\n     capitulation of Yorktown for the purpose of retaliation has\n     distressed me exceedingly. Be so good as to give me your\n     opinion of the propriety of doing this upon Captain Asgill,\n     if we should be driven to it for want of an unconditional\n     prisoner. Presuming that this matter has been a subject of\n     much conversation, pray with your own let me know the\n     opinions of the most sensible of those with whom you have\n     conversed. Congress by their resolve has unanimously\n     approved of my determination to retaliate. The army have\n     advised it, and the country look for it. But how far is it\n     justifiable upon an officer under the faith of a\n     capitulation, if none other can be had is the question?\n     Hazen's sending Captain Asgill on for this purpose makes the\n     matter more distressing, as the whole business will have the\n     appearance of a farce, if some person is not sacrificed to\n     the mains of poor Huddy; which will be the case if an\n     unconditional prisoner cannot be found, and Asgill escapes.\n     I write you in exceeding great haste; but beg your\n     sentiments may be transmitted as soon as possible (by\n     express), as I may be forced to a decision in the course of\n     a few days.--I am most sincerely and affectionately, D'r\n     Sir, yr. obed't,\n\n     \"G. Washington.\"\n\n     \"For my own part, I am fully persuaded that a suspension of\n     his fate, still holding it _in terrorem_, will operate on a\n     greater quantity of their passions and vices, and restrain\n     them more, than his execution would do. However, the change\n     of measures which seems now to be taking place, gives\n     somewhat of a new cast to former designs; and if the case,\n     without the execution, can be so managed as to answer all\n     the purposes of the last, it will look much better\n     hereafter, when the sensations that now provoke, and the\n     circumstances which would justify his exit shall be\n     forgotten.\"\n\nThis was written on September 7th, and on the 30th Washington, writing\nto a member of Congress, for the first time intimates a desire that\nAsgill shall be released by that body.\n\nIn October came from Vergennes a letter, inspired by Marie Antoinette,\nto whom Lady Asgill had appealed, in which he reminds Washington that\nthe Captain is a prisoner whom the King's arms contributed to surrender\ninto his hands. That he had a right, therefore, to intercede for his\nlife. This letter (of July 29, 1782) was laid before Congress, which\nat once set Asgill at liberty. Washington was relieved, and wrote the\nCaptain a handsome congratulation.\n\nAlthough Paine could never find the interval of leisure necessary to\nwrite consecutively his \"History of the Revolution,\" it is to a large\nextent distributed through his writings. From these and his letters a\ntrue history of that seven years can be gathered, apart from the details\nof battles; and even as regards these his contributions are of high\nimportance, notably as regards the retreat across the Delaware, the\naffairs at Trenton and Princeton, and the skirmishes near Philadelphia\nfollowing the British occupation of that city. The latter are vividly\ndescribed in his letter to Franklin (p. 104), and the former in his\nreview of the Abbe' Raynal.\n\nIn his letter to Washington, of November 30, 1781, Paine mentioned that\nhe had begun \"some remarks\" on the Abbe's work \"On the Revolution of the\nEnglish Colonies in North America.\" It was published early in September,\n1782. The chief interest of the pamphlet, apart from the passages\nconcerning the military events of 1776, lies in its reflections of\nevents in the nine months during which the paper lingered on his table.\nIn those months he wrote four numbers of the _Crisis_, one of urgent\nimportance on the financial situation. The review of the Abbe's history\nwas evidently written at intervals. As a literary production it is\nartistic. With the courtliness of one engaged in \"an affair of honor,\"\nhe shakes the Abbe's hand, sympathizes with his misfortune in having his\nmanuscript stolen, and thus denied opportunity to revise the errors for\nwhich he must be called to account. His main reason for challenging\nthe historian is an allegation that the Revolution originated in the\nquestion \"whether the mother country had, or had not, a right to lay,\ndirectly or indirectly, a slight tax upon the colonies.\" The quantity\nof the tax had nothing to do with it The tax on tea was a British\nexperiment to test its declaratory Act affirming the right of Parliament\n\"to bind America in all cases whatever,\" and that claim was resisted in\nthe first stage of its execution. Secondly, the Abbe suffers for having\ndescribed the affair at Trenton as accidental. Paine's answer is\nan admirable piece of history. Thirdly, the Abbe suggests that the\nAmericans would probably have accommodated their differences with\nEngland when commissioners visited them in April, 1778, but for their\nalliance with France. Paine affirms that Congress had rejected the\nEnglish proposals (afterwards brought by the commissioners) on April\n22d, eleven days before news arrived of the French alliance.*\n\n     * Here Paine is more acute than exact. On June 3, 1778, the\n     English Commissioners sent Congress the resolutions for\n     negotiation adopted by Parliament, February 17th. Congress\n     answered that on April 22d it had published its sentiments\n     on these acts. But these sentiments had admitted a\n     willingness to negotiate if Great Britain should \"as a\n     preliminary thereto, either withdraw their fleets and\n     armies, or else, in positive and express terms, acknowledge\n     the independence of the said States.\" But in referring the\n     commissioners (June 6th) to its manifesto of April 22d, the\n     Congress essentially modified the conditions: it would treat\n     only as an independent nation, and with \"sacred regard\" to\n     its treaties. On June 17th Congress returned the English\n     Commissioners their proposal (sent on the 9th) unconsidered,\n     because of its insults to their ally.\n\nThe Abbe is metaphysically punished for assuming that a French monarchy\nin aiding defenders of liberty could have no such motive as \"the\nhappiness of mankind.\" Not having access to the archives of France,\nPaine was able to endow Vergennes with the enthusiasm of Lafayette, and\nto see in the alliance a new dawning era of international affection. All\nsuch alliances are republican. The Abbe is leniently dealt with for his\nclear plagiarisms from Paine, and then left for a lecture to England.\nThat country is advised to form friendship with France and Spain; to\nexpand its mind beyond its island, and improve its manners. This is the\nrefrain of a previous passage.\n\n\"If we take a review of what part Britain has acted we shall find\neverything which should make a nation blush. The most vulgar abuse,\naccompanied by that species of haughtiness which distinguishes the hero\nof a mob from the character of a gentleman; it was equally as much from\nher manners as her injustice that she lost the colonies. By the latter\nshe provoked their principle, by the former she wore out their temper;\nand it ought to be held out as an example to the world, to show how\nnecessary it is to conduct the business of government with civility.\"\n\nThe close of this essay, written with peace in the air, contains some\nfriendly advice to England. She is especially warned to abandon Canada,\nwhich, after loss of the thirteen colonies, will be a constant charge.\nCanada can never be populous, and of all that is done for it \"Britain\nwill sustain the expense, and America reap the advantage.\"\n\nIn a letter dated \"Bordentown, September 7, 1782,\" Paine says to\nWashington:\n\n\"I have the honour of presenting you with fifty copies of my Letter\nto the Abbe Raynal, for the use of the army, and to repeat to you my\nacknowledgments for your friendship.\n\n\"I fully believe we have seen our worst days over. The spirit of the\nwar, on the part of the enemy, is certainly on the decline full as much\nas we think. I draw this opinion not only from the present promising\nappearance of things, and the difficulties we know the British Cabinet\nis in; but I add to it the peculiar effect which certain periods of time\nhave, more or less, on all men. The British have accustomed themselves\nto think of _seven years_ in a manner different to other portions of\ntime. They acquire this partly by habit, by reason, by religion, and by\nsuperstition. They serve seven years' apprenticeship--they elect their\nparliament for seven years--they punish by seven years' transportation,\nor the duplicate or triplicate of that term--they let their leases in\nthe same manner, and they read that Jacob served seven years for one\nwife, and after that seven years for another; and the same term likewise\nextinguishes all obligations (in certain cases) of debt, or matrimony:\nand thus this particular period of time, by a variety of concurrences,\nhas obtained an influence on their mind. They have now had seven years\nof war, and are no farther on the Continent than when they began. The\nsuperstitious and populous part will therefore conclude that _it is\nnot to be_, and the rational part of them will think they have tried\nan unsuccessful and expensive experiment long enough, and that it is in\nvain to try it any longer, and by these two joining in the same eventual\nopinion the obstinate part among them will be beaten out, unless,\nconsistent with their former sagacity, they get over the matter at once\nby passing a new declaratory Act _to bind Time in all casts whatsoever_,\nor declare him a rebel.\"\n\nThe rest of this letter is the cautious and respectful warning against\nthe proposed execution of Captain Asgill, quoted elsewhere. Washington's\nanswer is cheerful, and its complimentary close exceptionally cordial.\n\nHead-Quarters, Verplank's Point, 18 September, 1782.--Sir,--I have the\npleasure to acknowledge your favor, informing me of your proposal to\npresent me with fifty copies of your last publication for the amusement\nof the army. For this intention you have my sincere thanks, not only on\nmy own account, but for the pleasure, which I doubt not the gentlemen\nof the army will receive from the perusal of your pamphlets. Your\nobservations on the _period of seven years_, as it applies itself to and\naffects British minds, are ingenious, and I wish it may not fail of\nits effects in the present instance. The measures and the policy of the\nenemy are at present in great perplexity and embarrassment--but I\nhave my fears, whether their necessities (which are the only operating\nmotives with them) are yet arrived to that point, which must drive them\nunavoidably into what they will esteem disagreeable and dishonorable\nterms of peace,--such, for instance, as an absolute, unequivocal\nadmission of American Independence, upon the terms on which she can\naccept it. For this reason, added to the obstinacy of the King, and the\nprobable consonant principles of some of the principal ministers, I have\nnot so full a confidence in the success of the present negociation for\npeace as some gentlemen entertain. Should events prove my jealousies to\nbe ill founded, I shall make myself happy under the mistake, consoling\nmyself with the idea of having erred on the safest side, and enjoying\nwith as much satisfaction as any of my countrymen the pleasing issue of\nour severe contest.\n\n\"The case of Captain Asgill has indeed been spun out to a great\nlength--but, with you, I hope that its termination will not be\nunfavourable to this country.\n\n\"I am, sir, with great esteem and regard,\n\n\"Your most obedient servant,\n\n\"G. Washington.\"\n\nA copy of the answer to the Abbe Raynal was sent by Paine to Lord\nShelburne, and with it in manuscript his newest _Crisis_, dated October\n29, 1782. This was suggested by his lordship's speech of July 10th, in\nwhich he was reported to have said: \"The independence of America would\nbe the ruin of England.\" \"Was America then,\" asks Paine, \"the giant of\nempire, and England only her dwarf in waiting? Is the case so strangely\naltered, that those who once thought we could not live without them are\nnow brought to declare that they cannot exist without us?\"\n\nPaine's prediction that it would be a seven years' war was nearly\ntrue. There was indeed a dismal eighth year, the army not being able\nto disband until the enemy had entirely left the country,--a year\nwhen peace seemed to \"break out\" like another war. The army, no longer\nuplifted by ardors of conflict with a foreign foe, became conscious\nof its hunger, its nakedness, and the prospect of returning in rags to\npauperized homes. They saw all the civil officers of the country paid,\nwhile those who had defended them were unpaid; and the only explanations\nthat could be offered--the inability of Congress, and incoherence of the\nStates--formed a new peril. The only hope of meeting an emergency fast\nbecoming acute, was the unanimous adoption by the States of the proposal\nof Congress for a five-per-cent. duty on imported articles, the money\nto be applied to the payment of interest on loans to be made in Holland.\nSeveral of the States had been dilatory in their consent, but Rhode\nIsland absolutely refused, and Paine undertook to reason with that\nState. In the _Providence Gazette_, December 21st, appeared the\nfollowing note, dated \"Philadelphia, November 27, 1782 \":\n\n\"Sir,--Inclosed I send you a Philadelphia paper of this day's date, and\ndesire you to insert the piece signed 'A Friend to Rhode Island and the\nUnion.' I am concerned that Rhode Island should make it necessary to\naddress a piece to her, on a subject which the rest of the States are\nagreed in.--Yours &c. Thomas Paine.\"\n\nThe insertion of Paine's letter led to a fierce controversy, the\nimmediate subject of which is hardly of sufficient importance to detain\nus long.*\n\n     * It may be traced through the Providence Gazette of\n     December 21, 28 (1782), January 4, 11, 18, 25, February 1\n     (1783); also in the Newport Mercury.    Paine writes under\n     the signature of \"A Friend to Rhode Island and the Union.\"\n     I am indebted to Professor Jamieson of Brown University for\n     assistance in this investigation.\n\nYet this controversy, which presently carried Paine to Providence, where\nhe wrote and published six letters, raised into general discussion\nthe essential principles of Union. Rhode Island's jealousy of its\n\"sovereignty\"--in the inverse ratio of its size,--made it the last to\nenter a Union which gave it equal legislative power with the greatest\nStates; it need not be wondered then that at this earlier period, when\nsovereignty and self-interest combined, our pioneer of nationality had\nto undergo some martyrdom. \"What,\" he asked, \"would the sovereignity\nof any individual state be, if left to itself to contend with a foreign\npower? It is on our united sovereignty that our greatness and safety,\nand the security of our foreign commerce, rest. This united sovereignty\nthen must be something more than a name, and requires to be as\ncompletely organized for the line it is to act in as that of any\nindividual state, and, if anything, more so, because more depends on\nit.\" He received abuse, and such ridicule as this (February 1st):\n\n\"In the Name of Common Sense, Amen, I, Thomas Paine, having according\nto appointment, proceeded with all convenient speed to answer the\nobjections to the five per cent, by endeavouring to cover the design and\nblind the subject, before I left Philadelphia, and having proceeded to\na _convenient_ place of action in the State of Rhode Island, and there\nrepublished my first letter,\" etc.\n\n\n\n\n{1783}\n\nIn the same paper with this appeared a letter of self-defence from\nPaine, who speaks of the personal civility extended to him in Rhode\nIsland, but of proposals to stop his publications. He quotes a letter\nof friendship from Colonel Laurens, who gave him his war-horse, and\nan equally cordial one from General Nathaniel Greene, Rhode Island's\ndarling hero, declaring that he should be rewarded for his public\nservices.\n\nThis visit to Rhode Island was the last work which Paine did in\npursuance of his engagement, which ended with the resignation of\nMorris in January. Probably Paine received under it one year's salary,\n$800--certainly no more. I think that during the time he kept his usual\nsignature, \"Common Sense,\" sacred to his individual \"testimonies.\"\n\nOn his return to Philadelphia Paine wrote a memorial to Chancellor\nLivingston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Robert Morris, Minister of\nFinance, and his assistant Gouverneur Morris, urging the necessity of\nadding \"a Continental Legislature to Congress, to be elected by the\nseveral States.\" Robert Morris invited the Chancellor and a number of\neminent men to meet Paine at dinner, where his plea for a stronger union\nwas discussed and approved. This was probably the earliest of a series\nof consultations preliminary to the constitutional Convention.\n\nThe newspaper combat in Rhode Island, which excited general attention,\nand the continued postponement of all prospect of paying the soldiers,\nhad a formidable effect on the army. The anti-republican elements of the\ncountry, after efforts to seduce Washington, attempted to act without\nhim. In confronting the incendiary efforts of certain officers\nat Newburg to turn the army of liberty into mutineers against it,\nWashington is seen winning his noblest victory after the revolution had\nended. He not only subdued the reactionary intrigues, but the supineness\nof the country, which had left its soldiers in a condition that played\ninto the intriguers' hands.\n\nOn April 18th Washington formally announced the cessation of\nhostilities. On April 19th--eighth anniversary of the collision at\nLexington--Paine printed the little pamphlet entitled \"Thoughts on Peace\nand the Probable Advantages Thereof,\" included in his works as the last\n_Crisis_. It opens with the words: \"The times that tried men's souls are\nover--and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever\nknew, gloriously and happily accomplished.\" He again, as in his first\npamphlet, pleads for a supreme nationality, absorbing all cherished\nsovereignties. This is Paine's \"farewell address.\"\n\n\"It was the cause of America that made me an author. The force with\nwhich it struck my mind, and the dangerous condition in which\nthe country was in, by courting an impossible and an unnatural\nreconciliation with those who were determined to reduce her, instead of\nstriking out into the only line that could save her, a Declaration of\nIndependence, made it impossible for me, feeling as I did, to be silent;\nand if, in the course of more than seven years, I have rendered her\nany service, I have likewise added something to the reputation of\nliterature, by freely and disinterestedly employing it in the great\ncause of mankind.... But as the scenes of war are closed, and every\nman preparing for home and happier times, I therefore take leave of the\nsubject. I have most sincerely followed it from beginning to end, and\nthrough all its turns and windings; and whatever country I may hereafter\nbe in, I shall always feel an honest pride at the part I have taken and\nacted, and a gratitude to nature and providence for putting it in my\npower to be of some use to mankind.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV. GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE\n\nThe world held no other man so great and so happy as Washington, in\nSeptember, 1783,--the month of final peace. Congress, then sitting at\nPrinceton, had invited him to consult with them on the arrangements\nnecessary for a time of peace, and prepared a mansion for him at Rocky\nHill. For a time the General gave himself up to hilarity, as ambassadors\nof congratulation gathered from every part of the world. A glimpse of\nthe festivities is given by David Howell of Rhode Island in a letter to\nGovernor Greene.\n\n\"The President, with all the present members, chaplains, and great\nofficers of Congress, had the honor of dining at the General's table\nlast Friday. The tables were spread under a marquise or tent taken from\nthe British. The repast was elegant, but the General's company crowned\nthe whole. As I had the good fortune to be seated facing the General,\nI had the pleasure of hearing all his conversation. The President of\nCongress was seated on his right, and the Minister of France on his\nleft. I observed with much pleasure that the General's front was\nuncommonly open and pleasant; the contracted, pensive phiz betokening\ndeep thought and much care, which I noticed at Prospect Hill in 1775, is\ndone away, and a pleasant smile and sparkling vivacity of wit and humor\nsucceeds. On the President observing that in the present situation of\nour affairs he believed that Mr. [Robert] Morris had his hands full, the\nGeneral replied at the same instant, 'he wished he had his pockets full\ntoo.' On Mr. Peters observing that the man who made these cups (for we\ndrank wine out of silver cups) was turned a Quaker preacher, the General\nreplied that 'he wished he had turned a Quaker preacher before he\nmade the cups.' You must also hear the French Minister's remark on the\nGeneral's humor--'You tink de penitence wou'd have been good for de\ncups.' Congress has ordered an Egyptian statue of General Washington,\nto be erected at the place where they may establish their permanent\nresidence. No honors short of those which the Deity vindicates to\nhimself can be too great for Gen. Washington.\"\n\nAt this time Paine sat in his little home in Bor-dentown, living on his\ncrust. He had put most of his savings in this house (on two tenths of an\nacre) so as to be near his friend Col. Joseph Kirkbride. The Colonel was\nalso of Quaker origin, and a hearty sympathizer with Paine's principles.\nThey had together helped to frame the democratic constitution of\nPennsylvania (1776), had fought side by side, and both had scientific\ntastes. Since the burning of his house, Bellevue (Bucks), Colonel\nKirkbride had moved to Borden town, N. J., and lived at Hill Top,\nnow part of a female college. A part of Paine's house also stands. At\nBorden-town also resided Mr. Hall, who had much mechanical skill,\nand whom he had found eager to help him in constructing models of his\ninventions. To such things he now meant to devote himself, but before\nsettling down permanently he longed to see his aged parents and revisit\nhis English friends. For this, however, he had not means. Robert Morris\nadvised Paine to call the attention of Congress to various unremunerated\nservices. His secretaryship of the Foreign Affairs Committee, terminated\nby an admitted injustice to him, had been burdensome and virtually\nunpaid; its nominal $70 per month was really about $15. His perilous\njourney to France, with young Laurens, after the millions that wrought\nwonders, had not brought him even a paper dollar. Paine, therefore, on\nJune 7th, wrote to Elias Boudinot, President of Congress, stating that\nthough for his services he had \"neither sought, received, nor stipulated\nany honors, advantages, or emoluments,\" he thought Congress should\ninquire into them. The letter had some effect, but meanwhile Paine\npassed three months of poverty and gloom, and had no part in the\nfestivities at Princeton.\n\nOne day a ray from that festive splendor shone in his humble abode.\nThe great Commander had not forgotten his unwearied fellow-soldier, and\nwrote him a letter worthy to be engraved on the tombs of both.\n\n\"Rocky Hill, Sept. 10, 1783. \"Dear Sir,\n\n\"I have learned since I have been at this place, that you are at\nBordentown. Whether for the sake of retirement or economy, I know not.\nBe it for either, for both, or whatever it may, if you will come to this\nplace, and partake with me, I shall be exceedingly happy to see you.\n\n\"Your presence may remind Congress of your past services to this\ncountry; and if it is in my power to impress them, command my best\nservices with freedom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who\nentertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who, with\nmuch pleasure, subscribes himself,\n\n\"Your sincere friend,\n\n\"G. Washington.\"\n\nThe following was Paine's reply:\n\n\"Borden Town, Sept. 21.--Sir,--I am made exceedingly happy by the\nreceipt of your friendly letter of the 10th. instant, which is this\nmoment come to hand; and the young gentleman that brought it, a son\nof Col. Geo. Morgan, waits while I write this. It had been sent to\nPhiladelphia, and on my not being there, was returned, agreeable to\ndirections on the outside, to Col. Morgan at Princetown, who forwarded\nit to this place.\n\n\"I most sincerely thank you for your good wishes and friendship to me,\nand the kind invitation you have honored me with, which I shall with\nmuch pleasure accept.\n\n\"On the resignation of Mr. Livingston in the winter and likewise of Mr.\nR. Morris, at [the same] time it was judged proper to discontinue the\nmatter which took place when you were in Philadelphia.* It was at the\nsame time a pleasure to me to find both these gentlemen (to whom I\nwas before that time but little known) so warmly disposed to assist in\nrendering my situation permanent, and Mr. Livingston's letter to me, in\nanswer to one of mine to him, which I enclose, will serve to show that\nhis friendship to me is in concurrence with yours.\n\n     * See page 182.\n\n     ** This had been Washington's suggestion.\n\n\"By the advice of Mr. Morris I presented a letter to Congress expressing\na request that they would be pleased to direct me to lay before them an\naccount of what my services, such as they were, and situation, had been\nduring the course of the war. This letter was referred to a committee,\nand their report is now before Congress, and contains, as I am informed,\na recommendation that I be appointed historiographer to the continent.\"\nI have desired some members that the further consideration of it be\npostponed, until I can state to the committee some matters which I\nwish them to be acquainted with, both with regard to myself and the\nappointment. And as it was my intention, so I am now encouraged by your\nfriendship to take your confidential advice upon it before I present it\nFor though I never was at a loss in writing on public matters, I feel\nexceedingly so in what respects myself.\n\n\"I am hurt by the neglect of the collective ostensible body of America,\nin a way which it is probable they do not perceive my feelings. It has\nan effect in putting either my reputation or their generosity at stake;\nfor it cannot fail of suggesting that either I (notwithstanding the\nappearance of service) have been undeserving their regard or that\nthey are remiss towards me. Their silence is to me something like\ncondemnation, and their neglect must be justified by my loss of\nreputation, or my reputation supported at their injury; either of which\nis alike painful to me. But as I have ever been dumb on everything which\nmight touch national honor so I mean ever to continue so.\n\n\"Wishing you, Sir, the happy enjoyment of peace and every public and\nprivate felicity I remain &c.\n\n\"Thomas Paine.\n\n\"Col. Kirkbride at whose house I am, desires me to present you his\nrespectful compliments.\"\n\nPaine had a happy visit at Washington's headquarters, where he met old\nrevolutionary comrades, among them Humphreys, Lincoln, and Cobb. He\nsaw Washington set the river on fire on Guy Fawkes Day with a roll of\ncartridge-paper. When American art is more mature we may have a picture\nof war making way for science, illustrated by the night-scene of\nWashington and Paine on a scow, using their cartridge-paper to fire the\ngas released from the river-bed by soldiers with poles!*\n\n     * See Paine's essay on \"The Cause of the Yellow Fever.\"\n     These experiments on the river at Rocky Hill were followed\n     by others in Philadelphia, with Rittenhouse.\n\nThere was a small party in Congress which looked with sullen jealousy on\nWashington's friendliness with Paine. The States, since the conclusion\nof the war, were already withdrawing into their several shells of\n\"sovereignty,\" while Paine was arguing with everybody that there could\nbe no sovereignty but that of the United States,--and even that was\nmerely the supremacy of Law. The arguments in favor of the tax imposed\nby Congress, which he had used in Rhode Island, were repeated in his\nlast _Crisis_ (April 19th), and it must have been under Washington's\nroof at Rocky Hill that he wrote his letter \"To the People of America\"\n(dated December 9th), in which a high national doctrine was advocated.\nThis was elicited by Lord Sheffield's pamphlet, \"Observations on the\nCommerce of the United States,\" which had been followed by a prohibition\nof commerce with the West Indies in American bottoms. Lord Sheffield had\nsaid: \"It will be a long time before the American States can be brought\nto act as a nation; neither are they to be feared by us as such.\" Paine\ncalls the attention of Rhode Island to this, and says: \"America is now\nsovereign and independent, and ought to conduct her affairs in a regular\nstyle of character.\" She has a perfect right of commercial retaliation.\n\n\"But it is only by acting in union that the usurpations of foreign\nnations on the freedom of trade can be counteracted, and security\nextended to the commerce of America. And when we view a flag, which to\nthe eye is beautiful, and to contemplate its rise and origin inspires\na sensation of sublime delight, our national honor must unite with our\ninterest to prevent injury to the one or insult to the other.\"\n\n\n\n\n{1784}\n\nNoble as these sentiments now appear, they then excited alarm in certain\nCongressmen, and it required all Washington's influence to secure any\nfavorable action in Paine's case. In 1784, however, New York presented\nPaine with \"two hundred and seventy-seven acres, more or less, which\nbecame forfeited to and vested in the People of this State by the\nconviction of Frederick Devoe.\"* With such cheerful prospects, national\nand personal, Paine rose into song, as appears by the following letter\n(\"New York, April 28th\") to Washington:\n\n     * The indenture, made June 16, 1784, is in the Register's\n     Office of Westchester County, Vol. T. of Grantees, p. 163.\n     The confiscated estate of the loyalist Devoe is the well-\n     known one at New Rochelle on which Paine's monument stands.\n     I am indebted for investigations at White Plains, and\n     documents relating to the estate, to my friend George\n     Hoadly, and Mr. B. Davis Washburn.\n\n\"Dear Sir,--As I hope to have in a few days the honor and happiness of\nseeing you well at Philadelphia, I shall not trouble you with a long\nletter.\n\n\"It was my intention to have followed you on to Philadelphia, but when\nI recollected the friendship you had shewn to me, and the pains you\nhad taken to promote my interests, and knew likewise the untoward\ndisposition of two or three Members of Congress, I felt an exceeding\nunwillingness that your friendship to me should be put to further\ntryals, or that you should experience the mortification of having your\nwishes disappointed, especially by one to whom delegation is his daily\nbread.\n\n\"While I was pondering on these matters, Mr. Duane and some other\nfriends of yours and mine, who were persuaded that nothing would take\nplace in Congress (as a single man when only nine states were present\ncould stop the whole), proposed a new line which is to leave it to the\nStates individually; and a unanimous resolution has passed the senate\nof this State, which is generally expressive of their opinion and\nfriendship. What they have proposed is worth at least a thousand\nguineas, and other States will act as they see proper. If I do but get\nenough to carry me decently thro' the world and independently thro' the\nHistory of the Revolution, I neither wish nor care for more; and that\nthe States may very easily do if they are disposed to it. The State of\nPennsylvania might have done it alone.\n\n\"I present you with a new song for the Cincinnati; and beg to offer\nyou a remark on that subject.* The intention of the name appears to me\neither to be lost or not understood. For it is material to the future\nfreedom of the country that the example of the late army retiring to\nprivate life, on the principles of Cincinnatus, should be commemorated,\nthat in future ages it may be imitated. Whether every part of the\ninstitution is perfectly consistent with a republic is another question,\nbut the precedent ought not to be lost.\n\n\"I have not yet heard of any objection in the Assembly of this State, to\nthe resolution of the Senate, and I am in hopes there will be none made.\nShould the method succeed, I shall stand perfectly clear of Congress,\nwhich will be an agreeable circumstance to me; because whatever I may\nthen say on the necessity of strengthening the union, and enlarging its\npowers, will come from me with a much better grace than if Congress had\nmade the acknowledgment themselves.\n\n\"If you have a convenient opportunity I should be much obliged to you to\nmention this subject to Mr. President Dickinson. I have two reasons\nfor it, the one is my own interest and circumstances, the other is on\naccount of the State, for what with their parties and contentions, they\nhave acted to me with a churlish selfishness, which I wish to conceal\nunless they force it from me.\n\n     * Paine wrote four patriotic American songs: \"Hail, Great\n     Republic of the World\" (tune \"Rule Britannia\"); \"To\n     Columbia, who Gladly Reclined at her Ease\"; \"Ye Sons of\n     Columbia, who Bravely have Fought,\"--both of the latter\n     being for the tune of \"Anacreon in Heaven\"; and \"Liberty\n     Tree \"(tune \"Gods of the Greeks\"), beginning, \"In a\n     chariot of light, from the regions of Day,\" etc.\n\n\"As I see by the papers you are settling a tract of land, I enclose you\na letter I received from England on the subject of settlements. I think\nlands might be disposed of in that country to advantage. I am, dear Sir,\n&c.\"\n\nThe estate at New Rochelle had a handsome house on it (once a\npatrimonial mansion of the Jays), and Paine received distinguished\nwelcome when he went to take possession. This he reciprocated, but he\ndid not remain long at New Rochelle.* Bordentown had become his home; he\nhad found there a congenial circle of friends,--proved such during his\npoverty. He was not, indeed, entirely relieved of poverty by the New\nYork _honorarium_, but he had expectation that the other States would\nfollow the example. In a letter to Jefferson also Paine explained\nhis reason for desiring that the States, rather than Congress, should\nremunerate him. That Washington appreciated this motive appears by\nletters to Richard Henry Lee and James Madison.\n\n     *\"An old lady, now a boarding-housekeeper in Cedar Street,\n     remembers when a girl visiting Mr. Paine when he took\n     possession of his house and farm at New Rochelle, and gave a\n     village fete on the occasion; she then only knew him as\n     'Common Sense,' and supposed that was his name. On that day\n     he had something to say to everybody, and young as she was\n     she received a portion of his attention; while he sat in\n     the shade, and assisted in the labor of the feast, by\n     cutting or breaking sugar to be used in some agreeable\n     liquids by his guests. Mr. Paine was then, if not handsome,\n     a fine agreeable looking man.\"--Vale, 1841. The original\n     house was accidentally destroyed by fire, while Paine was in\n     the French Convention. The present house was, however,\n     occupied by him after his return to America.\n\n\"Mount Vernon, 12 June.--Unsolicited by, and unknown to Mr. Paine, I\ntake the liberty of hinting the services and the distressed (for so I\nthink it may be called) situation of that Gentleman.\n\n\"That his Common Sense, and many of his Crisis, were well timed and had\na happy effect upon the public mind, none, I believe, who will recur to\nthe epocha's at which they were published will deny.--That his services\nhitherto have passed of [f] unnoticed is obvious to all;--and that he\nis chagreened and necessitous I will undertake to aver.--Does not common\njustice then point to some compensation?\n\n\"He is not in circumstances to refuse the bounty of the public. New\nYork, not the least distressed nor most able State in the Union, has set\nthe example. He prefers the benevolence of the States individually to\nan allowance from Congress, for reasons which are conclusive in his\nown mind, and such as I think may be approved by others. His views\nare moderate, a decent independency is, I believe, the height of his\nambition, and if you view his services in the American cause in the same\nimportant light that I do, I am sure you will have pleasure in obtaining\nit for him.--I am with esteem and regard, Dr. sir, yr. most obdt.\nservt.,\n\n\"George Washington.\"*\n\n\"Mount Vernon, June 12.--Dear Sir,--Can nothing be done in our Assembly\nfor poor Paine? Must the merits and services of _Common Sense_ continue\nto glide down the stream of time, unrewarded by this country?\n\n\"His writings certainly have had a powerful effect on the public\nmind,--ought they not then to meet an adequate return? He is poor! he is\nchagreened! and almost if not altogether in despair of relief.\n\n\"New York, it is true, not the least distressed nor best able State in\nthe Union, has done something for him. This kind of provision he prefers\nto an allowance from Congress, he has reasons for it, which to him are\nconclusive, and such, I think, as would have weight with others. His\nviews are moderate--a decent independency is, I believe, all he aims at.\nShould he not obtain this? If you think so I am sure you will not only\nmove the matter but give it your support. For me it only remains to feel\nfor his situation and to assure you of the sincere esteem and regard\nwith which I have the honor to be, DSir,\n\n\"Yr. Most Obedt. Humble Servt,\n\n\"G. Washington.\"\n\n\"James Madison, Esq.\"\n\n     *I found this letter (to Lee) among the Franklin MSS. in the\n     Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.\n\n     ** I am indebted for this letter to Mr. Frederick McGuire,\n     of Washington.\n\nA similar letter was written to Patrick Henry and perhaps to others. A\nbill introduced into the Virginia Legislature (June 28th) to give Paine\na tract of land, being lost on the third reading, Madison (June\n30th) offered a \"bill for selling the public land in the county of\nNorthampton, called the Secretary's land, and applying part of the money\narising therefrom to the purchase of a tract to be vested in Thomas\nPayne and his heirs.\" The result is described by Madison (July 2d) to\nWashington:\n\n     * \"Arthur Lee was most responsible for the failure of the\n     measure, for he was active in cultivating a prejudice\n     against Paine. This was somewhat ungracious, as Paine had\n     befriended Lee in his controversy with Deane.\"--Ford's\n     \"Writings of Washington,\" x., p. 395. Had there been any\n     belief at this time that Paine had been paid for writing the\n     pamphlet objected to, \"Public Good,\" it would no doubt have\n     been mentioned.\n\n\"The easy reception it found, induced the friends of the measure to add\nthe other moiety to the proposition, which would have raised the market\nvalue of the donation to about four thousand pounds, or upwards, though\nit would not probably have commanded a rent of more than one hundred\npounds per annum. In this form the bill passed through two readings. The\nthird reading proved that the tide had suddenly changed, for the bill\nwas thrown out by a large majority. An attempt was next made to sell\nthe land in question, and apply two thousand pounds of the money to\nthe purchase of a farm for Mr. Paine. This was lost by a single voice.\nWhether a greater disposition to reward patriotic and distinguished\nexertions of genius will be found on any succeeding occasion, is not for\nme to predetermine. Should it finally appear that the merits of the man,\nwhose writings have so much contributed to enforce and foster the spirit\nof independence in the people of America, are unable to inspire them\nwith a just beneficence, the world, it is to be feared, will give us as\nlittle credit for our policy as for gratitude in this particular.\"\n\nR. H. Lee--unfortunately not present, because of illness--writes\nWashington (July 22d):\n\n\"I have been told that it miscarried from its being observed that he had\nshown enmity to this State by having written a pamphlet injurious to\nour claim of Western Territory. It has ever appeared to me that this\npamphlet was the consequence of Mr. Paine's being himself imposed upon,\nand that it was rather the fault of the place than the man.\"'\n\nSo the news came that Virginia had snubbed Paine, at the moment of\nvoting a statue to Washington. But his powerful friend did not relax\nhis efforts, and he consulted honest John Dickinson, President of\nPennsylvania. Under date of November 27th, the following was written by\nPaine to General Irwin, Vice-President of Pennsylvania:\n\n\"The President has made me acquainted with a Conversation which General\nWashington had with him at their last interview respecting myself, and\nhe is desirous that I should communicate to you his wishes, which are,\nthat as he stands engaged on the General's request to recommend to the\nAssembly, so far as lies in his power, their taking into consideration\nthe part I have acted during the war, that you would join your\nassistance with him in the measure.--Having thus, Sir, opened the\nmatter to you in general terms, I will take an opportunity at some time\nconvenient to yourself to state it to you more fully, as there are many\nparts in it that are not publicly known.--I shall have the pleasure of\nseeing you at the President's to-day to dine and in the mean time I am\netc.\"\n\nOn December 6th the Council sent this message to the General Assembly of\nPennsylvania:\n\n\"Gentlemen: The President having reported in Council a conversation\nbetween General Washington and himself respecting Mr. Thomas Paine, we\nhave thereby been induced to take the services and situation of that\ngentleman at this time into our particular consideration.\n\n\"Arriving in America just before the war broke out, he commenced his\nresidence here, and became a citizen of this Commonwealth by taking\nthe oath of allegiance at a very early period. So important were his\nservices during the late contest, that those persons whose own merits in\nthe course of it have been the most distinguished concur with a highly\nhonorable unanimity in entertaining sentiments of esteem for him, and\ninteresting themselves in his deserts. It is unnecessary for us to\nenlarge on this subject. If the General Assembly shall be pleased to\nappoint a Committee, they will receive information that we doubt not\nwill in every respect prove satisfactory.\n\n\"We confide that you will, then, feel the attention of Pennsylvania is\ndrawn towards Mr. Paine by motives equally grateful to the human heart,\nand reputable to the Republic; and that you will join with us in the\nopinion that a suitable acknowledgment of his eminent services, and a\nproper provision for the continuance of them in an independent manner,\nshould be made on the part of this State.\"\n\nPennsylvania promptly voted to Paine L500,--a snug little fortune in\nthose days.\n\nPaine thus had a happy New Year. Only two States had acted, but they had\nmade him independent Meanwhile Congress also was willing to remunerate\nhim, but he had put difficulties in the way. He desired, as we have\nseen, to be independent of that body, and wished it only to pay its\ndebts to him; but one of these--his underpaid secretaryship--would\ninvolve overhauling the Paine-Deane case again. Perhaps that was what\nPaine desired; had the matter been passed on again the implied censures\nof Paine on the journal of Congress would have been reversed. When\ntherefore a gratuity was spoken of Paine interfered, and wrote to\nCongress, now sitting in New York, asking leave to submit his accounts.\nThis letter was referred to a committee (Gerry, Pettit, King).\n\n\"Mr. Gerry,\" says Paine, \"came to me and said that the Committee had\nconsulted on the subject, and they intended to bring in a handsome\nreport, but that they thought it best not to take any notice of your\nletter, or make any reference to Deane's affair, or your salary. They\nwill indemnify you without it. The case is, there are some motions on\nthe journals of Congress for censuring you, with respect to Deane's\naffair, which cannot now be recalled, because they have been printed.\nTherefore [we] will bring in a report that will supersede them without\nmentioning the purport of your letter.\"\n\nOn the committee's report Congress resolved (August 26th):\n\n\"That the early, unsolicited, and continued labors of Mr. Thomas Paine,\nin explaining and enforcing the principles of the late revolution by\ningenious and timely publications upon the nature of liberty, and civil\ngovernment, have been well received by the citizens of these States, and\nmerit the approbation of Congress; and that in consideration of these\nservices, and the benefits produced thereby, Mr. Paine is entitled to a\nliberal gratification from the United States.\"\n\nThis of course was not what Paine wished, and he again (September 27th)\nurged settlement of his accounts. But, on October 3d, Congress ordered\nthe Treasurer to pay Paine $3,000, \"for the considerations mentioned in\nthe resolution of the 26th of August last\" \"It was,\" Paine maintained to\nthe last, \"an indemnity to me for some injustice done me, for Congress\nhad acted dishonorably by me.\" The Committee had proposed $6,000, but\nthe author's enemies had managed to reduce it The sum paid was too small\nto cover Paine's journey to France with Laurens, which was never repaid.\n\nThe services of Thomas Paine to the American cause cannot, at this\ndistance of time, be estimated by any records of them, nor by his\nprinted works. They are best measured in the value set on them by\nthe great leaders most cognizant of them,--by Washington, Franklin,\nJefferson, Adams, Madison, Robert Morris, Chancellor Livingston, R. H.\nLee, Colonel Laurens, General Greene, Dickinson. Had there been anything\ndishonorable or mercenary in Paine's career, these are the men who\nwould have known it; but their letters are searched in vain for even\nthe faintest hint of anything disparaging to his patriotic self-devotion\nduring those eight weary years. Their letters, however, already quoted\nin these pages, and others omitted, show plainly that they believed\nthat all the States owed Paine large \"returns (as Madison wrote to\nWashington) of gratitude for voluntary services,\" and that these\nservices were not merely literary. Such was the verdict of the men most\ncompetent to pass judgment on the author, the soldier, the secretary. It\ncan never be reversed.\n\nTo the radical of to-day, however, Paine will seem to have fared pretty\nwell for a free lance; and he could now beat all his lances into bridge\niron, without sparing any for the wolf that had haunted his door.\n\n\n\n\n{1785}\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV. PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS\n\nPaine was the literary lion in New York--where Congress sat in 1785--and\nwas especially intimate with the Nicholsons, whose house was the social\n_salon_ of leading republicans.* One may easily read between the lines\nof the following note to Franklin that the writer is having \"a good\ntime\" in New York, where it was written September 23d:\n\n     * \"Commodore Nicholson was an active republican politician\n     in the city of New York, and his house was a headquarters\n     for the men of his way of thinking. The young ladies'\n     letters are full of allusions to the New York society of\n     that day, and to calls from Aaron Burr, the Livingstons, the\n     Clintons, and many others.... An other man still more\n     famous in some respects was a frequent visitor at their\n     house. It is now almost forgotten that Thomas Paine, down to\n     the time of his departure for Europe in 1787, was a\n     fashionable member of society, admired and courted as the\n     greatest literary genius of his day.... Here is a little\n     autograph, found among the papers of Mrs. Gallatin [nee\n     Nicholson]; its address is to: 'Miss Hannah N., at the Lord\n     knows where.--You Mistress Hannah if you don't come home, I\n     'll come and fetch you.   T. Paine.'\"--Adams' \"Life of\n     Gallatin.\"\n\n\"My Dear Sir,--It gives me exceeding great pleasure to have the\nopportunity of congratulating you on your return home, and to a land of\nPeace; and to express to you my heartfelt wishes that the remainder\nof your days may be to you a time of happy ease and rest. Should Fate\nprolong my life to the extent of yours, it would give me the greatest\nfelicity to have the evening scene some resemblance of what you now\nenjoy.\n\n\"In making you this address I have an additional pleasure in reflecting,\nthat, so far as I have hitherto gone, I am not conscious of any\ncircumstance in my conduct that should give you one repentant thought\nfor being my patron and introducer to America.\n\n\"It would give me great pleasure to make a journey to Philadelphia on\npurpose to see you, but an interesting affair I have with Congress makes\nmy absence at this time improper.\n\n\"If you have time to let me know how your health is, I shall be much\nobliged to you.\n\n\"I am, dear Sir, with the sincerest affection and respect,\n\n\"Your obedient, humble servant,\n\n\"Thomas Paine.\n\n\"The Hon'ble Benjamin Franklin, Esquire.\n\n\"My address is Messrs. Lawrence and Morris, Merchants.\"\n\nTo this came the following reply, dated Philadelphia, September 24th:\n\n\"Dear Sir,--'I have just received your friendly congratulations on\nmy return to America, for which, as well as your kind wishes for my\nwelfare, I beg you to accept my most thankful acknowledgments. Ben is\nalso very sensible of your politeness, and desires his respects may be\npresented.\n\n\"I was sorry on my arrival to find you had left this city. Your present\narduous undertaking, I easily conceive, demands retirement, and tho' we\nshall reap the fruits of it, I cannot help regretting the want of your\nabilities here where in the present moment they might, I think, be\nsuccessfully employed. Parties still run very high--Common Sense\nwould unite them. It is to be hoped therefore it has not abandoned us\nforever.\"*\n\n     * The remainder of the letter (MS. Philosoph. Soc.,\n     Philadelphia) seems to be in the writing of William Temple\n     Franklin, to whom probably Paine had enclosed a note: \"Mr.\n     Williams whom you inquire after accompanied us to America,\n     and is now here. We left Mrs. Wms. and her sisters well at\n     St. Ger's, but they proposed shortly returning to England to\n     live with their uncle, Mr. J. Alexander, who has entirely\n     settled his affairs with Mr. Wal-pole and the Bank. Mr. Wm.\n     Alex'r I suppose you know is in Virginia fulfilling his\n     tobacco contract with the Farmer Gen'l. The Marquis la\n     Fayette we saw a few days before we left Passy--he was well\n     and on the point of setting off on an excursion into\n     Germany, and a visit to the Emperor K. of Prussia.--I\n     purpose shortly being at New York, where I will with\n     pleasure give you any further information you may wish, and\n     shall be very happy to cultivate the acquaintance and\n     friendship of Mr. Paine, for whose character I have a\n     sincere regard and of whose services I, as an American, have\n     a grateful sense\"\n\nThe \"arduous undertaking\" to which Franklin refers was of course the\niron bridge. But it will be seen by our next letter that Paine had\nanother invention to lay before Franklin, to whom he hastened after\nreceiving his $3,000 from Congress:\n\n\"Dec. 31, 1785.--Dear Sir,--I send you the Candles I have been\nmaking;--In a little time afer they are lighted the smoke and flame\nseparate, the one issuing from one end of the Candle, and the other from\nthe other end. I supposed this to be because a quantity of air enters\ninto the Candle between the Tallow and the flame, and in its passage\ndownwards takes the smoke with it; for if you allow a quantity of air up\nthe Candle, the current will be changed, and the smoke reascends, and in\npassing this the flame makes a small flash and a little noise.\n\n\"But to express the Idea I mean, of the smoke descending more clearly\nit is this,--that the air enters the Candle in the very place where\nthe melted tallow is getting into the state of flame, and takes it down\nbefore the change is completed--for there appears to me to be two kinds\nof smoke, humid matter which never can be flame, and enflameable matter\nwhich would be flame if some accident did not prevent the change being\ncompleted--and this I suppose to be the case with the descending smoke\nof the Candle.\n\n\"As you can compare the Candle with the Lamp, you will have an\nopportunity of ascertaining the cause--why it will do in the one and not\nin the other. When the edge of the en-flamed part of the wick is close\nwith the edge of the Tin of the Lamp no counter current of air can\nenter--but as this contact does not take place in the Candle a counter\ncurrent enters and prevents the effect [?] in the candles which\nilluminates the Lamp. For the passing of the air thro' the Lamp does\nnot, I imagine, burn the smoke, but burns up all the oil into flame, or\nby its rapidity prevents any part of the oil flying off in the state of\nhalf-flame which is smoke.\n\n\"I do not, my Dear Sir, offer these reasons to you but to myself, for I\nhave often observed that by lending words for my thoughts I understand\nmy thoughts the better. Thoughts are a kind of mental smoke, which\nrequire words to illuminate them.\n\n\"I am affectionately your Obt. & Hble. servant,\n\n\"Thomas Paine.\n\n\"I hope to be well enough tomorrow to wait on you.\"\n\n\n\n\n{1786}\n\nPaine had now to lay aside his iron arch and bridge a financial flood.\nA party had arisen in Philadelphia, determined to destroy the \"Bank of\nNorth America.\" Paine had confidence in this bank, and no one knew its\nhistory better, for it had grown out of the subscription he headed (May,\n1780) with $500 for the relief of Washington's suffering army. It had\nbeen incorporated by Congress, and ultimately by Pennsylvania, April 1,\n1782. Investments and deposits by and in the Bank had become very large,\nand to repeal its charter was to violate a contract. The attack was\nin the interest of paper money, of which there was a large issue. The\nrepeal had to be submitted to popular suffrage, and even Cheet-ham\nadmits that Paine's pamphlet \"probably averted the act of despotism.\"\nThe pamphlet was entitled, \"Dissertations on Government, the Affairs of\nthe Bank, and Paper Money\" (54 pages 8vo). It was written and printed,\nPaine says in his preface (dated February 18, 1786), \"during the short\nrecess of the Assembly.\" This was between December 22d and February\n26th.\n\nThe first fourteen pages of the work are devoted to a consideration\nof general principles. Englishmen who receive their constitutional\ninstruction from Walter Bagehot and Albert Dicey will find in this\nintroduction by Paine the foundation of their Republic. In discussing\n\"sovereignty\" he points out that the term, when applied to a people, has\na different meaning from the arbitrariness it signifies in a monarchy.\n\"Despotism may be more effectually acted by many over a few, than by one\nover all.\" \"A republic is a sovereignty of justice, in contradistinction\nto a sovereignty of will.\" The distinct powers of the legislature are\nstated--those of legislation and those of agency. \"All laws are acts,\nbut all acts are not laws.\" Laws are for every individual; they may be\naltered. Acts of agency or negotiation are deeds and contracts.\n\n\"The greatness of one party cannot give it a superiority or advantage\nover the other. The state or its representative, the assembly, has no\nmore power over an act of this kind, after it has passed, than if the\nstate was a private person. It is the glory of a republic to have it so,\nbecause it secures the individual from becoming the prey of power, and\nprevents might from overcoming right. If any difference or dispute arise\nbetween the state and the individuals with whom the agreement is made\nrespecting the contract, or the meaning or extent of any of the matters\ncontained in the act, which may affect the property or interest of\neither, such difference or dispute must be judged of and decided upon by\nthe laws of the land, in a court of justice and trial by jury; that\nis, by the laws of the land already in being at the time such act and\ncontract was made.\"\n\n\"That this is justice,\" adds Paine, \"that it is the true principle of\nrepublican government, no man will be so hardy as to deny.\" So, indeed,\nit seemed in those days. In the next year those principles were embodied\nin the Constitution; and in 1792, when a State pleaded its sovereign\nright to repudiate a contract (\"Chisholm vs. Georgia\") the Supreme\nCourt affirmed every contention of Paine's pamphlet, using his ideas and\nsometimes his very phrases.\n\nOur first Attorney-General (Edmund Randolph, of Virginia) eloquently\nmaintained that the inferiority of one party, or dignity of the other,\ncould not affect the balances of justice. Individuals could not be left\nthe victims of States. So it was decided. Justice Wilson remarked\nthat the term sovereignty is unknown to the Constitution: \"The term\n'sovereign' has for its correlative, 'subject.'\" A State contracting as\na merchant cannot, when asked to fulfil its contract, take refuge in its\n\"sovereignty.\" \"The rights of individuals,\" said Justice Cushing, \"and\nthe justice due to them are as dear and precious as those of States.\nIndeed the latter are founded on the former; and the great end and\nobject of them must be to secure and support the rights of individuals,\nor else vain is government.\"* But the decline of republicanism set in;\nthe shameful Eleventh Amendment was adopted; Chisholm was defrauded of\nhis victory by a retrospective action of this amendment; and America\nstands to-day as the only nation professing civilization, which shields\nrepudiation under \"State sovereignty.\"\n\n     1 See \"Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life\n     and Papers of Edmund Randolph,\" Chap. XVIII., for a full\n     history of this subject.\n\nIn the strength of these principles Paine was able to overwhelm the\nwhole brood of heresies,--State privilege, legal tender, repudiation,\nretrospective laws. His arguments are too modern to need repetition\nhere; in fineness and force they are like the ribs of his bridge: as\nto-day commerce travels on Paine's iron span, so on his argumentative\narch it passes over freshets endangering honest money.\n\nFor a like reason it is unnecessary to give here all the details of his\nbridge sent by Paine to his correspondents. Of this invention more is\nsaid in further chapters, but the subjoined letters are appropriate at\nthis point The first two were written at Bordentown, where Paine settled\nhimself in the spring.\n\nTo Franklin, undated.--\"I send you the two essays I mentioned. As the\nstanding or not standing of such an arch is not governed by opinions,\ntherefore opinions one way or the other will not alter the fact. The\nopinions of its standing will not make it stand, the opinions of its\nfalling will not make it fall; but I shall be exceedingly obliged to\nyou to bestow a few thoughts on the subject and to communicate to me any\ndifficulties or doubtfulness that may occur to you, because it will\nbe of use to me to know them. As you have not the model to look at I\nenclose a sketch of a rib, except that the blocks which separate the\nbars are not represented.\"\n\nTo Franklin, June 6th.--\"The gentleman, Mr. Hall, who presents you with\nthis letter, has the care of two models for a bridge, one of wood, the\nother of cast iron, which I have the pleasure of submitting to you, as\nwell for the purpose of showing my respect to you, as my patron in\nthis country, as for the sake of having your opinion and judgment\nthereon.--The European method of bridge architecture, by piers and\narches, is not adapted to many of the rivers in America on account of\nthe ice in the winter. The construction of those I have the honor of\npresenting to you is designed to obviate the difficulty by leaving the\nwhole passage of the river clear of the incumbrance of piers... My first\ndesign in the wooden model was for a bridge over the Harlem River,\nfor my good friend General Morris of Morrisania... but I cannot help\nthinking that it might be carried across the Schuylkill.... Mr. Hall,\nwho has been with me at Borden Town, and has done the chief share of the\nworking part, for we have done the whole ourselves, will inform you\nof any circumstance relating to it which does not depend on the\nmathematical construction. Mr. Hall will undertake to see the models\nbrought safe from the stage boat to you; they are too large to be\nadmitted into the house, but will stand very well in the garden. Should\nthere be a vessel going round to New York within about a week after my\narrival in Philadelphia I shall take that convenience for sending them\nthere, at which place I hope to be in about a fortnight.\"\n\nAddress and date not given; written in Philadelphia, probably in\nJune.--\"Honorable Sir,--I have sent to His Excellency, the President\n[Franklin] two models for a Bridge, the one of wood the other of\ncast-iron bars, to be erected over rivers, without piers. As I shall in\na few days go to New York, and take them with me, I do myself the honor\nof presenting an invitation to Council to take a view of them before\nthey are removed. If it is convenient to Council to see and examine\ntheir construction to-day, at the usual time of their adjournment, I\nwill attend at the President's at half after twelve o'clock, or any\nother day or hour Council may please to appoint.\"'\n\n     * This and the two letters preceding are among the Franklin\n     MSS. in the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.\n\nTo the Hon. Thomas Fitzsimmons; addressed \"To be left at the Bank,\nPhiladelphia.\" Written at Borden town, November 19th.--\"I write you a\nfew loose thoughts as they occur to me. Next to the gaining a majority\nis that of keeping it This, at least (in my opinion), will not be best\naccomplished by doing or attempting a great deal of business, but by\ndoing no more than is absolutely necessary to be done, acting moderately\nand giving no offence. It is with the whole as it is with the members\nindividually, and we always see at every new election that it is more\ndifficult to turn out an old member against whom no direct complaint can\nbe made than it is to put in a new one though a better man. I am sure it\nwill be best not to touch any part of the plan of finance this year.\nIf it falls short, as most probably it will, it would be (I speak for\nmyself) best to reduce the interest that the whole body of those who are\nstiled public creditors may share it equally as far as it will go. If\nany thing can be saved from the Civil List expences it ought not to be\nfinally mortgaged to make up the deficiency; it may be applied to bring\nthe creditors to a balance for the present year. There is more to be\nsaid respecting this debt than has yet been said. The matter has never\nbeen taken up but by those who were interested in the matter. The public\nhas been deficient and the claimants exorbitant--neglect on one side\nand greediness on the other. That which is truly Justice may be always\nadvocated. But I could no more think of paying six per cent Interest in\nreal money, in perpetuity, for a debt a great part of which is quondam\nthan I could think of not paying at all. Six per cent on any part of the\ndebt, even to the original holders is ten or twelve per cent, and to the\nspeculators twenty or thirty or more. It is better that the matter\nrest until it is fuller investigated and better understood, for in its\npresent state it will be hazardous to touch upon.\n\n\"I have not heard a word of news from Philadelphia since I came to this\nplace. I wrote a line to Mr. Francis and desired him to give me a little\naccount of matters but he does not, perhaps, think it very necessary\nnow.\n\n\"I see by the papers that the subject of the Bank is likely to be\nrenewed. I should like to know when it will come on, as I have some\nthought of coming down at that time, if I can.\n\n\"I see by the papers that the Agricultural Society have presented\na petition to the house respecting building a Bridge over the\nSchuylkill--on a model prepared for that purpose. In this I think they\nare too hasty. I have already constructed a model of a Bridge of Cast\nIron, consisting of one arch. I am now making another of wrought Iron of\none arch, but on a different Plan. I expect to finish it in about three\nweeks and shall send it first to Philadelphia. I have no opinion of any\nBridge over the Schuylkill that is to be erected on piers--the sinking\nof piers will sink more money than they have any Idea of and will not\nstand when done. But there is another point they have not taken into\ntheir consideration; which is, that the sinking three piers in the\nmiddle of the river, large and powerful enough to resist the ice, will\ncause such an alteration in the bed and channel of the river that there\nis no saying what course it may take, or whether it will not force a new\nchannel somewhere else.\"*\n\n     * I am indebted for this letter to Mr. Simon Grata of\n     Philadelphia.\n\nTo George Clymer, Esquire, \"to be left at the Bank, Philadelphia.\"\nWritten at Bordentown, November 19th.--\"I observe by the minutes that\nthe Agricultural Society have presented a petition to the house for\nan act of incorporation for the purpose of erecting a bridge over the\nSchuylkill on a model in their possession. I hope this business will not\nbe gone into too hastily. A Bridge on piers will never answer for that\nriver, they may sink money but they never will sink piers that will\nstand. But admitting that the piers do stand--they will cause such an\nalteration in the Bed and channel of the river, as will most probable\nalter its course either to divide the channel, and require two bridges\nor cause it to force a new channel in some other part. It is a matter of\nmore hazard than they are aware of the altering by obstructions the bed\nand channel of a River; the water must go somewhere--the force of the\nfreshets and the Ice is very great now but will be much greater then.\n\n\"I am finishing as fast as I can my new model of an Iron Bridge of one\narch which if it answers, as I have no doubt but it will, the whole\ndifficulty of erecting Bridges over that river, or others of like\ncircumstances, will be removed, and the expense not greater, (and I\nbelieve not so great) as the sum mentioned by Mr. Morris in the house,\nand I am sure will stand four times as long or as much longer as Iron\nis more durable than wood. I mention these circumstances to you that you\nmay be informed of them--and not let the matter proceed so far as to put\nthe Agricultural Society in a difficult situation at last.\n\n\"The giving a Society the exclusive right to build a bridge, unless the\nplan is prepared before hand, will prevent a bridge being built; because\nthose who might afterwards produce models preferable to their own, will\nnot present them to any such body of men, and they can have no right to\ntake other peoples labours or inventions to compleat their own\nundertakings by.\n\n\"I have not heard any news since I came to this place. I wish you would\ngive me a line and let me know how matters are going on.--The Stage Boat\ncomes to Borden Town every Wednesday and Sunday from the Crooked Billet\nWharf.\"*\n\n\n\n\n{1787}\n\nAt the close of the war Paine was eager to visit England. He speaks of\nit in his letter of June 7, 1783, to Elias Boudinot, already referred\nto--but he had not the means. The measures for his remuneration had\ndelayed him two and a half years, and it now became imperative that he\nshould put in a fair way of success his invention of the bridge.\nThe models made a good impression on Franklin and the Council, and a\ncommittee was appointed to investigate it. Early in the year following\nthe Pennsylvania Assembly appointed another committee. But meanwhile\nPaine's correspondence with his parents determined him to visit them at\nonce, and look after the interests of his invention upon his return.**\nHe no doubt also thought, and it may have been suggested by Franklin,\nthat the success of his bridge would be assured in America and England\nif it should receive approval of the engineers in France. In March,\n1787, he is in Philadelphia, consulting committees, and on the 31st\nwrites to Franklin of his prospects and plans:\n\n     * For this letter I am indebted to Mr. Charles Roberts, of\n     Philadelphia.\n\n     ** It is known that he received an affectionate letter from\n     his father, now in his 78th year, but it has not been found,\n     and was probably burned with the Bonneville papers in St.\n     Louis.\n\n\"I mentioned in one of my essays my design of going this spring to\nEurope.--I intend landing in france and from thence England,--and that I\nshould take the model with me. The time I had fixed with myself was\nMay, but understanding (since I saw you yesterday) that no french packet\nsails that month, I must either take the April packet or wait till\nJune. As I can get ready by the April packet I intend not omitting the\nopportunity. My Father and Mother are yet living, whom I am very anxious\nto see, and have informed them of my coming over the ensuing summer.\n\n\"I propose going from hence by the stage on Wednesday for New York, and\nshall be glad to be favoured with the care of any letters of yours to\nFrance or England. My stay in Paris, when with Col. Laurens, was so\nshort that I do not feel myself introduced there, for I was in no house\nbut at Passy, and the Hotel Col. Laurens was at. As I have taken a part\nin the Revolution and politics of this country, and am not an unknown\ncharacter in the political world, I conceive it would be proper on my\ngoing to Paris, that I should pay my respects to Count Vergennes, to\nwhom I am personally unknown; and I shall be very glad of a letter from\nyou to him affording me that opportunity, or rendering my waiting on\nhim easy to me; for it so often happens that men live to forfeit the\nreputation at one time they gained at another, that it is prudent not\nto presume too much on one's self. The Marquis La Fayette I am the most\nknown to of any gentleman in France. Should he be absent from Paris\nthere are none I am much acquainted with. I am on exceeding good terms\nwith Mr. Jefferson which will necessarily be the first place I go to.\nAs I had the honor of your introduction to America it will add to my\nhappiness to have the same friendship continued to me on the present\noccasion.\n\n\"Respecting the model, I shall be obliged to you for a letter to some\nof the Commissioners in that department. I shall be glad to hear their\nopinion of it If they will undertake the experiment of two Ribs, it\nwill decide the matter and promote the work here,--but this need not be\nmentioned. The Assembly have appointed another Committee, consisting of\nMr. Morris, Mr. Clymer, Mr. Fitzsimons, Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Robinson, to\nconfer with me on the undertaking. The matter therefore will remain\nsuspended till my return next winter. It is worth waiting this event,\nbecause if a single arch to that extent will answer, all difficulties in\nthat river, or others of the same condition, are overcome at once.\nI will do myself the pleasure of waiting on you tomorrow.\"\n\nDuring the time when Paine was perfecting his bridge, and consulting the\nscientific committees, the country was absorbed with preparations\nfor forming a national Constitution and Union. When the States were\nnominating and electing delegates to the Convention of 1787, no one\nseems to have suggested Paine for a seat in it, nor does he appear\nto have aspired to one. The reasons are not far to seek. Paine was\naltogether too inventive for the kind of work contemplated by the\ncolonial politicians. He had shown in all his writings, especially in\nhis \"Dissertations on Government,\" that he would build a constitution\nas he built his bridge: it must be mathematical, founded and shaped in\nimpregnable principles, means adopted and adapted strictly for an ideal\nnational purpose. His iron span did not consider whether there might be\nlarge interests invested in piers, or superstitions in favor of oak; as\nlittle did his anti-slavery essays consider the investments in slavery,\nor his \"Public Good\" on the jealous sovereignty of States. A recent writer\nsays that Paine's \"Common Sense\" was \"just what the moment demanded,\"\nand that it \"may be briefly described as a plea for independence and a\ncontinental government.\"* In setting the nation at once to a discussion\nof the principles of such government, he led it to assume the principle\nof independence; over the old English piers on their quicksands, which\nsome would rebuild, he threw his republican arch, on which the people\npassed from shore to shore. He and Franklin did the like in framing the\nPennsylvania constitution of 1776, by which the chasm of \"Toryism\" was\nspanned.\n\n     * \"The Development of Constitutional Liberty in the English\n     Colonies of America,\" by Eben Greenough Scott, 1890.\n\nEvery pamphlet of Paine was of the nature of an invention, by which\nprinciples of liberty and equality were framed in constructions adapted\nto emergencies of a republic. But when the emergencies were past, the\nold contrivances regained their familiar attractions, and these were\nenhanced by independence. Privilege, so odious in Lords, was not so bad\nwhen inherited by democracy; individual sovereignty, unsuited to King\nGeorge, might be a fine thing for President George; and if England had\na House of Peers, why should we not make one out of a peerage of States?\n\"Our experience in republicanism,\" wrote Paine, \"is yet so slender,\nthat it is much to be doubted whether all our public laws and acts are\nconsistent with, or can be justified on, the principles of a republican\ngovernment.\" But the more he talked in this way, or reminded the nation\nof the \"Declaration of Independence\" and the \"Bill of Rights,\" the more\ndid he close the doors of the Constitutional Convention against himself.\n\nIn those days there used to meet in Franklin's library a \"Society for\nPolitical Inquiries.\" It had forty-two members, among them Washington,\nJames Wilson, Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris, Clymer, Rush, Bingham,\nBradford, Hare, Rawle, and Paine. A memorandum of Rawle says: \"Paine\nnever opened his mouth, but he furnished one of the few essays which the\nmembers of the Society were expected to produce. It was a well written\ndissertation on the inexpediency of incorporating towns.\"* That in\nsuch company, and at such a time, Paine should be silent, or discuss\ncorporations, suggests political solitude. Franklin, indeed, agreed with\nhim, but was too old to struggle against the reaction in favor of the\nbicameral and other English institutions.\n\n     * \"Memoir of Penn. Hist. Soc, 1840.\" The gist of Paine's\n     paper (read Apr. 20,1787) is no doubt contained in \"The\n     Rights of Man,\" Part II., Ch. 5.\n\nM. Chanut (\"Nouv. Biog. Generale\") says that Paine's bridge was not\nerected on the Schuylkill because of \"the imperfect state of iron\nmanufacture in America.\" Something of the same kind might be said of\nthe state of political architecture. And so it was, that while the\nConvention was assembling in Independence Hall, he who first raised the\nstandard of Independence, and before the Declaration proposed a Charter\nof the \"United Colonies of America,\" was far out at sea on his way to\nrejoin his comrades in the old world, whose hearts and burdens he had\nrepresented in the new.\n\nThe printed Rules of the Society (founded February 9, 1787) are in the\nPhilosophical Society, Philadelphia. The preamble, plainly Paine's,\nsays: \"Important as these inquiries are to all, to the inhabitants of\nthese republics they are objects of peculiar magnitude and necessity.\nAccustomed to look up to those nations, from whom we have derived our\norigin, for our laws, our opinions, and our manners, we have retained\nwith undistinguishing reverence their errors, with their improvements;\nhave blended with our public institutions the policy of dissimilar\ncountries; and have grafted on our infant commonwealth the manners\nof ancient and corrupted monarchies. In having effected a separate\ngovernment, we have as yet effected but a partial independence. The\nrevolution can only be said to be compleat, when we shall have freed\nourselves, no less from the influence of foreign prejudices than from\nthe fetters of foreign power.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI. RETURNING TO THE OLD HOME\n\nEven now one can hardly repress regret that Paine did not remain in his\nbeloved Bordentown. There he was the honored man; his striking figure,\ndecorated with the noblest associations, was regarded with pride; when\nhe rode the lanes on his horse Button, the folk had a pleasant word\nwith him; the best homes prized his intimacy, and the young ladies would\nsometimes greet the old gentleman with a kiss. From all this he was\ndrawn by the tender letter of a father he was never to see again. He\nsailed in April for a year's absence; he remained away fifteen,--if such\nyears may be reckoned by calendar.\n\nThe French packet from New York had a swift voyage, and early in the\nsummer Paine was receiving honors in Paris. Franklin had given him\nletters of introduction, but he hardly needed them.* He was already a\nhero of the progressives, who had relished his artistic dissection of\nthe Abbe Raynal's disparagement of the American Revolution. Among those\nwho greeted him was Auberteuil, whose history of the American Revolution\nPaine had corrected, an early copy having been sent him (1783) by\nFranklin for that purpose.\n\n     * \"This letter goes by Mr. Paine, one of our principal\n     writers at the Revolution, being the author of 'Common\n     Sense,' a pamphlet that had prodigious effects.\"--Franklin\n     to M. de Veillard.\n\nBut Paine's main object in France was to secure a verdict from the\nAcademy of Sciences, the supreme authority, on his bridge, a model of\nwhich he carried with him. The Academy received him with the honors\ndue to an M.A. of the University of Pennsylvania, a member of the\nPhilosophical Society, and a friend of Franklin. It appointed M. Leroy,\nM. Bossou, and M. Borda a committee to report on his bridge, On August\n18th he writes to Jefferson, then Minister in Paris:\n\n\"I am much obliged to you for the book you are so kind to send me. The\nsecond part of your letter, concerning taking my picture, I must feel\nas an honor done to me, not as a favour asked of me--but in this, as in\nother matters, I am at the disposal of your friendship.\n\n\"The committee have among themselves finally agreed on their report; I\nsaw this morning it will be read in the Academy on Wednesday. The report\ngoes pretty fully to support the principles of the construction, with\ntheir reasons for that opinion.\"\n\nOn August 15th, a cheery letter had gone to George Clymer in\nPhiladelphia, in which he says:\n\n\"This comes by Mr. Derby, of Massachusetts, who leaves Paris to-day to\ntake shipping at L' [Orient] for Boston. The enclosed for Dr. Franklin\nis from his friend Mr. Le Roy, of the Academy of Sciences, respecting\nthe bridge, and the causes that have delayed the completing report. An\narch of 4 or 5 hundred feet is such an unprecedented thing, and will so\nmuch attract notice in the northern part of Europe, that the Academy is\ncautious in what manner to express their final opinion. It is, I find,\ntheir custom to give reasons for their opinion, and this embarrasses\nthem more than the opinion itself. That the model is strong, and that\na bridge constructed on the same principles will also be strong, they\nappear to be well agreed in, but to what particular causes to assign\nthe strength they are not agreed in. The Committee was directed by the\nAcademy to examine all the models and plans for iron bridges that had\nbeen proposed in France, and they unanimously gave the preference to our\nown, as being the simplest, strongest, and lightest. They have likewise\nagreed on some material points.\"*\n\nDr. Robinet says that on this visit (1787) Paine, who had long known the\n\"soul of the people,\" came into relation with eminent men of all groups,\nphilosophical and political,--Condorcet, Achille Duchatelet, Cardinal\nDe Brienne, and, he believes, also Danton, who, like the English\nrepublican, was a freemason.** This intercourse, adds the same author,\nenabled him to print in England his remarkable prophecy concerning the\nchange going on in the French mind. Dr. Robinet quotes from a pamphlet\npresently noticed, partly written in Paris during this summer. Although\nit was Paine's grievous destiny soon to be once more a revolutionary\nfigure, it is certain that he had returned to Europe as an apostle of\npeace and good-will. While the engineers were considering his daring\nscheme of an iron arch of five hundred feet, he was devising with\nthe Cardinal Minister, De Brienne, a bridge of friendship across the\nChannel.\n\n     * For this letter I am indebted to Mr. Curtis Guild, of\n     Boston. The letter goes on to describe, with drawings, the\n     famous bridge at Schaffhausen, built by Grubenmann, an\n     uneducated carpenter, the model being shown Paine by the\n     King's architect, Perronet. The Academy's committee\n     presently made its report, which was even more favorable\n     than Paine had anticipated.\n\n     ** \"Danton Emigre,\" p. 7. Paine wrote a brief archaeological\n     treatise on freemasonry, but I have not met with the\n     statement that he was a freemason except in Dr. Robinet's\n     volume,--certainly high authority.\n\nHe drew up a paper in this sense, on which the Minister wrote and signed\nhis approval. The bridge-model approved by the Academy he sent to\nSir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society; the proposal for\nfriendship between France and England, approved by the Cardinal\nMinister, he carried by his own hand to Edmund Burke.\n\nOn his arrival in London Paine gave to the printer a manuscript on which\nhe had been engaged, and straightway went to Thetford.* His father had\ndied the year before.2 His mother, now in her ninety-first year, he\nfound in the comfort his remittances had supplied. The house, with\nits large garden, stands in Guildhall (then Heathen-man) Street. I was\npolitely shown through it by its present occupant, Mr. Brett Mr. Stephen\nOld-man, Sr., who went to school in the house, told me that it was\nidentified by \"old Jack Whistler,\" a barber, as the place where he went\nto shave Paine, in 1787. At this time Paine settled on his mother an\nallowance of nine shillings per week, which in the Thetford of that\nperiod was ample for her comfort. During this autumn with his mother he\nrarely left her side. As she lived to be ninety-four it may be that\nhe sat beside her in the Quaker meeting-house, to which she had become\nattached in her latter years.\n\n     * The exact time of his arrival in England is doubtful.\n     Oldys says: \"He arrived at the White Bear, Picadilly, on\n     the 3d of September, 1787, just thirteen years after his\n     departure for Philadelphia.\" Writing in 1803 Paine also says\n     it was in September. But his \"Rubicon\" pamphlet is dated\n     \"York Street, St. James's Square, 20th August, 1787.\"\n     Possibly the manuscript was dated in Paris and forwarded to\n     the London printer with the address at which he wished to\n     find proof on his arrival.\n\n     ** St. Cuthbert's Register: \"Burials, 1786. Joseph Payne (a\n     Quaker) aged 78 years. November 14th.\"\n\nEloquent and pathetic must have been the silence around the gray\nman when, after so many tempests, he sat once more in the little\nmeeting-house where his childhood was nurtured. From this, his spiritual\ncradle, he had borne away a beautiful theory, in ignorance of the\ncontrasted actuality. Theoretically the Society of Friends is a\ntheocracy; the Spirit alone rules and directs, effacing all distinctions\nof rank or sex. As a matter of fact, one old Quaker, or the clerk of\na meeting, often overrules the \"inner lights\" of hundreds. Of the\npractical working of Quaker government Paine had no experience; he had\nnothing to check his ideal formed in boyhood. His whole political system\nis explicable only by his theocratic Quakerism. His first essay, the\nplea for negro emancipation, was brought from Thetford meeting-house.\nHis \"Common Sense,\" a new-world scripture, is a \"testimony\" against the\nproud who raised their paltry dignities above the divine presence in the\nlowliest \"But where, say some, is the King of America? I 'll tell you,\nfriend, he reigns above.\" Paine's love of his adopted country was not\nmere patriotism; he beheld in it the land of promise for all mankind,\nseen from afar while on his Thetford Pisgah. Therefore he made so much\nof the various races in America.\n\n\"The mere independence of America, were it to have been followed by a\nsystem of government modelled after the corrupt system of the English\ngovernment, would not have interested me with the unabated ardour that\nit did. It was to bring forward and establish the representative system\nof government that was the leading principle with me.\"\n\nSo he spake to Congress, and to its president he said that he would have\ndone the same for any country as for America. The religious basis of his\npolitical system has a droll illustration in an anecdote of his early\nlife told by himself. While bowling with friends at Lewes, Mr. Verril\nremarked that Frederick of Prussia \"was the best fellow in the world for\na king; he had so much of the devil in him.\" It struck Paine that \"if\nit were necessary for a king to have so much of the devil in him, kings\nmight very beneficially be dispensed with.\" From this time he seems\nto have developed a theory of human rights based on theocracy; and so\ngenuinely that in America, while the Bible was still to him the word of\nGod, he solemnly proposed, in the beginning of the Revolution, that a\ncrown should be publicly laid on that book, to signify to the world that\n\"in America the Law is King.\"\n\nWhile in America the States were discussing the Constitution proposed by\nthe Convention, Paine sat in the silent meeting at Thetford dreaming of\nthe Parliament of Man, and federation of the world. In America the dawn\nof the new nation was a splendor, but it paled the ideals that had shone\nthrough the night of struggle. The principles of the Declaration,\nwhich would have freed every slave,--representation proportionate to\npopulation, so essential to equality, the sovereignty of justice instead\nof majorities or of States,--had become \"glittering generalities.\" The\nfirst to affirm the principles of the Declaration, Paine awaited the\nunsummoned Convention that would not compromise any of them away. For\npoliticians these lofty ideas might be extinguished by the rising of a\nnational sun; but in Paine there remained the deep Quaker well where the\nstars shone on through the garish day.*\n\nSeated in the Quaker meeting-house beside his mother, and beside his\nfather's fresh grave, Paine revises the past while revising the proofs\nof his pamphlet. The glamor of war, even of the American Revolution,\nfades; the shudder with which he saw in childhood soldiers reeking\nfrom the massacres of Culloden and Inverness returns; he begins his new\ncareer in the old world with a \"testimony\" against war.**\n\n     * \"In wells where truth in secret lay He saw the midnight\n     stars by day.\"--W. D. Howells.\n\n     ** \"Prospects on the Rubicon; or, An Investigation into the\n     Causes and Consequences of the Politics to be Agitated at\n     the Meeting of Parliament.\" London, 1787. Pp. 68.\n\n\"When we consider, for the feelings of Nature cannot be dismissed, the\ncalamities of war and the miseries it inflicts upon the human species,\nthe thousands and tens of thousands of every age and sex who are\nrendered wretched by the event, surely there is something in the heart\nof man that calls upon him to think! Surely there is some tender chord,\ntuned by the hand of the Creator, that still struggles to emit in the\nhearing of the soul a note of sorrowing sympathy. Let it then be heard,\nand let man learn to feel that the true greatness of a nation is founded\non principles of humanity.... War involves in its progress such a train\nof unforeseen and unsupposed circumstances, such a combination of\nforeign matters, that no human wisdom can calculate the end. It has but\none thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.... I defend the cause\nof the poor, of the manufacturer, of the tradesman, of the farmer, and\nof all those on whom the real burthen of taxes fall--but above all, I\ndefend the cause of humanity.\"\n\nSo little did Paine contemplate or desire revolution in England or\nFrance. His exhortation to young Pitt is to avoid war with Holland, to\nbe friendly with France, to shun alliances involving aid in war, and to\nbuild up the wealth and liberties of England by uniting the people with\nthe throne. He has discovered that this healthy change is going on in\nFrance. The French people are allying \"the Majesty of the Sovereign with\nthe Majesty of the Nation.\" \"Of all alliances this is infinitely the\nstrongest and the safest to be trusted to, because the interest so\nformed and operating against external enemies can never be divided.\"\nFreedom doubles the value of the subject to the government When the\ndesire of freedom becomes universal among the people, then, \"and not\nbefore, is the important moment for the most effectual consolidation of\nnational strength and greatness.\" The government must not be frightened\nby disturbances incidental to beneficent changes. \"The creation we enjoy\narose out of a chaos.\"*\n\n     * The pamphlet was reprinted in London in 1793 under the\n     title: \"Prospects on the War, and Paper Currency. The\n     second edition, corrected.\" Advertisement (June 20th): \"This\n     pamphlet was written by Mr. Paine in the year 1787, on one\n     of Mr. Pitt's armaments, namely, that against Holland. His\n     object was to prevent the people of England from being\n     seduced into a war, by stating clearly to them the\n     consequences which would inevitably befall the credit of\n     this country should such a calamity take place. The minister\n     has at length, however, succeeded in his great project,\n     after three expensive armaments within the space of seven\n     years; and the event has proved how well founded were the\n     predictions of Mr. Paine. The person who has authority to\n     bring forward this pamphlet in its present shape, thinks his\n     doing so a duty which he owes both to Mr. P------ and the\n     people of England, in order that the latter may judge what\n     credit is due to (what a great judge calls) the wild\n     theories of Mr. Paine.\"\n\nPaine had seen a good deal of Jefferson in Paris, and no doubt their\nconversation often related to struggles in the Constitutional Convention\nat Philadelphia. Jefferson wished the Constitution to include a\nDeclaration of Rights, and wrote Paine some comments on the argument of\nJames Wilson (afterward of the Supreme Court), maintaining that such\na Declaration was unnecessary in a government without any powers not\ndefinitely granted, and that such a Declaration might be construed\nto imply some degree of power over the matters it defined. Wilson's\nspeeches, powerfully analyzing the principles of liberty and federation,\nwere delivered on October 6th and November 24th, and it will appear by\nthe subjoined paper that they were more in accord with Paine's than\nwith Jefferson's principles. The manuscript, which is among Jefferson's\npapers, bears no date, but was no doubt written at Thetford early in the\nyear 1788.\n\n\n\n\n{1788}\n\n\"After I got home, being alone and wanting amusement, I sat down to\nexplain to myself (for there is such a thing) my ideas of national and\ncivil rights, and the distinction between them. I send them to you to\nsee how nearly we agree.\n\n\"Suppose twenty persons, strangers to each other, to meet in a country\nnot before inhabited. Each would be a Sovereign in his own natural\nright. His will would be his law, but his power, in many cases,\ninadequate to his right; and the consequence would be that each might\nbe exposed, not only to each other, but to the other nineteen. It would\nthen occur to them that their condition would be much improved, if a\nway could be devised to exchange that quantity of danger into so much\nprotection; so that each individual should possess the strength of the\nwhole number. As all their rights in the first case are natural rights,\nand the exercise of those rights supported only by their own natural\nindividual power, they would begin by distinguishing between those\nrights they could individually exercise, fully and perfectly, and those\nthey could not. Of the first kind are the rights of thinking, speaking,\nforming and giving opinions, and perhaps are those which can be fully\nexercised by the individual without the aid of exterior assistance; or\nin other words, rights of personal competency. Of the second kind are\nthose of personal protection, of acquiring and possessing property,\nin the exercise of which the individual natural power is less than the\nnatural right.\n\n\"Having drawn this line they agree to retain individually the first\nclass of Rights, or those of personal competency; and to detach from\ntheir personal possession the second class, or those of defective power,\nand to accept in lieu thereof a right to the whole power produced by a\ncondensation of all the parts. These I conceive to be civil rights, or\nrights of compact, and are distinguishable from natural rights because\nin the one we act wholly in our own person, in the other we agree not to\ndo so, but act under the guarantee of society.\n\n\"It therefore follows that the more of those imperfect natural rights\nor rights of imperfect power we give up, and thus exchange, the more\nsecurity we possess; and as the word liberty is often mistakenly put for\nsecurity, Mr. Wilson has confused his argument by confounding the terms.\nBut it does not follow that the more natural rights of _every kind_ we\nassign the more security we possess, because if we resign those of the\nfirst class we may suffer much by the exchange; for where the right and\nthe power are equal with each other in the individual, naturally, they\nought to rest there.\n\n\"Mr. Wilson must have some allusion to this distinction, or his position\nwould be subject to the inference you draw from it.\n\n\"I consider the individual sovereignty of the States retained under\nthe act of confederation to be of the second class of right. It becomes\ndangerous because it is defective in the power necessary to support it.\nIt answers the pride and purpose of a few men in each State, but the\nState collectively is injured by it.\"\n\nThe paper just quoted may be of importance to those students of Yale\nCollege who shall compete for the Ten Eyck prize of 1892, on the\ninteresting subject, \"Thomas Paine: Deism and Democracy in the Days of\nthe American Revolution.\" There was no nearer approach to democracy,\nin Paine's theory, than that of this paper sent to Jefferson. The\nConstitutional Convention represented to him the contracting People,\nall the individuals being parties to a Compact whereby every majority\npledges itself to protect the minority in matters not essential to the\nsecurity of all. In representative government thus limited by compact he\nrecognized the guaranty of individual freedom and influence by which the\nmass could be steadily enlightened. Royall Tyler considered some of\nhis views on these subjects \"whimsical paradoxes\"; but they are not so\n\"unaccountable\" as he supposed. Tyler's portraiture of Paine in London,\nthough somewhat adapted to prejudices anent \"The Age of Reason,\" is\ngraphic, and Paine's anti-democratic paradox wittily described.\n\n\"I met this interesting personage at the lodgings of the son of a\nlate patriotic American governour [Trumbull]... He was dressed in a\nsnuff-coloured coat, olive velvet vest, drab breeches, coarse hose. His\nshoe buckles of the size of a half dollar. A bob tailed wig covered\nthat head which worked such mickle woe to courts and kings. If I should\nattempt to describe it, it would be in the same stile and principle with\nwhich the veteran soldier bepraiseth an old standard: the more tattered,\nthe more glorious. It is probable that this was the same identical wig\nunder the shadow of whose curls he wrote Common Sense, in America, many\nyears before. He was a spare man, rather under size; subject to the\nextreme of low, and highly exhilirating spirits; often sat reserved in\ncompany; seldom mingled in common chit chat: But when a man of sense\nand elocution was present, and the company numerous, he delighted\nin advancing the most unaccountable, and often the most whimsical\nparadoxes; which he defended in his own plausible manner. If encouraged\nby success, or the applause of the company, his countenance was animated\nwith an expression of feature which, on ordinary occasions one would\nlook for in vain, in a man so much celebrated for acuteness of thought;\nbut if interrupted by extraneous observation, by the inattention of his\nauditory, or in an irritable moment, even by the accidental fall of the\npoker, he would retire into himself, and no persuasion could induce him\nto proceed upon the most favourite topic.... I heard Thomas Paine once\nassert in the presence of Mr. Wolcott, better known, in this country,\nby the facetious name of Peter Pindar, that the minority, in all\ndeliberative bodies, ought, in all cases, to govern the majority. Peter\nsmiled. You must grant me, said Uncommon Sense, that the proportion\nof men of sense, to the ignorant among mankind, is at least as twenty,\nthirty, or even forty-nine, to an hundred. The majority of mankind are\nconsequently most prone to errour; and if we atchieve the right,\nthe minority ought in all cases to govern. Peter continued to smile\narchly.\"*\n\n     * \"The Algerine Captive,\" 1797.   (Paine's shoe-buckles in\n     the National Museum, Washington, are of the fashionable\n     kind.)\n\nIn the end this theory was put to a vote of the company present, and all\narose with Paine except Peter Pindar, who thereupon said, \"I am the wise\nminority who ought, in all cases, to govern your ignorant majority.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII. A BRITISH LION WITH AN AMERICAN HEART\n\nThe influence of Paine's Quaker training has been traced in his\nconstructive politics, but its repressive side had more perhaps to do\nwith his career. \"I had some turn,\" he said, \"and I believe some talent,\nfor poetry; but this I rather repressed than encouraged.\" It is your\nhalf-repressed poets that kindle revolutions. History might be different\nhad Paine not been taught fear of music and poetry. He must have epical\ncommonwealths. The American Republic having temporarily filled his ideal\nhorizon in the political direction, the disguised Muse turned his eye\nupon the possibilities of nature. Morally utilitarian, he yet rarely\nwrites about physics without betraying the poetic passion for nature of\na suppressed Wordsworth. Nature is his Aphrodite and his Madonna.\n\n\"Bred up in antediluvian notions, she has not yet acquired the European\ntaste of receiving visitors in her dressing-room; she locks and bolts up\nher private recesses with extraordinary care, as if not only resolved to\npreserve her hoards but conceal her age, and hide the remains of a face\nthat was young and lovely in the days of Adam.\"\n\nDefining for Jefferson the distinction between attraction and cohesion,\nhe says:\n\n\"I recollect a scene at one of the theatres which very well explains the\ndifference. A condemned lady wishes to see her child and the child its\nmother: that is Attraction. They were admitted to meet, but when ordered\nto part threw their arms around each other and fastened their persons\ntogether: this is Cohesion.\"\n\nAll the atoms or molecules are little mothers and daughters and lovers\nclasping each other; it is an interlocking of figures; \"and if our eyes\nwere good enough we should see how it was done.\" He has a transcendental\nperception of unity in things dissimilar. On his walks to Challiot he\npasses trees and fountains, and writes a little essay, with figures,\nexplaining to his friend that the tree is also a fountain, and that by\nmeasuring diameters of trunks and tubes, or branches, the quantity of\ntimber thrown up by sap-fountains might be known. Some of his casual\nspeculations he calls \"conceits.\" They are the exuberance of a\nscientific imagination inspired by philanthropy and naturalistic\nreligion. The \"inner light\" of man corresponds to an \"inner spirit\" of\nnature. The human mind dimmed by ignorance, perverted by passion, turns\nthe very gifts of nature to thorns, amid which her divine beauty sleeps\nuntil awakened by the kiss of science.\n\nIt would be difficult to find anything in the literature of mechanical\ninvention more naively picturesque than this Quaker, passed through\nfurnaces of two revolutions, trying to humanize gunpowder. Here is a\nsubstance with maximum of power and minimum of bulk and weight.\n\n\"When I consider the wisdom of nature I must think that she endowed\nmatter with this extraordinary property for other purposes than that of\ndestruction. Poisons are capable of other uses than that of killing. If\nthe power which an ounce of gunpowder contains could be detailed out as\nsteam or water can be it would be a most commodious natural power.\"\n\nHaving failed to convert revolutions to Quakerism, Paine tries to soften\nthe heart of gunpowder itself, and insists that its explosiveness may be\nrestrained and detailed like strokes on a boy's top to obtain continual\nmotion. The sleeping top, the chastened repose of perfect motion, like\nthe quiet of the spinning worlds, is the Quaker inventor's ideal, and\nhe begs the President of the United States to try the effect of the\nsmallest pistol made--the size of a quill--on a wheel with peripheral\ncups to receive the discharges.*\n\n     * I am reluctantly compelled to give only the main ideas of\n     several theses of this kind by Paine, found among\n     Jefferson's papers.    The portion of the \"Jefferson Papers\"\n     at Washington written by Paine would fill a good volume.\n\n\"The biographers of Paine,\" wrote his friend, Joel Barlow, \"should not\nforget his mathematical acquirements and his mechanical genius.\" But it\nwould require a staff of specialists, and a large volume, to deal with\nPaine's scientific studies and contrivances--with his planing machine,\nhis new crane, his smokeless candle, his wheel of concentric rim, his\nscheme for using gunpowder as a motor, above all his iron bridge. As for\nthe bridge, Paine feels that it is a sort of American revolution\ncarried into mechanics; his eagle cannot help spreading a little in the\nwondering eyes of the Old World. \"Great scenes inspire great ideas,\" he\nwrites to Sir George Staunton.\n\n\"The natural mightiness of America expands the mind, and it partakes\nof the greatness it contemplates. Even the war, with all its evils, had\nsome advantages. It energized invention and lessened the catalogue of\nimpossibilities. At the conclusion of it every man returned to his home\nto repair the ravages it had occasioned, and to think of war no more.\nAs one amongst thousands who had borne a share in that memorable\nrevolution, I returned with them to the re-enjoyment of quiet life, and,\nthat I might not be idle, undertook to construct a single arch for this\nriver [Schuylkill]. Our beloved General had engaged in rendering another\nriver, the Potowmac, navigable. The quantity of iron I had allowed in my\nplan for this arch was five hundred and twenty tons, to be distributed\ninto thirteen ribs, in commemoration of the Thirteen United States.\"\n\nIt is amusing after this to find Paine, in his patent, declaring\nhis special license from \"His Most Excellent Majesty King George the\nThird.\"* Had poor George been in his right senses, or ever heard of\nthe invention, he might have suspected some connection between this\ninsurrection of the iron age and the American \"rebellion.\" However,\nPaine is successful in keeping America out of his specification, albeit\na poetic touch appears.\n\n     * \"No. 1667. Specification of Thomas Paine. Constructing\n     Arches. Vaulted Roofs, and Ceilings.\" The specification,\n     dated August 28, 1788, declares his invention to be  \"on\n     principles new and different to anything hitherto\n     practised.\" The patents for England, Scotland, and Ireland\n     were granted in September. An iron arch of one hundred feet\n     was designed by Pritchard and erected by Darby at Coalbrook\n     Dale, Shropshire, in 1779, but it did not anticipate the\n     invention of Paine, as may be seen by the article on \"Iron\n     Bridges\" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which also well\n     remarks that Paine's \"daring in engineering does full\n     justice to the fervour of his political career.\"   (Eighth\n     edition; it is omitted in the ninth.)\n\n\"The idea and construction of this arch is taken from the figure of\na spider's circular web, of which it resembles a section, and from a\nconviction that when nature empowered this insect to make a web she also\ninstructed her in the strongest mechanical method of constructing it.\nAnother idea, taken from nature in the construction of this arch, is\nthat of increasing the strength of matter by dividing and combining it,\nand thereby causing it to act over a larger space than it would occupy\nin a solid state, as is seen in the quills of birds, bones of animals,\nreeds, canes, &c. The curved bars of the arch are composed of pieces\nof any length joined together to the whole extent of the arch, and take\ncurvature by bending.\"\n\nPaine and his bridge came to England at a fortunate moment. Blackfriars\nBridge had just given way, and two over the Tyne, one built by Smeaton,\nhad collapsed by reason of quicksands under their piers. And similarly\nPitt's policy was collapsing through the treacherous quicksands on which\nit was based. Paper money and a \"sinking fund\" at home, and foreign\nalliances that disregarded the really controlling interests of nations,\nPaine saw as piers set in the Channel.* He at once took his place\nin England as a sort of institution. While the engineers beheld with\nadmiration his iron arch clearing the treacherous river-beds, statesmen\nsaw with delight his prospective bridges spanning the political\n\"Rubicon.\" Nothing could be more felicitous than the title of his\ninaugural pamphlet, \"Prospects on the Rubicon.\" It remembered an\nexpression in Parliament at the beginning of the war on America. \"'The\nRubicon is passed,' was once given as a reason for prosecuting the most\nexpensive war that England ever knew. Sore with the event, and groaning\nbeneath a galling yoke of taxes, she has again been led ministerially on\nto the shore of the same delusive and fatal river.\" The bridge-builder\nstretches his shining arches to France, Holland, Germany,--free commerce\nand friendship with all peoples, but no leagues with the sinking piers\ncalled thrones.\n\n     * It is droll to find even Paine's iron bridge resting\n     somewhat on a \"paper \"pier. \"Perhaps,\" he writes Jefferson,\n     \"the excess of paper currency, and the wish to find objects\n     for realizing it, is one of the motives for promoting the\n     plan of the Bridge.\"\n\nAt Rotherham, in Yorkshire, where Messrs. Walker fitted up a workshop\nfor Paine, he was visited by famous engineers and political personages.\nThere and in London he was \"lionized,\" as Franklin had been in Paris. We\nfind him now passing a week with Edmund Burke, now at the country-seat\nof the Duke of Portland, or enjoying the hospitalities of Lord\nFitzwilliam at Wentworth House. He is entertained and consulted on\npublic affairs by Fox, Lord Lansdowne, Sir George Staunton, Sir Joseph\nBanks; and many an effort is made to enlist his pen. Lord Lansdowne,\nit appears, had a notion of Paine's powers of political engineering so\nsublime that he thought he might bridge the Atlantic, and re-connect\nEngland and America! All of this may be gathered from the Jefferson\npapers, as we shall presently see; but it should be remarked here that\nPaine's head was not turned by his association with the gentry and\naristocracy. The impression he made on these eminent gentlemen was\nlargely due to his freedom from airs. They found him in his workshop,\nhammer in hand, proud only of free America and of his beautiful arch.\n\nProfessor Peter Lesley of Philadelphia tells me that when visiting in\nearly life the works at Rotherham, Paine's workshop and the very tools\nhe used were pointed out. They were preserved with care. He conversed\nwith an aged and intelligent workman who had worked under Paine as a\nlad. Professor Lesley, who had shared some of the prejudice against\nPaine, was impressed by the earnest words of this old man. Mr. Paine, he\nsaid, was the most honest man, and the best man he ever knew. After he\nhad been there a little time everybody looked up to him, the Walkers and\ntheir workmen. He knew the people for miles round, and went into their\nhomes; his benevolence, his friendliness, his knowledge, made him\nbeloved by all, rich and poor. His memory had always lasted there.\n\n\n\n\n{1789}\n\nIn truth Paine, who had represented the heart of England, in America,\nwas now representing the heart of America to England. America was\nworking by his hand, looking through his eyes, and silently publishing\nto the people from whom he sprung what the new nation could make out\nof a starving English staymaker. He was a living Declaration of\nIndependence. The Americans in London--the artists West and Trumbull,\nthe Alexanders (Franklin's connections), and others--were fond of him as\na friend and proud of him as a countryman.\n\nThe subjoined letter to Benjamin West (afterwards P. R. A.) shows\nPaine's pleasant relations with that artist and with Trumbull. It is\ndated March 8, 1789.\n\n\"I have informed James of the matter which you and I talked of on\nSaturday, and he is much rejoiced at an opportunity of shewing his\ngratitude to you for the permission you indulged him with in attending\nMr. Trumbull at your rooms. As I have known his parents upwards of\ntwenty years, and the manners and habits he has been educated in, and\nthe disposition he is of, I can with confidence to myself undertake to\nvouch for the faithful discharge of any trust you may repose in him;\nand as he is a youth of quick discernment and a great deal of silent\nobservation he cannot be easily imposed upon, or turned aside from his\nattention, by any contrivance of workmen. I will put him in a way\nof keeping a diary of every day's work he sees done, and of any\nobservations he may make, proper for you to be informed of, which he can\nsend once or twice a week to you at Windsor; and any directions you may\nhave to give him in your absence can be conveyed through Mr. Trumbull,\nor what other method you please, so that James is certified they come\nfrom you.\n\n\"James has made a tender of his service to Mr. Trumbull, if it should be\nof any use, when his picture is to be exhibited; but that will probably\nnot be till nearly the time the impressions will be struck off. James\nneed not entirely omit his drawing while he is attending the plates.\nSome employment will, in general, fix a person to a place better than\nhaving only to stand still and look on. I suppose they strike off about\nthree impressions in an hour, and as James is master of a watch he will\nfind their average of works,--and also how fast they can work when they\nhave a mind to make haste,--and he can easily number each impression,\nwhich will be a double check on any being carried off. I intend visiting\nhim pretty often, while he is on duty, which will be an additional\nsatisfaction to yourself for the trust you commit to him.\"\n\nThis chapter may well close with a letter from Paine in London\n(January 6, 1789) to his young friend \"Kitty Nicholson,\"--known at the\nBorden-town school, and in New York,--on the occasion of her marriage\nwith Colonel Few.** Let those who would know the real Thomas Paine read\nthis letter!\n\n     * I have not been able to find anything more of Paine's\n     protege James, whose parents were known to him before his\n     departure for American. I am indebted to Mr. W. E. Benjamin\n     for the letter.\n\n     ** To a representative of this family I am indebted for the\n     letter. Concerning the Nicholsons, see page 212.\n\n\"I sincerely thank you for your very friendly and welcome letter. I was\nin the country when it arrived and did not receive it soon enough to\nanswer it by the return of the vessel.\n\n\"I very affectionately congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Few on their happy\nmarriage, and every branch of the families allied by that connection;\nand I request my fair correspondent to present me to her partner, and\nto say, for me, that he has obtained one of the highest Prizes on the\nwheel. Besides the pleasure which your letter gives me to hear you\nare all happy and well, it relieves me from a sensation not easy to\nbe dismissed; and if you will excuse a few dull thoughts for obtruding\nthemselves into a congratulatory letter I will tell you what it is. When\nI see my female friends drop off by matrimony I am sensible of something\nthat affects me like a loss in spite of all the appearances of joy.\nI cannot help mixing the sincere compliment of regret with that of\ncongratulation. It appears as if I had outlived or lost a friend.\nIt seems to me as if the original was no more, and that which she is\nchanged to forsakes the circle and forgets the scenes of former society.\nFelicities are cares superior to those she formerly cared for, create to\nher a new landscape of Life that excludes the little friendships of\nthe past. It is not every lady's mind that is sufficiently capacious to\nprevent those greater objects crowding out the less, or that can spare a\nthought to former friendships after she has given her hand and heart\nto the man who loves her. But the sentiment your letter contains has\nprevented these dull Ideas from mixing with the congratulation I present\nyou, and is so congenial with the enlarged opinion I have always formed\nof you, that at the time I read your letter with pleasure I read it with\npride, because it convinces me that I have some judgment in that most\ndifficult science--a Lady's mind. Most sincerely do I wish you all the\ngood that Heaven can bless you with, and as you have in your own family\nan example of domestic happiness you are already in the knowledge\nof obtaining it. That no condition we can enjoy is an exemption from\ncare--that some shade will mingle itself with the brightest sunshine\nof Life--that even our affections may become the instruments of our\nsorrows--that the sweet felicities of home depend on good temper as well\nas on good sense, and that there is always something to forgive even\nin the nearest and dearest of our friends,--are truths which, tho' too\nobvious to be told, ought never to be forgotten; and I know you will not\nesteem my friendship the less for impressing them upon you.\n\n\"Though I appear a sort of wanderer, the married state has not a\nsincerer friend than I am. It is the harbour of human life, and is, with\nrespect to the things of this world, what the next world is to this. It\nis home; and that one word conveys more than any other word can express.\nFor a few years we may glide along the tide of youthful single life and\nbe wonderfully delighted; but it is a tide that flows but once, and what\nis still worse, it ebbs faster than it flows, and leaves many a hapless\nvoyager aground. I am one, you see that have experienced the fate, I am\ndescribing.* I have lost my tide; it passed by while every thought of my\nheart was on the wing for the salvation of my dear America, and I have\nnow as contentedly as I can, made myself a little bower of willows on\nthe shore that has the solitary resemblance of a home. Should I always\ncontinue the tenant of this home, I hope my female acquaintance will\never remember that it contains not the churlish enemy of their sex,\nnot the inaccessible cold hearted mortal, nor the capricious tempered\noddity, but one of the best and most affectionate of their friends.\n\n     * Paine's marriage and separation from his wife had been\n     kept a secret in America, where the \"Tories\" would have used\n     it to break the influence of his patriotic writings. It may\n     be stated here, in addition to what is said on p. 32, that,\n     in the absence of any divorce law in England, a separation\n     under the Common Law was generally held as pronouncing the\n     marriage a nullity ab initio. According to Chalmers Paine\n     was dissatisfied with articles of separation drawn up by an\n     attorney, Josias Smith, May 24, 1774, and insisted on new\n     ones, to which the clergyman was a party. The \"common\n     lawyers\" regarded the marriage as completely annulled, and\n     Paine thus free to marry again. However, he evidently never\n     thought of doing so, and that his relations with ladies were\n     as chaste as affectionate appears in this letter to Mrs.\n     Few, and in his correspondence generally.\n\n\"I did not forget the Dunstable hat, but it was not on wear here when\nI arrived. That I am a negligent correspondent I freely confess, and I\nalways reproach myself for it. You mention only one letter, but I\nwrote twice; once by Dr. Derby, and another time by the Chevalier St.\nTriss--by whom I also wrote to Gen. Morris, Col. Kirkbride, and several\nfriends in Philadelphia, but have received no answers. I had one letter\nfrom Gen. Morris last winter, which is all I have received from New York\ntill the arrival of yours.\n\n\"I thank you for the details of news you give. Kiss Molly Field for\nme and wish her joy,--and all the good girls of Borden Town. How is\nmy favorite Sally Morris, my boy Joe, and my horse Button? pray let me\nknow. Polly and Nancy Rogers,--are they married? or do they intend to\nbuild bowers as I have done? If they do, I wish they would twist their\ngreen willows somewhere near to mine.\n\n\"I am very much engaged here about my Bridge--There is one building of\nmy Construction at Messers. Walker's Iron Works in Yorkshire, and I have\ndirection of it. I am lately come from thence and shall return again in\ntwo or three weeks.\n\n\"As to news on this side the water, the king is mad, and there is great\nbustle about appointing a Regent. As it happens, I am in pretty close\nintimacy with the heads of the opposition--the Duke of Portland, Mr. Fox\nand Mr. Burke. I have sent your letter to Mrs. Burke as a specimen of\nthe accomplishments of the American Ladies. I sent it to Miss Alexander,\na lady you have heard me speak of, and I asked her to give me a few of\nher thoughts how to answer it. She told me to write as I felt, and I\nhave followed her advice.\n\n\"I very kindly thank you for your friendly invitation to Georgia and\nif I am ever within a thousand miles of you, I will come and see you;\nthough it be but for a day.\n\n\"You touch me on a very tender part when you say my friends on your side\nthe water 'cannot be reconciled to the idea of my resigning my adopted\nAmerica, even for my native England.' They are right. Though I am in as\nelegant style of acquaintance here as any American that ever came over,\nmy heart and myself are 3000 miles apart; and I had rather see my\nhorse Button in his own stable, or eating the grass of Bordentown or\nMorrisania, than see all the pomp and show of Europe.\n\n\"A thousand years hence (for I must indulge in a few thoughts) perhaps\nin less, America may be what England now is! The innocence of her\ncharacter that won the hearts of all nations in her favor may sound like\na romance, and her inimitable virtue as if it had never been. The ruins\nof that liberty which thousands bled for, or suffered to obtain, may\njust furnish materials for a village tale or extort a sigh from\nrustic sensibility, while the fashionable of that day, enveloped in\ndissipation, shall deride the principle and deny the fact.\n\n\"When we contemplate the fall of Empires and the extinction of nations\nof the ancient world, we see but little to excite our regret than\nthe mouldering ruins of pompous palaces, magnificent monuments, lofty\npyramids, and walls and towers of the most costly workmanship. But when\nthe Empire of America shall fall, the subject for contemplative sorrow\nwill be infinitely greater than crumbling brass or marble can inspire.\nIt will not then be said, here stood a temple of vast antiquity,--here\nrose a Babel of invisible height, or there a palace of sumptuous\nextravagance; but here, ah painful thought! the noblest work of human\nwisdom, the grandest scene of human glory, the fair cause of freedom\nrose and fell!\n\n\"Read this and then ask if I forget America--But I 'll not be dull if I\ncan help it, so I leave off, and close my letter tomorrow, which is the\nday the mail is made up for America.\n\n\"January 7th. I have heard this morning with extreme concern of the\ndeath of our worthy friend Capt. Read. Mrs. Read lives in a house of\nmine at Bordentown, and you will much oblige me by telling her how much\nI am affected by her loss; and to mention to her, with that delicacy\nwhich such an offer and her situation require, and which no one knows\nbetter how to convey than yourself, that the two years' rent which is\ndue I request her to accept of, and to consider herself at home till she\nhears further from me.\n\n\"This is the severest winter I ever knew in England; the frost has\ncontinued upwards of five weeks, and is still likely to continue. All\nthe vessels from America have been kept off by contrary winds. The\n'Polly' and the 'Pigeon' from Philadelphia and the 'Eagle' from\nCharleston are just got in.\n\n\"If you should leave New York before I arrive (which I hope will not be\nthe case) and should pass through Philadelphia, I wish you would do\nme the favor to present my compliments to Mrs. Powell, the lady whom I\nwanted an opportunity to introduce you to when you were in Philadelphia,\nbut was prevented by your being at a house where I did not visit.\n\n\"There is a Quaker favorite of mine at New York, formerly Miss Watson of\nPhiladelphia; she is now married to Dr. Lawrence, and is an acquaintance\nof Mrs. Oswald: be so kind as to make her a visit for me. You will like\nher conversation. She has a little of the Quaker primness--but of the\npleasing kind--about her.\n\n\"I am always distressed at closing a letter, because it seems like\ntaking leave of my friends after a parting conversation.--Captain\nNicholson, Mrs. Nicholson, Hannah, Fanny, James, and the little ones,\nand you my dear Kitty, and your partner for life--God bless you all! and\nsend me safe back to my much loved America!\n\n\"Thomas Paine--aet. 52.\n\n\"or if you better like it 'Common Sense.'\"\n\n\"This comes by the packet which sails from Falmouth, 300 miles from\nLondon; but by the first vessel from London to New York I will send\nyou some magazines. In the meantime be so kind as to write to me by the\nfirst opportunity. Remember me to the family at Morrisania, and all my\nfriends at New York and Bordentown. Desire Gen. Morris to take another\nguinea of Mr. Constable, who has some money of mine in his hands, and\ngive it to my boy Joe. Tell Sally to take care of 'Button,' Then direct\nfor me at Mr. Peter Whiteside's London. When you are at Charleston\nremember me to my dear old friend Mrs. Lawrence, Col. and Mrs. L.\nMorris, and Col. Washington; and at Georgia, to Col. Walton. Adieu.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII. PAINE'S LETTERS TO JEFFERSON IN PARIS\n\nA note of Paine to Jefferson, dated February 19, 1788, shows him in\nthat city consulting with Lafayette about his bridge, and preparing a\nmemorial for the government. The visit was no doubt meant to secure a\npatent, and also arrange for the erection of the bridge. This appears to\nbe his last meeting with Jefferson in Europe. He must have returned\nsoon to England, where a letter of June 15th reports to Jefferson large\nprogress in his patent, and other arrangements. Paine's letters were\nby no means confined to his personal affairs. In one of his letters\nJefferson says: \"I have great confidence in your communications, and\nsince Mr. Adams' departure I am in need of authentic information from\nthat country.\" Jefferson subscribes his letters--\"I am with great\nand sincere attachment, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and\nservant,\"--and Paine responded with wonted fidelity. For more than a\nyear the United States government was supplied by Paine, mainly through\nJefferson, with information concerning affairs in England. It will be\nseen by some of the subjoined extracts that Paine was recognized\nby English statesmen as a sort of American Minister, and that the\ninformation he transmits is rarely, if ever, erroneous. All of this\nwould appear more clearly could space be here given to the entire\nletters. The omissions are chiefly of items of news now without\ninterest, or of technical details concerning the bridge. It is only\njust to remind the reader, before introducing the quotations, that these\nletters were confidential, and to a very intimate friend, being thus not\nliable to any charge of egotism from the public, for whose eye they were\nnot intended.\n\n\"London, Broad Street Buildings, No. 13. Sept. 9, 1788.--That I am a bad\ncorrespondent is so general a complaint against me, that I must expect\nthe same accusation from you--But hear me first--When there is no\nmatter to write upon, a letter is not worth the trouble of receiving and\nreading and while any thing which is to be the subject of a letter,\nis in suspence, it is difficult to write and perhaps best to let it\nalone--'least said is soonest mended,' and nothing said requires no\nmending.\n\n\"The model has the good fortune of preserving in England the reputation\nwhich it received from the Academy of Sciences. It is a favourite hobby\nhorse with all who have seen it; and every one who has talked with me on\nthe subject advised me to endeavour to obtain a Patent, as it is only by\nthat means that I can secure to myself the direction and management. For\nthis purpose I went, in company with Mr Whiteside to the office which\nis an appendage to Lord Sydney's--told them who I was, and made an\naffidavit that the construction was my own Invention. This was the only\nstep I took in the business. Last Wednesday I received a Patent for\nEngland, the next day a Patent for Scotland, and I am to have one for\nIreland.\n\n\"As I had already the opinion of the scientific Judges both in France\nand England on the Model, it was also necessary that I should have that\nof the practical Iron men who must finally be the executors of the work.\nThere are several capital Iron Works in this country, the principal\nof which are those in Shropshire, Yorkshire, and Scotland. It was my\nintention to have communicated with Mr. Wilkinson, who is one of the\nproprietors of the Shropshire Iron Works, and concerned in those in\nFrance, but his departure for Sweden before I had possession of the\npatents prevented me. The Iron Works in Yorkshire belonging to the\nWalkers near to Sheffield are the most eminent in England in point of\nestablishment and property. The proprietors are reputed to be worth two\nhundred thousand pounds and consequently capable of giving energy to any\ngreat undertaking. A friend of theirs who had seen the model wrote to\nthem on the subject, and two of them came to London last Fryday to see\nit and talk with me on the business. Their opinion is very decided that\nit can be executed either in wrought or cast Iron, and I am to go down\nto their Works next week to erect an experiment arch. This is the point\nI am now got to, and until now I had nothing to inform you of. If I\nsucceed in erecting the arch all reasoning and opinion will be at an\nend, and, as this will soon be known, I shall not return to France till\nthat time; and until then I wish every thing to remain respecting my\nBridge over the Seine, in the state I left matters in when I came from\nFrance. With respect to the Patents in England it is my intention to\ndispose of them as soon as I have established the certainty of the\nconstruction.\n\n\"Besides the ill success of Black friars Bridge, two Bridges built\nsuccessively on the same spot, the last by Mr Smeaton, at Hexham, over\nthe Tyne in Northumberland, have fallen down, occasioned by quicksands\nunder the bed of the river. If therefore arches can be extended in the\nproportion the model promises, the construction in certain situations,\nwithout regard to cheapness or dearness, will be valuable in all\ncountries.... As to English news or Politics, there is little more than\nwhat the public papers contain. The assembling the States General, and\nthe reappointment of Mr. Neckar, make considerable impression here. They\noverawe a great deal of the English habitual rashness, and check that\ntriumph of presumption which they indulged themselves in with respect\nto what they called the deranged and almost ruinous condition of the\nfinances of France. They acknowledge unreservedly that the natural\nresources of France are greater than those of England, but they plume\nthemselves on the superiority of the means necessary to bring national\nresources forth. But the two circumstances above mentioned serve very\nwell to lower this exaltation.\n\n\"Some time ago I spent a week at Mr. Burke's, and the Duke of Portland's\nin Buckinghamshire. You will recollect that the Duke was the member\nduring the time of the coalition--he is now in the opposition, and I\nfind the opposition as much warped in some respects as to Continental\nPolitics as the Ministry.--What the extent of the Treaty with Russia is,\nMr. B[urke] says that he and all the opposition are totally unacquainted\nwith; and they speak of it not as a very wise measure, but rather\ntending to involve England in unnecessary continental disputes. The\npreference of the opposition is to a connection with Prussia if it could\nhave been obtained. Sir George Staunton tells me that the interference\nwith respect to Holland last year met with considerable opposition from\npart of the Cabinet. Mr. Pitt was against it at first, but it was a\nfavourite measure with the King, and that the opposition at that crisis\ncontrived to have it known to him that they were disposed to support his\nmeasures. This together with the notification of the 16th of September\ngave Mr. Pitt cause and pretence for changing his ground.\n\n\"The Marquis of Landsdown is unconnected either with the Ministry or the\nopposition. His politics is distinct from both. This plan is a sort of\narmed neutrality which has many advocates. In conversation with me\nhe reprobated the conduct of the Ministry towards France last year as\noperating to '_cut the throat of confidence_' (this was his expression)\nbetween France and England at a time when there was a fair opportunity\nof improving it.\n\n\"The enmity of this country against Russia is as bitter as it ever was\nagainst America, and is carried to every pitch of abuse and vulgarity.\nWhat I hear in conversations exceeds what may be seen in the\nnews-papers. They are sour and mortified at every success she acquires,\nand voraciously believe and rejoice in the most improbable accounts\nand rumours to the contrary. You may mention this to Mr. Simelin on any\nterms you please for you cannot exceed the fact.\n\n\"There are those who amuse themselves here in the hopes of managing\nSpain. The notification which the Marquis del Campo made last year to\nthe British Cabinet, is perhaps the only secret kept in this country.\nMr. B[urke] tells me that the opposition knows nothing of it. They all\nvery freely admit that if the Combined fleets had had thirty or forty\nthousand land forces, when they came up the channel last war, there\nwas nothing in England to oppose their landing, and that such a measure\nwould have been fatal to their resources, by at least a temporary\ndestruction of national credit. This is the point on which this country\nis most impressible. Wars carried on at a distance, they care but little\nabout, and seem always disposed to enter into them. It is bringing the\nmatter home to them that makes them fear and feel, for their weakest\npart is at home. This I take to be the reason of the attention they\nare paying to Spain; for while France and Spain make a common cause and\n_start_ together, they may easily overawe this country.\n\n\"I intended sending this letter by Mr. Parker, but he goes by the way of\nHolland, and as I do not chuse to send it by the English Post, I shall\ndesire Mr. Bartholemy to forward it to you.\n\n\"Remember me with much affection to the Marquis de la Fayette. This\nletter will serve for two letters. Whether I am in London or the country\nany letter to me at Mr Whiteside's, Merchant, No. 13 Broad Street\nBuildings, will come safe. My compliments to Mr. Short.\"\n\n\"London, September 15.--I have not heard of Mr. [Lewis] Littlepage since\nI left Paris,--if you have, I shall be glad to know it. As he dined\nsometimes at Mr. Neckar's, he undertook to describe the Bridge to him.\nMr. Neckar very readily conceived it. If you have an opportunity of\nseeing Mr. Neckar, and see it convenient to renew the subject, you\nmight mention that I am going forward with an experiment arch.--Mr.\nLe Couteulx desired me to examine the construction of the Albion Steam\nMills erected by Bolton and Watt. I have not yet written to him because\nI had nothing certain to write about. I have talked with Mr. Rumsey, who\nis here, upon this matter, and who appears to me to be master of that\nsubject, and who has procured a model of the Mill, which is worked\noriginally from the steam.... When you see Mr. Le Roy please to present\nmy compliments. I hope to realize the opinion of the Academy on the\nModel, in which case I shall give the Academy the proper information.\nWe have no certain accounts here of the arrangement of the new Ministry.\nThe papers mention Count St. Preist for Foreign Affairs. When you\nsee him please to present my compliments.... Please to present my\ncompliments to M. and Madame De Corney.\"\n\n\"London, December 16.--That the King is insane is now old news. He yet\ncontinues in the same state, and the Parliament are on the business of\nappointing a Regent. The Dukes of York and Gloucester have both made\nspeeches in the house of Peers. An embarrassing question, whether\nthe Prince of Wales has a right in himself by succession during the\nincapacity of his father, or whether the right must derive to him\nthro' Parliament, has been agitated in both Houses. [Illegible] and the\nspeeches of York and Gloucester of avoiding the question. This day is\nfixt for bringing the matter on in the house of Commons. A change of\nMinistry is expected, and I believe determined on. The Duke of Portland\nand his friends will in all probability come in. I shall be exceedingly\nglad to hear from you, and to know if you have received my letters, and\nalso when you intend setting off for America, or whether you intend to\nvisit England before you go. In case of change of Ministry here there\nare certain matters I shall be glad to see you upon. Remember me to the\nMarquis de la Fayette. We hear good things from France, and I sincerely\nwish them all well and happy. Remember me to Mr. Short and Mr. Mazzei.*\"\n\n     * Mazzei was a scientific Italian who settled in Virginia\n     with a Tuscan colony before the Revolution, in which he took\n     up arms and was captured by the British.     His colony had\n     been under the patronage of Jefferson, to whose fortunes he\n     was always devoted, though the publication of Jefferson's\n     famous letter to him, reflecting on Washington's\n     administration, caused his patron much trouble.\n\n\"London, Jan. 15, 1789.--My last letter requested to know if you had any\nthoughts of coming to England before you sailed to America. There will\ncertainly be a change of ministry, and probably some change of measures,\nand it might not be inconvenient if you could know before your sailing,\nfor the information of the new Congress, what measures the new Ministry\nhere intended to pursue or adopt with respect to commercial arrangements\nwith America. I am in some intimacy with Mr. Burke, and after the new\nministry are formed he has proposed to introduce me to them. The Duke\nof Portland, at whose seat in the country I was a few days last summer,\nwill be at the head of the Treasury, and Mr. Fox Secretary for Foreign\nAffairs. The King continues, I believe, as mad as ever. It appears that\nhe has amassed several millions of money, great part of which is in\nforeign funds. He had made a Will, while he had his senses, and devised\nit among his children, but a second Will has been produced, made since\nhe was mad, dated the 25th of Oct., in which he gives his property to\nthe Queen. This will probably produce much dispute, as it is attended\nwith many suspicious circumstances. It came out in the examination\nof the physicians, that one of them, Dr. Warrens, on being asked\nthe particular time of his observing the King's insanity, said the\ntwenty-second of October, and some influence has been exerted to induce\nhim to retract that declaration, or to say that the insanity was not so\nmuch as to prevent him making a Will, which he has refused to do.\"\n\n\"London, February 16.--Your favour of the 23d December continued to the\n---- Janry. came safe to hand,--for which I thank you. I begin this\nwithout knowing of any opportunity of conveyance, and shall follow the\nmethod of your letter by writing on till an opportunity offers.\n\n\"I thank you for the many and judicious observations about my bridge.\nI am exactly in your Ideas as you will perceive by the following\naccount.--I went to the Iron Works the latter end of Octr. My intention\nat the time of writing to you was to construct an experiment arch of 250\nfeet, but in the first place, the season was too far advanced to work\nout of doors and an arch of that extent could not be worked within\ndoors, and nextly, there was a prospect of a real Bridge being wanted on\nthe spot of 90 feet extent. The person who appeared disposed to erect a\nBridge is Mr. Foljambe nephew to the late Sir George Saville, and member\nin the last Parliament for Yorkshire. He lives about three miles from\nthe works, and the River Don runs in front of his house, over which\nthere is an old ill constructed Bridge which he wants to remove.\nThese circumstances determined me to begin an arch of 90 feet with an\nelevation of 5 feet. This extent I could manage within doors by working\nhalf the arch at a time.... A great part of our time, as you will\nnaturally suppose was taken up in preparations, but after we began to\nwork we went on rapidly, and that without any mistake, or anything\nto alter or amend. The foreman of the works is a Relation to the\nProprietors, an excellent mechanic and who fell into all my Ideas with\ngreat ease and penetration. I staid at the works till one half the Rib,\n45 feet, was compleated and framed horizontally together and came up to\nLondon at the meeting of Parliament on the 4th of December. The foreman,\nwhom, as I told him, I should appoint 'President of the Board of Works,'\nin my absence wrote me word that he has got the other half together with\nmuch less trouble than the first. He is now preparing for erecting and I\nfor returning.\n\n\"February 26.--A few days ago I received a letter from Mr. Foljambe in\nwhich he says: I saw the Rib of your Bridge. In point of elegance and\nbeauty, it far exceeded my expectations and is certainly beyond any\nthing I ever saw.'--My model and myself had many visitors while I was at\nthe works. A few days after I got there, Lord Fitz-William, heir to the\nMarquis of Rockingham, came with Mr. Burke. The former gave the workmen\nfive guineas and invited me to Wentworth House, a few miles distant from\nthe works, where I went, and staid a few days.\n\n\"This Bridge I expect will bring forth something greater, but in the\nmeantime I feel like a Bird from its nest and wishing most anxiously\nto return. Therefore, as soon as I can bring any thing to bear, I shall\ndispose of the contract and bid adieu. I can very truly say that my mind\nis not at home.\n\n\"I am very much rejoiced at the account you give me of the state of\naffairs in France. I feel exceedingly interested in the happiness of\nthat nation. They are now got or getting into the right way, and the\npresent reign will be more Immortalized in France than any that ever\npreceded it. They have all died away, forgotten in the common mass\nof things, but this will be to France like an Anno Mundi, or an Anno\nDomini. The happiness of doing good and the Pride of doing great\nthings unite themselves in this business. But as there are two kinds\nof Pride--the little and the great, the privileged orders will in some\ndegree be governed by this Division.\n\n\"Those of little pride (I mean little-minded pride) will be schismatical,\nand those of the great pride will be orthodox, with respect to the\nStates General. Interest will likewise have some share, and could this\noperate freely it would arrange itself on the orthodox side. To enrich\na Nation is to enrich the individuals which compose it. To enrich\nthe farmer is to enrich the farm--and consequently the Landlord;--for\nwhatever the farmer is, the farm will be. The richer the subject, the\nricher the revenue, because the consumption from which Taxes are raised\nis in proportion to the abilities of people to consume; therefore the\nmost effectual method to raise both the revenue and the rental of a\ncountry is to raise the condition of the people,--or that order known\nin france by the Tiers Etat. But I ought to ask pardon for entering\ninto reasonings in a letter to you, and only do it because I like the\nsubject.\n\n\"I observe in all the companies I go into the impression which the\npresent circumstances of France has upon this Country. _An internal\nAlliance_ in France [between Throne and People] is an alliance which\nEngland never dreamed of, and which she most dreads. Whether she will be\nbetter or worse tempered afterwards I cannot judge of, but I believe she\nwill be more cautious in giving offence. She is likewise impressed with\nan Idea that a negotiation is on foot between the King [Louis XVI.] and\nthe Emperor for adding Austrian Flanders to France. This appears to me\nsuch a probable thing, and may be rendered so conducive to the interest\nand good of all the parties concerned, that I am inclined to give it\ncredit and wish it success. I hope then to see the Scheld opened, for it\nis a sin to refuse the bounties of nature. On these matters I shall be\nglad of your opinion. I think the States General of Holland could not be\nin earnest when they applied to France for the payment of the quota to\nthe Emperor. All things considered to request it was meanness, and\nto expect it absurdity. I am more inclined to think they made it an\nopportunity to find how they stood with France. Absalom (I think it was)\nset fire to his brother's field of corn to bring on a conversation.\n\n\"March 12.--With respect to Political matters here, the truth is,\nthe people are fools. They have no discernment into principles and\nconsequences. Had Mr. Pitt proposed a National Convention, at the time\nof the King's insanity, he had done right; but instead of this he has\nabsorbed the right of the Nation into a right of Parliament,--one house\nof which (the Peers) is hereditary in its own right, and over which the\npeople have no controul (not so much as they have over their King;) and\nthe other elective by only a small part of the Nation. Therefore he has\nlessened instead of increased the rights of the people; but as they have\nnot sense enough to see it, they have been huzzaing him. There can be\nno fixed principles of government, or anything like a constitution in a\ncountry where the Government can alter itself, or one part of it supply\nthe other.\n\n\"Whether a man that has been so compleatly mad as not to be managed\nbut by force and the mad shirt can ever be confided in afterwards as\na reasonable man, is a matter I have very little opinion of. Such a\ncircumstance, in my estimation, if mentioned, ought to be a perpetual\ndisqualification.\n\n\"The Emperor I am told has entered a caveat against the Elector of\nHanover (not the electoral vote) for King of the Romans. John Bull,\nhowever, is not so mad as he was, and a message has been manufactured\nfor him to Parliament in which there is nothing particular. The Treaty\nwith Prussia is not yet before Parliament but is to be.\n\n\"Had the Regency gone on and the new administration been formed I should\nhave been able to communicate some matters of business to you, both\nwith respect to America and France; as an interview for that purpose was\nagreed upon and to take place as soon as the persons who were to fill\nthe offices should succeed. I am the more confidential with those\npersons, as they are distinguished by the name of the Blue & Buff,--a\ndress taken up during the American War, and is the undress uniform of\nGeneral Washington with Lapels which they still wear.* But, at any rate,\nI do not think it is worth while for Congress to appoint any Minister\nto this Court. The greater distance Congress observes on this point\nthe better. It will be all money thrown away to go to any expence about\nit--at least during the present reign. I know the nation well, and the\nline of acquaintance I am in enables me to judge better than any other\nAmerican can judge--especially at a distance. If Congress should have\nany business to state to the Government here, it can be easily done\nthro' their Minister at Paris--but the seldomer the better.\n\n     * On this Blue and Buff Society, Canning wrote some\n     satirical verses. He also described \"French philanthropy\" as\n     \"Condorcet filtered through the dregs of Paine.\"\n\n\"I believe I am not so much in the good graces of the Marquis of\nLandsdowne as I used to be--I do not answer his purpose. He was always\ntalking of a sort of reconnection of England and America, and my\ncoldness and reserve on this subject checked communication.\"\n\n\"London, April 10.--The King continues in his amended state, but Dr.\nWillis, his son, and attendants, are yet about his person. He has not\nbeen to Parliament nor made any public appearance, but he has fixed the\n23d April for a public thanksgiving, and he is to go in great Parade to\noffer up his Devotions at St. Paul's on that day. Those about him have\nendeavoured to dissuade him from this ostentatious pilgrimage, most\nprobably from an apprehension of some effect it may have upon him, but\nhe persists.... The acts for regulating the trade with America are to\nbe continued as last year. A paper from the Privy Council respecting\nthe American fly is before Parliament. I had some conversation with\nSir Joseph Banks upon this subject, as he was the person whom the Privy\nCouncil referred to. I told him that the Hessian fly attacked only\nthe green plant, and did not exist in the dry grain. He said that with\nrespect to the Hessian fly, they had no apprehension, but it was the\nweevil they alluded to. I told him the weevil had always more or less\nbeen in the wheat countries of America, and that if the prohibition was\non that account it was as necessary fifty or sixty years ago, as now;\nthat I believe it was only a political manoeuvre of the Ministry to\nplease the landed interest, as a balance for prohibiting the exportation\nof wool to please the manufacturing interest. He did not reply, and\nas we are on very sociable terms I went farther by saying--The English\nought not to complain of the non-payment of Debts from America while\nthey prohibit the means of payment.\n\n\"I suggest to you a thought on this subject. The debts due before the\nwar, ought to be distinguished from the debts contracted since, and all\nand every mode of payment and remittance under which they _have bein\ndischarged at the time they were contracted_ ought to accompany those\nDebts, so long as any of them shall continue unpaid; because the\ncircumstances of payment became united with the debt, and cannot be\nseparated by subsequent acts of one side only. If this was taken up in\nAmerica, and insisted on as a right coeval with and inseparable from\nthose Debts, it would force some of the restrictions here to give way.\n\n\"You speak very truly of this country when you say 'that they are\nslumbering under a half reformation of Politics and religion, and cannot\nbe excited by any thing they hear or see to question the remains of\nprejudice.' Their ignorance on some matters, is unfathomable, for\ninstance the Bank of England discount Bills at 5 p cent, but a proposal\nis talked of for discounting at 4 1/2; and the reason given is the vast\nquantity of money, and that money of the good houses discounts at 4\n1/2; from this they deduce the great ability and credit of the nation.\nWhereas the contrary is the case. This money is all in paper, and the\nquantity is greater than the object to circulate it upon, and therefore\nshows that the market is glutted, and consequently the ability for\nfarther paper excretions is lessened.--If a war should ever break out,\nbetween the countries again, this is the spot where it ought to be\nprosecuted, they neither feel nor care for any thing at a distance, but\nare frightened and spiritless at every thing which happens at home. The\nCombined fleet coming up the Channel, Paul Jones, and the Mob of 1738,\nare the dreadful eras of this country. But for national puffing none\nequals them. The addresses which have been presented are stuffed with\nnonsense of this kind. One of them published in the London Gazette and\npresented by a Sir William Appleby begins thus,--'Britain, the Queen of\nIsles, the pride of Nations, the Arbitress of Europe, perhaps of the\nworld.'... On the receipt of your last, I went to Sir Joseph Banks to\ninform him of your having heard from Ledyard, from Grand Cairo, but\nfound he had a letter from him of the same date. Sir Joseph is one of\nthe society for promoting that undertaking. He has an high opinion of\nLedyard, and thinks him the only man fitted for such an exploration. As\nyou may probably hear of Ledyard by accounts that may not reach here,\nSir Joseph will be obliged to you to communicate to him any matters\nrespecting him that may come to you (Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., Soho\nSquare)....\n\n\"While writing this I am informed that the Minister has had a conference\nwith some of the American creditors, and proposed to them to assume the\ndebts and give them ten shillings on the pound--the conjecture is that\nhe means, when the new Congress is established, to demand the payment.\nIf you are writing to General Washington, it may not be amiss to mention\nthis--and if I hear farther on the matter I will inform you.* But, as\nbeing a money matter it cannot come forward but thro' Parliament, there\nwill be notice given of the business. This would be a proper time to\nshow that the British Acts since the Peace militate against the payment\nby narrowing the means by which those debts might have been paid when\nthey were contracted, and which ought to be considered as constituant\nparts of the contract.\"\n\n     * This and other parts of Paine's correspondence were\n     forwarded to Washington.\n\n\"June 17.--I received your last to the 21st May. I am just now informed\nof Messrs. Parker and Cutting setting off tomorrow morning for Paris\nby whom this will be delivered to you. Nothing new is showing here. The\ntrial of Hastings, and the Examination of evidence before the house of\nCommons into the Slave Trade still continue.\n\n\"I wrote Sir Joseph Banks an account of my Experiment Arch. In his\nanswer he informs me of its being read before the Royal Society who\nexpressed 'great satisfaction at the Communication.' 'I expect' says Sir\nJoseph 'many improvements from your Countrymen who think with vigor,\nand are in a great measure free from those shackles of Theory which are\nimposed on the minds of our people before they are capable of exerting\ntheir mental faculties to advantage.' In the close of his letter he\nsays: 'We have lost poor Ledyard. He had agreed with certain Moors to\nconduct him to Sennar. The time for their departure was arrived when\nhe found himself ill, and took a large dose of Emetic Tartar, burst a\nblood-vessel in the operation, which carried him off in three days. We\nsincerely lament his loss, as the papers we have received from him are\nfull of those emanations of spirit, which taught you to construct a\nBridge without any reference to the means used by your predecessors\nin that art.' I have wrote to the Walkers and proposed to them to\nmanufacture me a compleat Bridge and erect it in London, and afterwards\nput it up to sale. I do this by way of bringing forward a Bridge over\nthe Thames--which appears to me the most advantageous of all objects.\nFor, if only a fifth of the persons, at a half penny each, pass over a\nnew Bridge as now pass over the old ones the tolls will pay 25 per Cent\nbesides what will arise from carriage and horses. Mrs. Williams tells me\nthat her letters from America mention Dr. Franklin as being exceedingly\nill. I have been to see the Cotton Mills,--the Potteries--the Steel\nfurnaces--Tin plate manufacture--White lead manufacture. All those\nthings might be easily carried on in America. I saw a few days ago part\nof a hand bill of what was called a geometrical wheelbarrow,--but cannot\nfind where it is to be seen. The Idea is one of those that needed\nonly to be thought of,--for it is very easy to conceive that if a\nwheelbarrow, as it is called, be driven round a piece of land,--a sheet\nof paper may be placed in it--so as to receive by the tracings of a\nPencil, regulated by a little Mechanism--the figure and content of the\nland--and that neither Theodolite nor chain are necessary.\"\n\n\"Rotherham,Yorkshire, July 13.--The Walkers are to find all the\nmaterials, and fit and frame them ready for erecting, put them on board\na vessel & send them to London. I am to undertake all expense from\nthat time & to compleat the erecting. We intend first to exhibit it and\nafterwards put it up to sale, or dispose of it by private contract,\nand after paying the expences of each party the remainder to be equally\ndivided--one half theirs, the other mine. My principal object in this\nplan is to open the way for a Bridge over the Thames.... I shall now\nhave occasion to draw upon some funds I have in America. I have one\nthousand Dollars stock in the Bank at Philadelphia, and two years\ninterest due upon it last April, L180 in the hands of General Morris\n',L40 with Mr. Constable of New York; a house at Borden Town, and a farm\nat New Rochelle. The stock and interest in the Bank, which Mr. Willing\nmanages for me, is the easiest negotiated, and full sufficient for what\nI shall want. On this fund I have drawn fifteen guineas payable to\nMr. Trumbull, tho' I shall not want the money longer than till the\nExhibition and sale of the Bridge. I had rather draw than ask to borrow\nof any body here. If you go to America this year I shall be very glad if\nyou can manage this matter for me, by giving me credit for two hundred\npounds, on London, and receiving that amount of Mr. Willing. I am not\nacquainted with the method of negotiating money matters, but if you can\naccommodate me in this, and will direct me how the transfer is to be\nmade, I shall be much obliged to you. Please direct to me under cover to\nMr. Trumbull. I have some thoughts of coming over to France for two or\nthree weeks, as I shall have little to do here until the Bridge is ready\nfor erecting.\n\n\"September 15.--When I left Paris I was to return with the Model, but I\ncould now bring over a compleat Bridge. Tho' I have a slender opinion\nof myself for executive business, I think, upon the whole that I have\nmanaged this matter tolerable well. With no money to spare for such an\nundertaking I am the sole Patentee here, and connected with one of the\nfirst and best established houses in the Nation. But absent from America\nI feel a craving desire to return and I can scarcely forbear weeping at\nthe thoughts of your going and my staying behind.\n\n\"Accept my dear Sir, my most hearty thanks for your many services\nand friendship. Remember me with an overflowing affection to my dear\nAmerica--the people and the place. Be so kind to shake hands with them\nfor me, and tell our beloved General Washington, and my old friend Dr.\nFranklin how much I long to see them. I wish you would spend a day with\nGeneral Morris of Morrisania, and present my best wishes to all the\nfamily.--But I find myself wandering into a melancholy subject that will\nbe tiresome to read,--so wishing you a prosperous passage, and a happy\nmeeting with all your friends and mine, I remain yours affectionately,\netc.\n\n\"I shall be very glad to hear from you when you arrive. If you direct\nfor me to the care of Mr. Benjamin Vaughn it will find me.--Please\npresent my friendship to Captain Nicholson and family of New York, and\nto Mr. and Mrs. Few.\n\n\"September 18.--I this moment receive yours of ye 13 int. which being\nPost Night, affords me the welcome opportunity of acknowledging it. I\nwrote you on the 15 th by post--but I was so full of the thoughts of\nAmerica and my American friends that I forgot France.\n\n\"The people of this Country speak very differently on the affairs of\nFrance. The mass of them, so far as I can collect, say that France is\na much freer Country than England. The Peers, the Bishops, &c. say the\nNational Assembly has gone too far. There are yet in this country, very\nconsiderable remains of the feudal System which people did not see\ntill the revolution in france placed it before their eyes. While the\nmultitude here could be terrified with the cry and apprehension of\nArbitrary power, wooden shoes, popery, and such like stuff, they thought\nthemselves by comparison an extraordinary free people; but this bugbear\nnow loses its force, and they appear to me to be turning their eyes\ntowards the Aristocrats of their own Nation. This is a new mode of\nconquering, and I think it will have its effect.\n\n\"I am looking out for a place to erect my Bridge, within some of the\nSquares would be very convenient. I had thought of Soho Square, where\nSir Joseph Banks lives, but he is now in Lincolnshire. I expect it\nwill be ready for erecting and in London by the latter end of October.\nWhether I shall then sell it in England or bring it over to Paris, and\nre-erect it there, I have not determined in my mind.. In order to bring\nany kind of a contract forward for the Seine, it is necessary it should\nbe seen, and, as oeconomy will now be a principle in the Government, it\nwill have a better chance than before.\n\n\"If you should pass thro' Borden Town in Jersey, which is not out\nof your way from Philadelphia to New York, I shall be glad you would\nenquire out my particular friend Col. Kirkbride. You will be very much\npleased with him. His house is my home when in that part of the\nCountry--and it was there that I made the Model of my Bridge.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX. THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE\n\nIn June, 1777, the Emperor Joseph II. visited his sister, the Queen of\nFrance, and passed a day at Nantes. The Count de Menou, commandant of\nthe place, pointed out in the harbor, among the flags raised in his\nhonor, one bearing thirteen stars. The Emperor turned away his eyes,\nsaying: \"I cannot look on that; my own profession is to be royalist\"\n\nWeber, foster-brother of Marie Antoinette, who reports the Emperor's\nremark, recognized the fate of France in those thirteen stars. That\nrepublic, he says, was formed by the subjects of a King, aided by\nanother King. These French armies, mingling their flags with those of\nAmerica, learned a new language. Those warriors, the flower of their\nage, went out Frenchmen and returned Americans. They returned to a\ncourt, but decorated with republican emblems and showing the scars\nof Liberty. Lafayette, it is said, had in his study a large carton,\nsplendidly framed, in two columns: on one was inscribed the American\nDeclaration of Independence; the other was blank, awaiting the like\nDeclaration of France.*\n\n     * \"Memoires concernant Marie-Antoinette,\" pp. 34-79. 268\n\nThe year 1789 found France afflicted with a sort of famine, its finances\nin disorder; while the people, their eyes directed to the new world\nby the French comrades of Washington, beheld that great chieftain\ninaugurated as president of a prosperous republic. The first pamphlet\nof Thomas Paine, expurgated in translation of anti-monarchism, had\nbeen widely circulated, and John Adams (1779) found himself welcomed in\nFrance as the supposed author of \"Common Sense.\" The lion's skin dropped\nfrom Paine's disgusted enemy, and when, ten years later, the lion\nhimself became known in Paris, he was hailed with enthusiasm. This was\nin the autumn of 1789, when Paine witnessed the scenes that ushered\nin the \"crowned republic,\" from which he hoped so much. Jefferson had\nsailed in September, and Paine was recognized by Lafayette and other\nleaders as the representative of the United States. To him Lafayette\ngave for presentation to Washington the Key of the destroyed Bastille,\never since visible at Mount Vernon,--symbol of the fact that, in Paine's\nwords, \"the principles of America opened the Bastille.\"\n\nBut now an American enemy of Paine's principles more inveterate than\nAdams found himself similarly eclipsed in Paris by the famous author.\nEarly in 1789 Gouverneur Morris came upon the stage of events in Europe.\nHe was entrusted by the President with a financial mission which, being\nsecret, swelled him to importance in the imagination of courtiers. At\nJefferson's request Gouverneur Morris posed to Houdon for the bust\nof Washington; and when, to Morris' joy, Jefferson departed, he posed\npolitically as Washington to the eyes of Europe. He was scandalized that\nJefferson should retain recollections of the Declaration of Independence\nstrong enough to desire for France \"a downright republican form of\ngovernment\"; and how it happened that under Jefferson's secretaryship of\nstate this man, whom even Hamilton pronounced \"an exotic\" in a republic,\nwas presently appointed Minister to France, is a mystery remaining to be\nsolved.\n\nMorris had a \"high old time\" in Europe. Intimacy with Washington secured\nhim influence with Lafayette, and the fine ladies of Paris, seeking\nofficial favors for relatives and lovers, welcomed him to the boudoirs,\nbaths, and bedrooms to which his diary now introduces the public.\n\n\n\n\n{1790}\n\nIt was but natural that such a man, just as he had been relieved of the\noverlaying Jefferson, should try to brush Paine aside. On January 26,\n1790, he enters in his diary:\n\n\"To-day, at half-past three, I go to M. de Lafayette's. He tells me\nthat he wishes to have a meeting of Mr. Short, Mr. Paine, and myself, to\nconsider their judiciary, because his place imposes on him the necessity\nof being right. I tell him that Paine can do him no good, for that,\nalthough he has an excellent pen to write, he has but an indifferent\nhead to think.\"\n\nEight years before, Gouverneur Morris had joined Robert Morris in\nappealing to the author to enlighten the nation on the subject of\nfinance and the direction of the war. He had also confessed to Paine\nthat he had been duped by Silas Deane, who, by the way, was now\njustifying all that Paine had said of him by hawking his secret\nletter-books in London. Now, in Paris, Morris discovers that Paine has\nbut an indifferent head to think.*\n\nGouverneur Morris was a fascinating man. His diary and letters,\nalways entertaining, reveal the secret of his success in twisting the\nConstitution and Jefferson and Washington around his fingers in several\nimportant junctures. To Paine also he was irresistible. His cordial\nmanners disarm suspicion, and we presently find the author pouring into\nthe ear of his secret detractor what state secrets he learns in London.\n\nOn March 17, 1790, Paine left Paris to see after his Bridge in\nYorkshire, now near completion. On the day before, he writes to a friend\nin Philadelphia how prosperously everything is going on in France,\nwhere Lafayette is acting the part of a Washington; how the political\nreformation is sure to influence England; and how he longs for America.\n\n\"I wish most anxiously to see my much loved America. It is the country\nfrom whence all reformation must originally spring. I despair of seeing\nan abolition of the infernal traffic in negroes. We must push\nthat matter further on your side of the water. I wish that a few\nwell-instructed could be sent among their brethren in bondage; for until\nthey are able to take their own part nothing will be done.\"**\n\n     * \"Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris.\" Edited by Anne\n     Cary Morris. i., p. 286.\n\n     ** One cannot help wondering how, in this matter, Paine got\n     along with his friend Jefferson, who, at the very time of\n     his enthusiasm for the French Revolution, had a slave in his\n     house at Challiot. Paine was not of the philanthropic type\n     portrayed in the \"Biglow Papers\":\n\n     \"I du believe in Freedom's cause\n     Ez fur away ez Payris is;\n     I love to see her stick her claws\n     In them infarnal Phayrisees.\n\n     It's well enough agin a king\n     To dror resolves and triggers,\n     But libbaty 's a kind 'o thing\n     That don't agree with niggers.\"\n\nOn his arrival in London he has the happiness of meeting his old friend\nGeneral Morris of Morrisania, and his wife. Gouverneur is presently\nover there, to see his brother; and in the intervals of dancing\nattendance at the opera on titled ladies--among them Lady Dunmore, whose\nhusband desolated the Virginia coast,--he gets Paine's confidences.*\nPoor Paine was an easy victim of any show of personal kindness,\nespecially when it seemed like the magnanimity of a political opponent.\n\nThe historic sense may recognize a picturesque incident in the selection\nby Lafayette of Thomas Paine to convey the Key of the Bastille to\nWashington. In the series of intellectual and moral movements which\nculminated in the French Revolution, the Bastille was especially the\nprison of Paine's forerunners, the writers, and the place where their\nbooks were burned. \"The gates of the Bastille,\" says Rocquain, \"were\nopened wide for Abbes, savants, brilliant intellects, professors of\nthe University and doctors of the Sorbonne, all accused of writing or\nreciting verses against the King, casting reflections on the Government,\nor publishing books in favor of Deism, and contrary to good morals.\nDiderot was one of the first arrested, and it was during his detention\nthat he conceived the plan of his 'Encyclopedia.'\" **\n\n     * \"Diary,\" etc., i., pp. 339, 341.\n\n     ** \"L'Esprit revolutionaire avant la Revolution.\" A good\n     service has just been done by Miss Hunting in translating\n     and condensing the admirable historical treatise of M. Felix\n     Rocquain on \"The Revolutionary Spirit Preceding the\n     Revolution,\" for which Professor Huxley has written a\n     preface.\n\nThe coming Key was announced to Washington with the following letters:\n\n\"London, May 1, 1790.--Sir,--Our very good friend the Marquis de la\nFayette has entrusted to my care the Key of the Bastille, and a drawing,\nhandsomely framed, representing the demolition of that detestable\nprison, as a present to your Excellency, of which his letter will more\nparticularly inform. I feel myself happy in being the person thro' whom\nthe Marquis has conveyed this early trophy of the Spoils of despotism,\nand the first ripe fruits of American principles transplanted into\nEurope, to his great master and patron. When he mentioned to me the\npresent he intended you, my heart leaped with joy. It is something\nso truly in character that no remarks can illustrate it, and is more\nhappily expressive of his remembrance of his American friends than any\nletters can convey. That the principles of America opened the Bastille\nis not to be doubted, and therefore the Key comes to the right place.\n\n\"I beg leave to suggest to your Excellency the propriety of\ncongratulating the King and Queen of France (for they have been our\nfriends,) and the National Assembly, on the happy example they are\ngiving to Europe. You will see by the King's speech, which I enclose,\nthat he prides himself on being at the head of the Revolution; and I am\ncertain that such a congratulation will be well received and have a good\neffect.\n\n\"I should rejoice to be the direct bearer of the Marquis's present to\nyour Excellency, but I doubt I shall not be able to see my much loved\nAmerica till next Spring. I shall therefore send it by some _American_\nvessel to New York. I have permitted no drawing to be taken here, tho'\nit has been often requested, as I think there is a propriety that it\nshould first be presented. B[ut] Mr. West wishes Mr. Trumbull to make a\npainting of the presentation of the Key to you.\n\n\"I returned from France to London about five weeks ago, and I am engaged\nto return to Paris when the Constitution shall be proclaimed, and to\ncarry the American flag in the procession. I have not the least doubt of\nthe final and compleat success of the French Revolution. Little Ebbings\nand Flow-ings, for and against, the natural companions of revolutions,\nsometimes appear; but the full current of it, is, in my opinion, as\nfixed as the Gulph Stream.\n\n\"I have manufactured a Bridge (a single arch) of one hundred and ten\nfeet span, and five feet high from the cord of the arch. It is now\non board a vessel coming from Yorkshire to London, where it is to\nbe erected. I see nothing yet to disappoint my hopes of its being\nadvantageous to me. It is this only which keeps me [in] Europe, and\nhappy shall I be when I shall have it in my power to return to America.\nI have not heard of Mr. Jefferson since he sailed, except of his\narrival. As I have always indulged the belief of having many friends\nin America, or rather no enemies, I have [mutilated] to mention but my\naffectionate [mutilated'] and am Sir with the greatest respect, &c.\n\n\"If any of my friends are disposed to favor me with a letter it will\ncome to hand by addressing it to the care of Benjamin Vaughn Esq.,\nJeffries Square, London.\"\n\n\"London, May 31, 1790.--Sir,--By Mr. James Morris, who sailed in the May\nPacket, I transmitted you a letter from the Marquis de la Fayette, at\nthe same time informing you that the Marquis had entrusted to my charge\nthe Key of the Bastille, and a drawing of that prison, as a present to\nyour Excellency. Mr. J. Rutledge, jun'r, had intended coming in the\nship 'Marquis de la Fayette,' and I had chosen that opportunity for the\npurpose of transmitting the present; but, the ship not sailing at the\ntime appointed, Mr. Rutledge takes his passage on the Packet, and I have\ncommitted to his care that trophie of Liberty which I know it will give\nyou pleasure to receive. The french Revolution is not only compleat but\ntriumphant, and the envious despotism of this nation is compelled to own\nthe magnanimity with which it has been conducted.\n\n\"The political hemisphere is again clouded by a dispute between England\nand Spain, the circumstances of which you will hear before this letter\ncan arrive. A Messenger was sent from hence the 6th inst. to Madrid with\nvery peremptory demands, and to wait there only forty-eight hours. His\nreturn has been expected for two or three days past. I was this morning\nat the Marquis del Campo's but nothing is yet arrived. Mr. Rutledge sets\noff at four o'clock this afternoon, but should any news arrive before\nthe making up the mail on Wednesday June 2, I will forward it to you\nunder cover.\n\n\"The views of this Court as well as of the Nation, so far as they extend\nto South America, are not for the purpose of freedom, but conquest. They\nalready talk of sending some of the young branches to reign over them,\nand to pay off their national debt with the produce of their Mines. The\nBondage of those countries will, as far as I can perceive, be prolonged\nby what this Court has in contemplation.\n\n\"My Bridge is arrived and I have engaged a place to erect it in. A\nlittle time will determine its fate, but I yet see no cause to doubt of\nits success, tho' it is very probable that a War, should it break\nout, will as in all new things prevent its progress so far as regards\nprofits.\n\n\"In the partition in the Box, which contains the Key of the Bastille,\nI have put up half a dozen Razors, manufactured from Cast-steel made\nat the Works where the Bridge was constructed, which I request you to\naccept as a little token from a very grateful heart.\n\n\"I received about a week ago a letter from Mr. G. Clymer. It is dated\nthe 4th February, but has been travelling ever since. I request you\nto acknowledge it for me and that I will answer it when my Bridge is\nerected. With much affection to all my friends, and many wishes to see\nthem again, I am, etc.\"\n\nWashington received the Key at New York, along with this last letter,\nand on August 10, 1790, acknowledges Paine's \"agreeable letters.\"\n\n\"It must, I dare say, give you great pleasure to learn by repeated\nopportunities, that our new government answers its purposes as well as\ncould have been reasonably expected, that we are gradually overcoming\nthe difficulties which presented in its first organization, and that our\nprospects in general are growing more favorable.\"\n\nPaine is said by several biographers to have gone to Paris in the May\nof this year. No doubt he was missed from London, but it was probably\nbecause he had gone to Thetford, where his mother died about the middle\nof May. Gouverneur Morris reports interviews with him August 8th and\n15th, in London. The beautiful iron bridge, 110 feet long, had been\nerected in June at Leasing-Green (now Paddington-Green) at the joint\nexpense of Paine and Peter Whiteside, an American merchant in London.\nIt was attracting a fair number of visitors, at a shilling each, also\nfavorable press notices, and all promised well.\n\nSo Paine was free to run over to Paris, where Carlyle mentions him,\nthis year, as among the English \"missionaries.\"* It was a brief visit,\nhowever, for October finds him again in London, drawn probably by\nintimations of disaster to the interests of his Bridge. Whiteside had\nfailed, and his assignees, finding on his books L620 debited to Paine's\nBridge, came upon the inventor for the money; no doubt unfairly, for\nit seems to have been Whiteside's investment, but Paine, the American\nmerchants Cleggett and Murdoch becoming his bail, scraped together the\nmoney and paid it Probably he lost through Whiteside's bankruptcy other\nmoneys, among them the sum he had deposited to supply his mother with\nher weekly nine shillings. Paine was too much accustomed to straitened\nmeans to allow this affair to trouble him much. The Bridge exhibition\nwent on smoothly enough. Country gentlemen, deputations from riverside\ntowns, visited it, and suggested negotiations for utilizing the\ninvention. The snug copyright fortune which the author had sacrificed to\nthe American cause seemed about to be recovered by the inventor.\n\n     * \"Her Paine; rebellious Staymaker; unkempt; who feels that\n     he, a single needleman, did, by his 'Common Sense' pamphlet,\n     free America;--that he can and will free all this World;\n     perhaps even the other.\"--French Revolution.\n\nBut again the Cause arose before him; he must part from all--patent\ninterests, literary leisure, fine society--and take the hand of Liberty,\nundowered, but as yet unstained. He must beat his bridge-iron into a\nKey that shall unlock the British Bastille, whose walls he sees steadily\nclosing around the people.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX. \"THE RIGHTS OF MAN\"\n\nEdmund Burke's \"Reflexions on the Revolution in France\" appeared about\nNovember 1, 1790 Paine was staying at the Angel inn, Islington, and\nthere immediately began his reply. With his sentiment for anniversaries,\nhe may have begun his work on November 4th, in honor of the English\nRevolution, whose centenary celebration he had witnessed three years\nbefore. In a hundred years all that had been turned into a more secure\nlease of monarchy. Burke's pamphlet founded on that Revolution a claim\nthat the throne represented a perpetual popular franchise. Paine might\nhave heard under his window the boys, with their\n\n     \"Please to remember The fifth of November,\"\n\nand seen their effigy of Guy Fawkes, which in two years his own effigy\nwas to replace. But no misgivings of that kind haunted him. For his eyes\nthe omens hung over the dark Past; on the horizon a new day was breaking\nin morning stars and stripes. With the inspiration of perfect faith,\nborn of the sacrifices that had ended so triumphantly in America, Paine\nwrote the book which, coming from such deep, the deeps answered.\n\nAlthough Paine had been revising his religion, much of the orthodox\ntemper survived in him; notably, he still required some kind of Satan\nto bring out his full energy. In America it had been George III., duly\nhoofed and horned, at whom his inkstand was hurled; now it is Burke, who\nappeared with all the seductive brilliancy of a fallen Lucifer. No man\nhad been more idealized by Paine than Burke. Not only because of\nhis magnificent defence of American patriots, but because of his\nfar-reaching exposures of despotism, then creeping, snake-like, from one\nskin to another. At the very time that Paine was writing \"Common Sense,\"\nBurke was pointing out that \"the power of the crown, almost dead and\nrotten as prerogative, has grown up anew, with much more strength and\nfar less odium, under the name of influence.\" He had given liberalism\nthe sentence: \"The forms of a free and the ends of an arbitrary\ngovernment are things not altogether incompatible.\" He had been the\nintimate friend of Priestley and other liberals, and when Paine arrived\nin 1787 had taken him to his heart and home. Paine maintained his faith\nin Burke after Priestley and Price had remarked a change. In the winter\nof 1789, when the enthusiastic author was sending out jubilant missives\nto Washington and others, announcing the glorious transformation of\nFrance, he sent one to Burke, who might even then have been preparing\nthe attack on France, delivered early in the Parliament of 1790. When,\nsoon after his return from Paris, Paine mingled with the mourners for\ntheir lost leader, he was informed that Burke had for some time been a\n\"masked pensioner,\" to the extent of L1,500 per annum. This rumor Paine\nmentioned, and it was not denied, whether because true, or because Burke\nwas looking forward to his subsequent pension of L2,500, is doubtful.\nBurke's book preceded the events in France which caused reaction in\nthe minds of Wordsworth and other thinkers in England and America.\nThe French were then engaged in adapting their government to the free\nprinciples of which Burke himself had long been the eloquent advocate.\nIt was not without justice that Erskine charged him with having\nchallenged a Revolution in England, by claiming that its hereditary\nmonarchy was bound on the people by a compact of the previous century,\nand that, good or bad, they had no power to alter it. The power of\nBurke's pamphlet lay largely in his deftness with the methods of those\nhe assailed. He had courted their company, familiarized himself with\ntheir ideas, received their confidences. This had been especially the\ncase with Paine. So there seemed to be a _soupcon_ of treachery in his\nsubtleties and his disclosures.\n\nBut after all he did not know Paine. He had not imagined the\ncompleteness with which the struggle in America had trained this man in\nevery art of controversy. Grappling with Philadelphia Tories, Quakers,\nreactionists, with aristocrats on the one hand and anarchists on the\nother, Paine had been familiarized beyond all men with every deep and\nby-way of the subject on which Burke had ventured. Where Burke had\ndabbled Paine had dived. Never did man reputed wise go beyond\nhis depth in such a bowl as when Burke appealed to a revolution of 1688\nas authoritative. If one revolution could be authoritative, why\nnot another? How did the seventeenth century secure a monopoly in\nrevolution? If a revolution in one century could transfer the throne\nfrom one family to another, why might not the same power in another\ntransfer it to an elective monarch, or a president, or leave it vacant?\n\nTo demolish Burke was the least part of Paine's task. Burke was, indeed,\nalready answered by the government established in America, presided over\nby a man to whom the world paid homage. To Washington, Paine's work was\ndedicated. His real design was to write a Constitution for the English\nnation. And to-day the student of political history may find in Burke's\npamphlet the fossilized, and in Paine's (potentially) the living,\nConstitution of Great Britain.\n\n\n\n\n{1791}\n\nFor adequacy to a purpose Paine's \"Common Sense\" and his \"Rights of\nMan\" have never been surpassed. Washington pronounced the former\nunanswerable, and Burke passed the like verdict on the latter when he\nsaid that the refutation it deserved was \"that of criminal justice.\"\nThere was not the slightest confusion of ideas and aim in this book.\nIn laying down first principles of human government, Paine imports no\npreference of his own for one form or another. The people have the\nright to establish any government they choose, be it democracy or\nmonarchy,--if not hereditary. He explains with nicety of consecutive\nstatement that a real Constitution must be of the people, and for the\npeople. That is, for the people who make it; they have no right, by any\nhereditary principle, to bind another people, unborn. His principle of\nthe rights of man was founded in the religious axiom of his age that\nall men derived existence from a divine maker. To say men are born equal\nmeans that they are created equal. Precedent contradicts precedent,\nauthority is against authority, in all our appeals to antiquity, until\nwe reach the time when man came from the hands of his maker. \"What was\nhe then? Man. Man was his high and only title, and a higher cannot be\ngiven him.\" \"God said Let us make man in our own image.\" No distinction\nbetween men is pointed out. All histories, all traditions, of the\ncreation agree as to the unity of man. Generation being the mode by\nwhich creation is carried forward, every child derives its existence\nfrom God. \"The world is as new to him as it was to the first man that\nexisted, and his natural right to it is of the same kind.\" On these\nnatural rights Paine founds man's civil rights. To secure his natural\nrights the individual deposits some of them--e.g. the right to judge in\nhis own cause--in the common stock of society.\n\nPaine next proceeds to distinguish governments which have arisen out\nof this social compact from those which have not. Governments are\nclassified as founded on--(1) superstition; (2) power; (3) the common\ninterests of society, and the common rights of man: that is, on\npriestcraft, on conquest, on reason. A national constitution is the act\nof the people antecedent to government; a government cannot therefore\ndetermine or alter the organic law it temporarily represents. Pitt's\nbill to reform Parliament involves the absurdity of trusting an\nadmittedly vitiated body to reform itself. The judges are to sit in\ntheir own case. \"The right of reform is in the nation in its original\ncharacter, and the constitutional method would be by a general\nconvention elected for the purpose.\" The organization of the aggregate\nof rights which individuals concede to society, for the security of all\nrights, makes the Republic. So far as the rights have been surrendered\nto extraneous authority, as of priest-craft, hereditary power, or\nconquest,--it is Despotism.\n\nTo set forth these general principles was Paine's first design. His next\naim was to put on record the true and exact history of events in France\nup to the year 1791. This history, partly that of an eyewitness, partly\nobtained from the best men in France--Lafayette, Danton, Brissot, and\nothers,--and by mingling with the masses, constitutes the most fresh and\nimportant existing contribution to our knowledge of the movement in\nits early stages. The majority of histories of the French Revolution,\nCarlyle's especially, are vitiated by reason of their inadequate\nattention to Paine's narrative. There had been then few serious\noutbreaks of the mob, but of these Burke had made the most Paine\ncontends that the outrages can no more be charged against the French\nthan the London riots of 1780 against the English nation; then retorts\nthat mobs are the inevitable consequence of mis-government.\n\n\"It is by distortedly exalting some men, that others are distortedly\ndebased. A vast mass of mankind are degradedly thrown into the\nbackground of the human picture, to bring forward, with greater glare,\nthe puppet show of state and aristocracy. In the commencement of a\nrevolution, those men are rather followers of the camp than of the\nstandard of liberty, and have yet to be instructed how to use it.\"\n\nPart I. of \"The Rights of Man\" was printed by Johnson in time for the\nopening of Parliament (February), but this publisher became frightened,\nand only a few copies bearing his name found their way into private\nhands,--one of these being in the British Museum. J. S. Jordan, 166\nFleet Street, consented to publish it, and Paine, entrusting it to a\ncommittee of his friends--William Godwin, Thomas Holcroft, and Thomas\nBrand Hollis--took his departure for Paris.* From that city he sent\na brief preface which appeared with Jordan's first edition, March 13,\n1791. Oldys (Chalmers) asserts that the work was altered by Jordan. This\nassertion, in its sweeping form, is disproved not only by Holcroft's\nnote to Godwin, but by a comparison of the \"Johnson\" and \"Jordan\n\"volumes in the British Museum.\"**\n\n     * \"I have got it--If this do not cure my cough it is a\n     damned perverse mule of a cough--The pamphlet--From the row\n     --But mum--We don't sell it--Oh, no--Ears and Eggs--Verbatim,\n     except the addition of a short preface, which as you have\n     not seen, I send you my copy--Not a single castration (Laud\n     be unto God and J. S. Jordan!) can I discover--Hey for the\n     New Jerusalem! The Millennium! And peace and eternal\n     beatitude be unto the soul of Thomas Paine!\"--C. Kegan\n     Paul's \"William Godwin.\" In supposing that Paine may have\n     gone to Paris before his book appeared (March 13th), I have\n     followed Rickman, who says the work was written \"partly at\n     the Angel, at Islington, partly in Harding Street, Fetter\n     Lane, and finished at Versailles.\" He adds that \"many\n     hundred thousand more copies were rapidly sold.\" But I have\n     no certain trace of Paine in Paris in 1791 earlier than\n     April 8th.\n\n     ** This comparison was made for me by a careful writer, Mr.\n     J. M. Wheeler, of London, who finds, with a few corrections\n     in spelling, but one case of softening: \"P. 60, in Johnson\n     Paine wrote 'Everything in the English government appears to\n     me the reverse of what it ought to be' which in Jordan is\n     modified to 'Many things,' etc.\"\n\nThe preface to which Holcroft alludes is of biographical interest\nboth as regards Paine and Burke. As it does not appear in the American\nedition it is here inserted:\n\n\"From the part Mr. Burke took in the American Revolution, it was natural\nthat I should consider him a friend to mankind; and as our acquaintance\ncommenced on that ground, it would have been more agreeable to me to\nhave had cause to continue in that opinion, than to change it.\n\n\"At the time Mr. Burke made his violent speech last winter in the\nEnglish Parliament against the French Revolution and the National\nAssembly, I was in Paris, and had written him, but a short time before,\nto inform him how prosperously matters were going on. Soon after this\nI saw his advertisement of the Pamphlet he intended to publish. As\nthe attack was to be made in a language but little studied, and less\nunderstood, in France, and as everything suffers by translation, I\npromised some of the friends of the Revolution in that country, that\nwhenever Mr. Burke's Pamphlet came forth, I would answer it. This\nappeared to me the more necessary to be done, when I saw the flagrant\nmisrepresentations which Mr. Burke's Pamphlet contains; and that while\nit is an outrageous abuse of the French Revolution, and the principles\nof Liberty, it is an imposition on the rest of the world.\n\n\"I am the more astonished and disappointed at this conduct in Mr. Burke,\nas (from the circumstance I am going to mention) I had formed other\nexpectations.\n\n\"I had seen enough of the miseries of war, to wish it might never more\nhave existence in the world, and that some other mode might be found\nout to settle the differences that should occasionally arise in the\nneighbourhood of nations. This certainly might be done if Courts were\ndisposed to set honestly about it, or if countries were enlightened\nenough not to be made the dupes of Courts. The people of America had\nbeen bred up in the same prejudices against France, which at that time\ncharacterized the people of England; but experience and an acquaintance\nwith the French Nation have most effectually shown to the Americans the\nfalsehood of those prejudices; and I do not believe that a more cordial\nand confidential intercourse exists between any two countries than\nbetween America and France.\n\n\"When I came to France in the spring of 1787, the Archbishop of\nThoulouse was then Minister, and at that time highly esteemed. I became\nmuch acquainted with the private Secretary of that Minister, a man of\nan enlarged benevolent heart; and found that his sentiments and my own\nperfectly agreed with respect to the madness of war, and the wretched\nimpolicy of two nations, like England and France, continually worrying\neach other, to no other end than that of a mutual increase of burdens\nand taxes. That I might be assured I had not misunderstood him, nor he\nme, I put the substance of our opinions into writing, and sent it to\nhim; subjoining a request, that if I should see among the people of\nEngland any disposition to cultivate a better understanding between the\ntwo nations than had hitherto prevailed, how far I might be authorised\nto say that the same disposition prevailed on the part of France? He\nanswered me by letter in the most unreserved manner, and that not for\nhimself only, but for the Minister, with whose knowledge the letter was\ndeclared to be written.\n\n\"I put this letter into the hands of Mr. Burke almost three years ago,\nand left it with him, where it still remains, hoping, and at the same\ntime naturally expecting, from the opinion I had conceived of him,\nthat he would find some opportunity of making a good use of it, for the\npurpose of removing those errors and prejudices which two neighbouring\nnations, from the want of knowing each other, had entertained, to the\ninjury of both.\n\n\"When the French Revolution broke out, it certainly afforded to Mr.\nBurke an opportunity of doing some good, had he been disposed to it;\ninstead of which, no sooner did he see the old prejudices wearing away,\nthan he immediately began sowing the seeds of a new inveteracy, as if\nhe were afraid that England and France would cease to be enemies. That\nthere are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by\nkeeping up the quarrels of Nations, is as shocking as it is true; but\nwhen those who are concerned in the government of a country, make it\ntheir study to sow discord, and cultivate prejudices between Nations, it\nbecomes the more unpardonable.\n\n\"With respect to a paragraph in this work alluding to Mr. Burke's having\na pension, the report has been some time in circulation, at least two\nmonths; and as a person is often the last to hear what concerns him\nthe most to know, I have mentioned it, that Mr. Burke may have an\nopportunity of contradicting the rumour, if he thinks proper.\"\n\n\"The Rights of Man\" produced a great impression from the first. It\npowerfully reinforced the \"Constitutional Society,\" formed seven years\nbefore, which Paine had joined. The book was adopted as their new _Magna\nCharta_. Their enthusiasm was poured forth on March 23d in resolutions\nwhich Daniel Williams, secretary, is directed to transmit \"to all\nour corresponding Constitutional Societies in England, Scotland, and\nFrance.\" In Ireland the work was widely welcomed. I find a note that \"at\na numerous meeting of the Whigs of the Capital [Dublin] on Tuesday the\n5th of April, Hugh Crothers in the chair,\" a committee was appointed to\nconsider the most effectual mode of disseminating Mr. Paine's pamphlet\non \"The Rights of Man.\"\n\nIn order to be uniform with Burke's pamphlet the earlier editions of\n\"The Rights of Man,\" were in the three-shilling style. The proceeds\nenriched the Society for Constitutional Information, though Paine had\nbeen drained of funds by the failure of Whiteside. Gouverneur Morris,\nas appears by the subjoined extracts from his diary, is disgusted with\nPaine's \"wretched apartments\" in Paris, in which, however, the reader\nmay see something finer than the diarist's luxury, which the author\nmight have rivalled with the means devoted to his Cause. This was\nperhaps what Morris and Paine s friend Hodges agreed in deeming a sort\nof lunacy.\n\n\"April 8. Return home, and read the answer of Paine to Burke's book;\nthere are good things in the answer as well as in the book. Paine calls\non me. He says that he found great difficulty in prevailing on any\nbookseller to publish his book; that it is extremely popular in England,\nand, of course, the writer, which he considers as one of the many\nuncommon revolutions of this age. He turns the conversation on times of\nyore, and as he mentions me among those who were his enemies, I frankly\nacknowledge that I urged his dismissal from the office he held of\nsecretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs.\"\n\n\"April 16. This morning I visit Paine and Mr. Hodges. The former is\nabroad, the latter is in the wretched apartments they occupy. He speaks\nof Paine as being a little mad, which is not improbable.\"\n\n\"April 25. This morning Paine calls and tells me that the Marquis de\nLafayette has accepted the position of head of the National Guards.\"\n\n\"May 1. Dine with Montmorin. Bouinville is here. He is just returned\nfrom England. He tells me that Paine's book works mightily in England.\"\n\nUp to this point Paine had, indeed, carried England with him,--for\nEngland was at heart with Fox and the Opposition. When Burke made\nhis first attack on the French Revolution (February 9, 1790), he\nwas repeatedly called to order; and Fox--with tears, for their long\nfriendship was breaking forever--overwhelmed Burke with his rebuke.\nEven Pitt did not say a word for him. His pamphlet nine months later was\nascribed to inspiration of the King, from whom he expected favors; and\nalthough the madmen under whom the French Revolution fell presently came\nto the support of his case.\n\nBurke personally never recovered his place in the esteem of England.\nThat the popular instinct was true, and that Burke was playing a deeper\ngame than appeared, was afterwards revealed in the archives of England\nand France.*\n\n     * \"Thirty thousand copies of Burke's book were circulated in\n     all the courts and among the European aristocracy as so many\n     lighted brands to set Europe in flames. During this time the\n     author, by his secret correspondence, excited Queen Marie-\n     Antoinette, the court, the foreigners, to conspire against\n     the Revolution. 'No compromises with rebels!' he wrote;\n     'appeal to sovereign neighbors; above all trust to the\n     support of foreign armies.'\"--\"Histoire de France,\" par\n     Henri Martin, i., p. 151.\n\nThere was every reason why Paine's reply should carry liberal statesmen\nwith him. His pamphlet was statesmanlike. The French Constitution at\nthat time was the inchoate instrument beginning with the \"Declaration\nof Rights,\" adopted on Lafayette's proposal (August 26, 1789), and\ncontaining provisions contrary to Paine's views. It recognized the\nreigning house, and made its executive power hereditary. Yet so free was\nPaine from pedantry, so anxious for any peaceful advance, that it was at\nthe expected inauguration of this Constitution he had consented to bear\nthe American flag, and in his reply to Burke he respects the right of\na people to establish even hereditary executive, the right of\nconstitutional reform being retained. \"The French constitution\ndistinguishes between the king and the sovereign; it considers the\nstation of the king as official, and places sovereignty in the nation.\"\nIn the same practical way he deals with other survivals in the French\nConstitution--such as clericalism, and the property qualification for\nsuffrage--by dwelling on their mitigations, while reaffirming his own\nprinciples on these points.\n\nA very important part of Paine's answer was that which related to\nthe United States. Burke, the most famous defender of American\nrevolutionists, was anxious to separate their movement from that in\nFrance. Paine, with ample knowledge, proved how largely the uprising in\nFrance was due to the training of Lafayette and other French officers in\nAmerica, and to the influence of Franklin, who was \"not the diplomatist\nof a court, but of man.\" He also drew attention to the effect of the\nAmerican State Constitutions, which were a grammar of liberty.* He\npoints out that under this transatlantic influence French liberalism had\ndeviated from the line of its forerunners,--from Montesquieu, \"obliged\nto divide himself between principle and prudence\"; Voltaire, \"both the\nflatterer and satirist of despotism\"; Rousseau, leaving \"the mind in\nlove with an object without describing the means of possessing it\";\nTurgot, whose maxims are directed to \"reform the administration of\ngovernment rather than the government itself.\" To these high praise is\nawarded, but they all had to be filtered through America.\n\n     * Dr. Franklin had these constitutions translated, and\n     presented them in a finely bound volume to the King.\n     According to Paine, who must have heard it from Franklin,\n     Vergennes resisted their publication, but was obliged to\n     give way to public demand. Paine could not allude to the\n     effect of his own work, \"Common Sense,\" which may have been\n     the more effective because its argument against monarchy was\n     omitted from the translation. But his enemies did not fail\n     to credit his pen with the catastrophes in France. John\n     Adams declares that the Constitution of Pennsylvania was\n     ascribed wrongly to Franklin; it was written by Paine and\n     three others; Turgot, Condorcet, and the Duke de la\n     Rochefoucauld were enamored of it, and two of them \"owed\n     their final and fatal catastrophe to this blind love\"\n     (Letter to S. Perley, June 19, 1809). Whence Cheetham.\n     dwelling on the enormity of the \"single representative\n     assembly,\" queries: \"May not Paine's constitution of\n     Pennsylvania have been the cause of the tyranny of\n     Robespierre?\"\n\nAnd it goes without saying that it was not the reactionary America with\nwhich John Adams and Gouverneur Morris had familiarized Burke. \"The\nRights of Man\" was the first exposition of the republicanism of\nJefferson, Madison, and Edmund Randolph that ever appeared. And as this\nrepublicanism was just then in deadly struggle with reaction, the\nfirst storm raised by Paine's book occurred in America. It was known in\nAmerica that Paine was about to beard the British lion in his den, and\nto expectant ears the roar was heard before its utterance.\n\n\"Paine's answer to Burke (writes Madison to Jefferson, May 1st) has not\nyet been received here [New York]. The moment it can be got, Freneau\ntells me, it will be published in Child's paper [_Daily Advertiser_],\nIt is said that the pamphlet has been suppressed, and that the author\nwithdrew to France before or immediately after its appearance. This may\naccount for his not sending copies to his friends in this country.\"\n\nMr. Beckley, however, had by this time received a copy and loaned it to\nJefferson, with a request that he would send it to J. B. Smith, whose\nbrother, S. H. Smith, printed it with the following Preface:\n\n\"The following Extracts from a note accompanying a copy of this pamphlet\nfor republication is so respectable a testing of its value, that\nthe Printer hopes the distinguished writer will excuse its present\nappearance. It proceeds from a character equally eminent in the councils\nof America, and conversant in the affairs of France, from a long\nand recent residence at the Court of Versailles in the Diplomatic\ndepartment; and at the same time that it does justice to the writings\nof Mr. Paine, it reflects honor on the source from which it flows by\ndirecting the mind to a contemplation of that Republican firmness and\nDemocratic simplicity which endear their possessor to every friend of\nthe Rights of Man.\n\n\"After some prefatory remarks the Secretary of State observes:\n\n\"' I am extremely pleased to find it will be reprinted, and that\nsomething is at length to be publickly said against the political\nheresies which have sprung up among us.\n\n\"'I have no doubt our citizens will rally a _second _time round the\n_standard_ of Common Sense.'\"\n\nAs the pamphlet had been dedicated to the President,* this encomium of\nthe Secretary of State (\"Jefferson\" was not mentioned by the sagacious\npublisher) gave it the air of a manifesto by the administration. Had\nall been contrived, Paine's arrow could not have been more perfectly\nfeathered to reach the heart of the anti-republican faction. The\nSecretary's allusion to \"political heresies\" was so plainly meant for\nthe Vice-President that a million hands tossed the gauntlet to him, and\nsupposed it was his own hand that took it up. These letters, to _The\nColumbian Centinel_ (Boston), were indeed published in England as\nby \"John Adams,\" and in the trial of Paine were quoted by the\nAttorney-General as proceeding from \"the second in the executive\ngovernment\" of America. Had it been generally known, however, that they\nwere by the Vice-President's son, John Quincy Adams, the effect might\nnot have been very different on the father. Edmund Randolph, in view of\nJohn Adams' past services, felt some regret at the attacks on him,\nand wrote to Madison: \"I should rejoice that the controversy has been\nexcited, were it not that under the character of [Publicola] he, who was\nsufficiently depressed before, is now irredeemable in the public opinion\nwithout being the real author.\" The youth, however, was only in his\ntwenty-fourth year, and pretty certainly under his father's inspiration.\n\n     * \"Sir, I present you a small treatise in defence of those\n     principles of freedom which your exemplary virtue hath so\n     eminently contributed to establish. That the rights of men\n     may become as universal as your benevolence can wish, and\n     that you may enjoy the happiness of seeing the new world\n     regenerate the old, is the prayer of, Sir, your much obliged\n     and obedient humble servant, Thomas Paine.\"\n\nIt is improbable, however, that John Adams could have written such\nscholarly and self-restrained criticisms on any work by Paine, mere\nmention of whom always made him foam at the mouth. Publicola's\narguments could not get a fair hearing amid surviving animosities\nagainst England and enthusiasm for a republican movement in France, as\nyet not a revolution, which promised the prevalence of American ideas\nin Europe. The actual England of that era, whose evils were powerfully\nportrayed by Paine, defeated in advance any theoretical estimate of\nthe advantages of its unwritten Constitution. America had, too,\nan inventor's pride in its written Constitution, as yet untried by\nexperience. Publicola assailed, successfully as I think, Paine's\nprinciple that a vitiated legislature could never be trusted to reform\nitself. It was answered that there is no reason why the people may not\ndelegate to a legislature, renewed by suffrage, the power of altering\neven the organic law. Publicola contends that the people could not act\nin their original character in changing a constitution, in opposition to\nan existing legislature, without danger of anarchy and war; that if the\npeople were in harmony with their legislature it could be trusted\nto carry out their amendments; that a legislature without such\nconstitutional powers would nevertheless exercise them by forced\nconstructions; and that the difficulty and delay of gathering the people\nin convention might conceivably endanger the commonwealth, were the\npower of fundamental alteration not delegated to the legislature,--a\nconcurrent right being reserved by the people.\n\nThis philosophical statement, interesting in the light of French\nrevolutions and English evolutions, recoiled on Publicola from the walls\nof Paine's real fortress. This was built of the fact that in England the\nmajority was not represented even in the Commons, and that the people\nhad no representation at all in two branches of their government.\nMoreover, Paine's plea had been simply for such reconstitution of\ngovernment as would enable the people to reform it without revolution or\nconvulsion. Publicola was compelled to admit that the English people\nhad no resort but the right of revolution, so that it appeared\nmere Monarchism to argue against Paine's plea for a self-amending\nconstitution in England.\n\nPublicola's retort on the Secretary's phrase, \"political heresies\"\n(infelicitous from a freethinker),--\"Does he consider this pamphlet\nof Mr. Paine's as the canonical book of political scripture,--hurt\nJefferson so much that he supposed himself harmed. He was indeed much\nannoyed by the whole affair, and straightway wrote to political leaders\nletters--some private, others to be quoted,--in which he sought to\nsmooth things by declaring that his note was not meant for publication.\nTo Washington he writes (May 8th) the Beckley-Smith story, beginning:\n\n\"I am afraid the indiscretion of a printer has committed me with my\nfriend Mr. Adams, for whom, as one of the most honest and disinterested\nmen alive, I have a cordial esteem, increased by long habits of\nconcurrence in opinion in the days of his republicanism; and even since\nhis apostasy to hereditary monarchy and nobility, though we differ, we\ndiffer as friends should do.\"\n\nThe \"Jeffersonians\" were, of course, delighted, and there is no knowing\nhow much reputation for pluck the Secretary was gaining in the country\nat the very moment when his intimate friends were soothing his tremors.\nThese were increased by the agitation of the British representatives\nin America over the affair. The following re-enforcement was sent by\nMadison on May 12th:\n\n\"I had seen Paine's pamphlet, with the Preface of the Philadelphia\nedition. It immediately occurred that you were brought into the\nfrontispiece in the manner you explain. But I had not foreseen the\nparticular use made of it by the British partizans. Mr. Adams can least\nof all complain. Under a mock defence of the Republican constitutions of\nhis country he attacked them with all the force he possessed, and this\nin a book with his name to it, while he was the Representative of his\ncountry at a foreign Court. Since he has been the second magistrate in\nthe new Republic, his pen has constantly been at work in the same\nCause; and though his name has not been prefixed to his anti-republican\ndiscourses, the author has been as well known as if that formality had\nbeen observed. Surely if it be innocent and decent in one servant of the\npublic thus to write attacks against its Government, it cannot be very\ncriminal or indecent in another to patronize a written defence of the\nprinciples on which that Government is founded. The sensibility of\nHammond [British Minister] and Bond [British Consul-General] for the\nindignity to the British Constitution is truly ridiculous. If offence\ncould be justly taken in that quarter, what would France have a right to\nsay to Burke's pamphlet, and the countenance given to it and its author,\nparticularly by the King himself? What, in fact, might not the United\nStates say, when revolutions and democratic Governments come in for a\nlarge charge of the scurrility lavished on those of France?\"\n\nOne curious circumstance of this incident was that the fuss made by\nthese British agents was about a book concerning which their government,\nunder whose nose it was published, had not said a word. There was,\nindeed, one sting in the American edition which was not in the English,\nbut that does not appear to have been noticed.* The resentment shown by\nthe British agents was plainly meant to aid Adams and the partisans of\nEngland in their efforts to crush the republicans, and bring Washington\nto their side in hostility to Jefferson. Four years later they\nsucceeded, and already it was apparent to the republican leaders that\nfine engineering was required to keep the Colossus on their side.\nWashington being at Mount Vernon, his secretary, Tobias Lear, was\napproached by Major Beckwith, an English agent (at Mrs. Washington's\nreception), who undertook to lecture through him the President and\nSecretary of State. He expressed surprise that Paine's pamphlet should\nbe dedicated to the President, as it contained remarks \"that could not\nbut be offensive to the British government.\" The Major might have been\nembarrassed if asked his instructions on the point, but Lear only said\nthat the President had not seen the pamphlet, nor could he be held\nresponsible for its sentiments. \"True,\" said Beckwith, \"but I observe,\nin the American edition, that the Secretary of State has given a most\nunequivocal sanction to the book, as _Secretary of State_; it is not\nsaid as Mr. Jefferson.\" Lear said he had not seen the pamphlet, \"but,\"\nhe added, \"I will venture to say that the Secretary of State has not\ndone a thing which he would not justify.\" Beckwith then remarked that\nhe had spoken only as \"a private character,\" and Lear went off to report\nthe conversation in a letter to Washington (May 8th), and next day to\nAttorney-General Randolph. Lear also reports to Washington that he had\nheard Adams say, with his hand upon his breast: \"I detest that book\nand its tendency, from the bottom of my heart.\" Meanwhile the\nAttorney-General, after conversation with Beckwith, visited Jefferson,\nand asked if he had authorized the publication of his note in Paine's\npamphlet.\n\n     * It has already been stated that the volume as printed by\n     Jordan (London) in March, contained one single modification\n     of that which Johnson had printed in February, but declined\n     to publish. The American edition was printed from the\n     Johnson volume; and where the English were reading \"Many\n     things,\" etc, the Americans read: \"Every thing in the\n     English government appears to me the reverse of what it\n     ought to be, and of what it is said to be.\"\n\n\"Mr. Jefferson said that, so far from having authorized it, he\nwas exceedingly sorry to see it there; not from a disavowal of the\napprobation which it gave the work, but because it had been sent to the\nprinter, with the pamphlet for republication, without the most distant\nidea that he would think of publishing any part of it. And Mr. Jefferson\nfurther added that he wished it might be understood, that he did not\nauthorize the publication of any part of his note.\"\n\nThese words of Lear to Washington, written no doubt in Randolph's\npresence, suggest the delicacy of the situation. Jefferson's anxiety led\nhim to write Vice-President Adams (July 17th) the Beckley-Smith story.\n\n\"I thought [he adds] so little of the note that I did not even keep a\ncopy of it, nor ever heard a tittle more of it till, the week following,\nI was thunderstruck with seeing it come out at the head of the pamphlet.\nI hoped that it would not attract. But I found on my return from\na journey of a month, that a writer came forward under the name of\nPublicola, attacking not only the author and principles of the pamphlet,\nbut myself as its sponsor by name. Soon after came hosts of other\nwriters, defending the pamphlet and attacking you by name as the\nwriter of Publicola. Thus our names were thrown on the stage as public\nantagonists.\"\n\nThen follows some effusiveness for Adams, and protestations that he has\nwritten none of these attacks. Jefferson fully believed that Publicola\nwas the Vice-President, and had so informed Monroe, on July 10th. It\nwas important that his lieutenants should not suspect their leader of\nshrinking, and Jefferson's letters to them are in a different vein.\n\"Publicola,\" he tells Monroe, \"in attacking all Paine's principles, is\nvery desirous of involving me in the same censure with the author. I\ncertainly merit the same, for I profess the same principles; but it\nis equally certain I never meant to have entered as a volunteer in the\ncause. My occupations do not permit it.\" To Paine he writes (July 29th):\n\"Indeed I am glad you did not come away till you had written your Rights\nof Man. A writer under the signature of Publicola has attacked it, and a\nhost of champions has entered the arena immediately in your defence.\"\nIt is added that the controversy has shown the people firm in their\nrepublicanism, \"contrary to the assertions of a sect here, high in name\nbut small in numbers,\" who were hoping that the masses were becoming\nconverted \"to the doctrine of King, Lords, and Commons.\"\n\nIn the letter to which this was a reply, Paine had stated his intention\nof returning to America in the spring.* The enthusiasm for Paine and his\nprinciples elicited by the controversy was so overwhelming that\nEdmund Randolph and Jefferson made an effort to secure him a place in\nWashington's Cabinet. But, though reinforced by Madison, they failed**\n\n     * \"I enclose you a few observations on the establishment of\n     a Mint. I have not seen your report on that subject and\n     therefore cannot tell how nearly our opinions run together;\n     but as it is by thinking upon and talking subjects over that\n     we approach towards truth, there may probably be something\n     in the enclosed that may be of use.--As the establishment of\n     a Mint combines a portion of politics with a knowledge of\n     the Arts, and a variety of other matters, it is a subject I\n     shall very much like to talk with you upon. I intend at all\n     events to be in America in the Spring, and it will please me\n     much to arrive before you have gone thro' the arrangement.\"\n     --Paine to Jefferson, dated London, September 28, 1790.\n\n     ** Madison to Jefferson, July 13th,--\"I wish you success\n     with all my heart in your efforts for Paine. Besides the\n     advantage to him which he deserves, an appointment for him\n     at this moment would do public good in various ways.\"\n\nThese statesmen little knew how far Washington had committed himself to\nthe British government. In October, 1789, Washington, with his own\nhand, had written to Gouverneur Morris, desiring him in \"the capacity\nof private agent, and on the authority and credit of this letter, to\nconverse with His Britannic Majesty's ministers on these points; viz.,\nwhether there be any, and what objections to performing those articles\nin the treaty which remained to be performed on his part, and whether\nthey incline to a treaty of commerce with the United States on any,\nand what terms?\" This was a secret between Washington, Morris, and\nthe British Cabinet.* It was the deepest desire of Washington to free\nAmerica from British garrisons, and his expectation was to secure this\nby the bribe of a liberal commercial treaty, as he ultimately did. The\ndemonstration of the British agents in America against Paine's pamphlet,\ntheir offence at its dedication to the President and sanction by the\nSecretary of State, were well calculated. That it was all an American\n_coup_, unwarranted by any advice from England, could not occur to\nWashington, who was probably surprised when he presently received a\nletter from Paine showing that he was getting along quite comfortably\nunder the government he was said to have aggrieved.\n\n     * \"Diary of Gouverneur Morris,\" i., p. 310.\n\nEdmund Randolph to Madison, July 21st.--\"I need not relate to you, that\nsince the _standard_ of republicanism has been erected, it has been\nresorted to by a numerous corps. The newspapers will tell you how much\nthe crest of aristocracy has fallen.... But he [Adams] is impotent, and\nsomething is due to past services. Mr. J. and myself have attempted to\nbring Paine forward as a successor to Osgood [Postmaster-General]. It\nseems to be a fair opportunity for a declaration of certain sentiments.\nBut all that I have heard has been that it would be too pointed to keep\na vacancy unfilled until his return from the other side of the water.\"\n\n\"London, July 21, 1791--Dear Sir.--I received your favor of last August\nby Col: Humphries since which I have not written to or heard from you.\nI mention this that you may know no letters have miscarried. I took the\nliberty of addressing my late work 'Rights of Man,' to you; but tho'\nI left it at that time to find its way to you, I now request your\nacceptance of fifty copies as a token of remembrance to yourself and my\nFriends. The work has had a run beyond anything that has been published\nin this Country on the subject of Government, and the demand continues.\nIn Ireland it has had a much greater. A letter I received from Dublin,\n10th of May, mentioned that the fourth edition was then on sale. I\nknow not what number of copies were printed at each edition, except the\nsecond, which was ten thousand. The same fate follows me here as I _at\nfirst_ experienced in America, strong friends and violent enemies, but\nas I have got the ear of the Country, I shall go on, and at least shew\nthem, what is a novelty here, that there can be a person beyond the\nreach of corruption.\n\n\"I arrived here from france about ten days ago. M. de la Fayette is\nwell. The affairs of that Country are verging to a new crisis,\nwhether the Government shall be Monarchical and heredetary or wholly\nrepresentative? I think the latter opinion will very generally prevail\nin the end. On this question the people are much forwarder than the\nNational Assembly.\n\n\"After the establishment of the American Revolution, it did not appear\nto me that any object could arise great enough to engage me a second\ntime. I began to feel myself happy in being quiet; but I now experience\nthat principle is not confined to Time or place, and that the ardour of\nseventy-six is capable of renewing itself. I have another work on hand\nwhich I intend shall be my last, for I long much to return to America.\nIt is not natural that fame should wish for a rival, but the case is\notherwise with me, for I do most sincerely wish there was some person\nin this Country that could usefully and successfully attract the public\nattention, and leave me with a satisfied mind to the enjoyment of\nquiet life: but it is painful to see errors and abuses and sit down a\nsenseless spectator. Of this your own mind will interpret mine.\n\n\"I have printed sixteen thousand copies; when the whole are gone of\nwhich there remain between three and four thousand I shall then make a\ncheap edition, just sufficient to bring in the price of the printing and\npaper as I did by Common Sense.\n\n\"Mr. Green who will present you this, has been very much my friend. I\nwanted last October to draw for fifty pounds on General Lewis Morris who\nhas some money of mine, but as he is unknown in the Commercial line, and\nAmerican credit not very good, and my own expended, I could not succeed,\nespecially as Gov'r Morris was then in Holland. Col: Humphries went\nwith me to your Agent Mr. Walsh, to whom I stated the case, and took\nthe liberty of saying that I knew you would not think it a trouble to\nreceive it of Gen. Morris on Mr. Walsh's account, but he declined it.\nMr. Green afterwards supplied me and I have since repaid him. He has a\ntroublesome affair on his hands here, and is in danger of losing thirty\nor forty thousand pounds, embarked under the flag of the United States\nin East India property. The persons who have received it withhold it and\nshelter themselves under some law contrivance. He wishes to state the\ncase to Congress not only on his own account, but as a matter that may\nbe nationally interesting.\n\n\"The public papers will inform you of the riots and tumults at\nBirmingham, and of some disturbances at Paris, and as Mr. Green can\ndetail them to you more particularly than I can do in a letter I leave\nthose matters to his information. I am, etc.\"\n\nNine months elapsed before Washington answered this letter, and although\nimportant events of those months have yet to be related, the answer may\nbe here put on record.\n\n\"Philadelphia, 6 May, 1792.--Dear Sir.--To my friends, and those who\nknow my occupations, I am sure no apology is necessary for keeping their\nletters so much longer unanswered, than my inclination would lead me to\ndo. I shall therefore offer no excuse for not having sooner acknowledged\nthe receipt of your letter of the 21st of June [July]. My thanks,\nhowever, for the token of your remembrance, in the fifty copies of '_The\nRights of Man_,' are offered with no less cordiality, than they would\nhave been had I answered your letter in the first moment of receiving\nit.\n\n\"The duties of my office, which at all times, especially during the\nsession of Congress, require an unremitting attention, naturally become\nmore pressing towards the close of it; and as that body have resolved to\nrise tomorrow, and as I have determined, in case they should, to set\nout for Mount Vernon on the next day, you will readily conclude that\nthe present is a busy moment with me; and to that I am persuaded your\ngoodness will impute my not entering into the several points touched\nupon in your letter. Let it suffice, therefore, at this time, to say,\nthat I rejoice in the information of your personal prosperity, and, as\nno one can feel a greater interest in the happiness of mankind than I\ndo, that it is the first wish of my heart, that the enlightened policy\nof the present age may diffuse to all men those blessings, to which\nthey are entitled, and lay the foundation of happiness for future\ngenerations.--With great esteem, I am, dear Sir &c.\n\n\"P. S. Since writing the foregoing, I have received your letter of\nthe 13th of February, with the twelve copies of your new work, which\naccompanied it, and for which you must accept my additional thanks.\"\n\nThere is no lack of personal cordiality in this letter, but one\nmay recognize in its ingenious vagueness, in its omission of any\nacknowledgment of the dedication of Paine's book, that he mistrusts the\nEuropean revolution and its American allies.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI. FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC\n\nIt has already been mentioned that John Adams had been proclaimed in\nFrance the author of \"Common Sense.\"* The true author was now known,\nbut, as the anti-monarchal parts of his work were expurgated, Paine, in\nturn, was supposed to be a kind of John Adams--a revolutionary royalist.\nThis misunderstanding was personally distasteful, but it had the\nimportant compensation of enabling Paine to come before Europe with\na work adapted to its conditions, essentially different from those of\nAmerica to which \"Common Sense\" was addressed in 1776. It was a matter\nof indifference to him whether the individual executive was called\n\"King \"or \"President.\" He objected to the thing, not the name, but as\nrepublican superstition had insisted on it in America there was little\ndoubt that France would follow the example. Under these circumstances\nPaine made up his mind that the republican principle would not be lost\nby the harmonizing policy of preserving the nominal and ornamental\nking while abolishing his sovereignty. The erection of a tremendous\npresidential power in the United States might well suggest to so staunch\na supporter of ministerial government that this substance might be\nsecured under a show of royalty. Dr. Robinet considers it a remarkable\n\"prophecy\" that Paine should have written in 1787 of an approaching\nalliance of \"the Majesty of the Sovereign with the Majesty of the\nNation\" in France. This was opposed to the theories of Jefferson, but\nit was the scheme of Mirabeau, the hope of Lafayette, and had not the\nthrone been rotten this prudent policy might have succeeded. It was\nwith an eye to France as well as to England that Paine, in his reply\nto Burke, had so carefully distinguished between executive sovereignty\nsubject to law and personal monarchy.\n\n     * \"When I arrived in France, the French naturally had a\n     great many questions to settle. The first was whether I was\n     the famous Adams, 'Ah, le fameux Adams.' In order to\n     speculate a little upon this subject, the pamphlet 'Common\n     Sense' had been printed in the 'Affaires de l'Angle-terre et\n     de l'Amerique,' and expressly ascribed to Mr. Adams, 'the\n     celebrated member of Congress.' It must be further known\n     that although the pamphlet 'Common Sense' was received in\n     France and in all Europe with rapture, yet there were\n     certain parts of it that they did not dare to publish in\n     France. The reasons of this any man may guess. 'Common\n     Sense' undertakes to prove that monarchy is unlawful by the\n     Old Testament They therefore gave the substance of it, as\n     they said; and paying many compliments to Mr. Adams, his\n     sense and rich imagination, they were obliged to ascribe\n     some parts of it to republican zeal. When I arrived at\n     Bordeaux all that I could say or do would not convince\n     anybody but that I was the fameux Adams. 'C'est un homme\n     calibre. Votre nom est bien connu ici.'\"--\"Works of John\n     Adams,\" vol. iii., p. 189. This was in 1779, and when Adams\n     entered on his official duties at Paris the honors thrust\n     upon him at Bordeaux became burdensome.\n\n\nWhen the last proof of his book was revised Paine sped to Paris, and\nplaced it in the hand of his friend M. Lanthenas for translation.\nMirabeau was on his death-bed, and Paine witnessed that historic\nprocession, four miles long, which bore the orator to his shrine.\nWitnessed it with relief, perhaps, for he is ominously silent concerning\nMirabeau. With others he strained his eyes to see the Coming Man; with\nothers he sees formidable Danton glaring at Lafayette; and\npresently sees advancing softly between them the sentimental,\nphilanthropic--Robespierre.\n\nIt was a happy hour for Paine when, on a day in May, he saw Robespierre\nrise in the National Assembly to propose abolition of the death\npenalty. How sweet this echo of the old \"testimonies\" of Thetford\nQuaker meetings. \"Capital punishment,\" cries Robespierre, \"is but a base\nassassination--punishing one crime by another, murder with murder. Since\njudges are not infallible they have no right to pronounce irreparable\nsentences.\" He is seconded by the jurist Duport, who says impressively:\n\"Let us at least make revolutionary scenes as little tragic as possible!\nLet us render man honorable to man!\" Marat, right man for the role,\nanswered with the barbaric demand \"blood for blood,\" and prevailed. But\nPaine was won over to Robespierre by this humane enthusiasm. The day was\nto come when he must confront Robespierre with a memory of this scene.\n\nThat Robespierre would supersede Lafayette Paine could little imagine.\nThe King was in the charge of the great friend of America, and never had\ncountry a fairer prospect than France in those beautiful spring days.\nBut the royal family fled. In the early morning of June 21st Lafayette\nburst into Paine's bedroom, before he was up, and cried: \"The birds are\nflown!\" \"It is well,\" said Paine; \"I hope there will be no attempt to\nrecall them.\" Hastily dressing, he rushed out into the street, and found\nthe people in uproar. They were clamoring as if some great loss had\nbefallen them. At the Hotel deVille Lafayette was menaced by the crowd,\nwhich accused him of having assisted the King's flight, and could only\nanswer them: \"What are you complaining of? Each of you saves twenty\nsous tax by suppression of the Civil List.\" Paine encounters his friend\nThomas Christie. \"You see,\" he said, \"the absurdity of monarchical\ngovernments; here will be a whole nation disturbed by the folly of one\nman.\"*\n\n     * The letter of Christie (Priestley's nephew), written June\n     22d, appeared in the London Morning Chronicle, June 29th.\n\nHere was Marat's opportunity. His journal, _L'Ami du Peuple_, clamored\nfor a dictator, and for the head of Lafayette. Against him rose young\nBonneville, who, in _La Bouche de Fer_ wrote: \"No more kings! No\ndictator! Assemble the People in the face of the sun; proclaim that\nthe Law alone shall be sovereign,--the Law, the Law alone, and made for\nall!\"\n\nBonneville's words in his journal about that time were apt to be\ntranslations from the works of his friend Paine, with whom his life\nwas afterwards so closely interwoven. The little group of men who had\nstudied Paine, ardent republicans, beheld a nation suddenly become\nfrantic to recover a king who could not be of the slightest value to any\nparty in the state. The miserable man had left a letter denouncing all\nthe liberal measures he had signed since October, 1789, which sealed\nhis doom as a monarch. The appalling fact was revealed that the most\npowerful revolutionists--Robespierre and Marat especially--had never\nconsidered a Republic, and did not know what it was.\n\nOn June 25th, Paine was a heavy-hearted spectator of the return of the\narrested king. He had personal realization that day of the folly of a\npeople in bringing back a king who had relieved them of his presence. He\nhad omitted to decorate his hat with a cockade, and the mob fell on him\nwith cries of \"Aristocrat! a la lanterne!\" After some rough handling\nhe was rescued by a Frenchman who spoke English, and explained the\naccidental character of the offence. Poor Paine's Quaker training had\nnot included the importance of badges, else the incident had revealed to\nhim that even the popular rage against Louis was superstitious homage to\na cockade. Never did friend of the people have severer proofs that they\nare generally wrong. In America, while writing as with his heart's blood\nthe first plea for its independence, he was \"shadowed\" as a British spy;\nand in France he narrowly escapes the aristocrat's lantern, at the very\nmoment when he was founding the first republican society, and writing\nits declaration.\n\nThis \"Societe Republicaine,\" as yet of five members, inaugurated itself\non July 1st, by placarding Paris with its manifesto, which was even\nnailed on the door of the National Assembly.\n\n\"Brethren and fellow citizens:\n\n\"The serene tranquillity, the mutual confidence which prevailed amongst\nus, during the time of the late King's escape, the indifference with\nwhich we beheld him return, are unequivocal proofs that the absence of\na King is more desirable than his presence, and that he is not only a\npolitical superfluity, but a grievous burden, pressing hard on the whole\nnation.\n\n\"Let us not be imposed upon by sophisms; all that concerns this is\nreduced to four points.\n\n\"He has abdicated the throne in having fled from his post. Abdication\nand desertion are not characterized by the length of absence; but by the\nsingle act of flight. In the present instance, the act is everything,\nand the time nothing.\n\n\"The nation can never give back its confidence to a man who false to his\ntrust, perjured to his oath, conspires a clandestine flight, obtains a\nfraudulent passport, conceals a King of France under the disguise of a\nvalet, directs his course towards a frontier covered with traitors and\ndeserters, and evidently meditates a return into our country, with a\nforce capable of imposing his own despotic laws.\n\n\"Whether ought his flight to be considered as his own act, or the act of\nthose who fled with him? Was it a spontaneous resolution of his own,\nor was it inspired into him by others? The alternative is immaterial;\nwhether fool or hypocrite, idiot or traitor, he has proved himself\nequally unworthy of the important functions that had been delegated to\nhim.\n\n\"In every sense that the question can be considered, the reciprocal\nobligation which subsisted between us is dissolved. He holds no longer\nany authority. We owe him no longer obedience. We see in him no more\nthan an indifferent person; we can regard him only as Louis Capet.\n\n\"The history of France presents little else than a long series of public\ncalamity, which takes its source from the vices of the Kings; we have\nbeen the wretched victims that have never ceased to suffer either for\nthem or by them. The catalogue of their oppressions was complete, but to\ncomplete the sum of their crimes, treason yet was wanting. Now the\nonly vacancy is filled up, the dreadful list is full; the system is\nexhausted; there are no remaining errors for them to commit, their reign\nis consequently at an end.\n\n\"What kind of office must that be in a government which requires\nneither experience nor ability to execute? that may be abandoned to the\ndesperate chance of birth, that may be filled with an idiot, a madman, a\ntyrant, with equal effect as by the good, the virtuous, and the wise? An\noffice of this nature is a mere nonentity: it is a place of show, not of\nuse. Let France then, arrived at the age of reason, no longer be deluded\nby the sound of words, and let her deliberately examine, if a King,\nhowever insignificant and contemptible in himself, may not at the same\ntime be extremely dangerous.\n\n\"The thirty millions which it costs to support a King in the eclat of\nstupid brutal luxury, presents us with an easy method of reducing taxes,\nwhich reduction would at once release the people, and stop the progress\nof political corruption. The grandeur of nations consists, not, as Kings\npretend, in the splendor of thrones, but in a conspicuous sense of\ntheir own dignity, and in a just disdain of those barbarous follies and\ncrimes, which, under the sanction of royalty have hitherto desolated\nEurope.\n\n\"As to the personal safety of Louis Capet, it is so much the more\nconfirmed, as France will not stoop to degrade herself by a spirit of\nrevenge against a wretch who has dishonored himself. In defending a just\nand glorious cause, it is not possible to degrade it, and the universal\ntranquillity which prevails is an undeniable proof, that a free people\nknow how to respect themselves.\"\n\nMalouet, a leading royalist member, tore down the handbill, and, having\nascertained its author, demanded the prosecution of Thomas Paine and\nAchille Duchatelet. He was vehemently supported by Martineau, deputy of\nParis, and for a time there was a tremendous agitation. The majority,\nnot prepared to commit themselves to anything at all.\n\n     * \"How great is a calm, couchant people! On the morrow men\n     will say to one another, 'We have no king, yet we slept\n     sound enough.' On the morrow Achille Duchatelet, and Thomas\n     Paine, the rebellious needleman, shall have the walls of\n     Paris profusely plastered with their placard, announcing\n     that there must be a republic.\"--Carlyle.\n\nDumont (\"Recollections of Mirabeau\") gives a particular account of this\npaper, which Duchatelet wished him to translate. \"Paine and he, the\none an American, the other a young thoughtless member of the French\nnobility, put themselves forward to change the whole system of\ngovernment in France.\" Lafayette had been sounded, but said it would\ntake twenty years to bring freedom to maturity in France. \"But some of\nthe seed thrown out by the audacious hand of Paine began to bud forth\nin the minds of many leading individuals.\" (E. g. Condorcet, Brissot,\nPetion, Claviere.) voted the order of the day, affecting, says Henri\nMartin, a disdain that hid embarrassment and inquietude.\n\nThis document, destined to reappear in a farther crisis, and the\nroyalist rage, raised Paine's Republican Club to vast importance. Even\nthe Jacobins, who had formally declined to sanction republicanism, were\ntroubled by the discovery of a society more radical than themselves. It\nwas only some years later that it was made known (by Paine) that this\nformidable association consisted of five members, and it is still\ndoubtful who these were. Certainly Paine, Achille Duchatelet, and\nCondorcet; probably also Brissot, and Nicolas Bonneville. In order to\navail itself of this tide of fame, the Societe Republicaine started a\njournal,--_The Republican._* The time was not ripe, however; only one\ncopy appeared; that, however, contained a letter by Paine, written in\nJune, which excited considerable flutter. To the reader of to-day it\nis mainly interesting as showing Paine's perception that the French\nrequired instruction in the alphabet of republicanism; but, amid its\nstudied moderation, there was a paragraph which the situation rendered\npregnant:\n\n     * \"Le Republicain; on le defenseur du gouvernement\n     Representatif; par une Societe des Republicans.    A Paris.\n     July 1791.    No. 1.\"\n\n\"Whenever the French Constitution shall be rendered conformable to its\ndeclaration of rights, we shall then be enabled to give to France, and\nwith justice, the appellation of a _Civic Empire_; for its government\nwill be the empire of laws, founded on the great republican principles\nof _elective representation_ and the rights of man. But monarchy\nand hereditary succession are incompatible with the _basis_ of its\nConstitution.\"\n\nNow this was the very constitution which Paine, in his answer to Burke,\nhad made comparatively presentable; to this day it survives in human\nmemory mainly through indulgent citations in \"The Rights of Man.\" Those\nangels who, in the celestial war, tried to keep friendly with both\nsides, had human counterparts in France, their constitutional oracle\nbeing the Abbe Sieves. He had entered warmly into the Revolution,\ninvented the name \"National Assembly,\" opposed the veto power,\nsupported the Declaration of Rights. But he had a superstitious faith in\nindividual executive, which, as an opportunist, he proposed to vest in\nthe reigning house. This class of \"survivals\" in the constitution\nwere the work of Sieyes, who was the brain of the Jacobins, now led by\nRobespierre, and with him ignoring republicanism for no better reason\nthan that their title was \"Societe des Amis de la Constitution.\"* Sieyes\npetted his constitution maternally, perhaps because nobody else\nloved it, and bristled at Paine's criticism. He wrote a letter to the\n_Moniteur_, asserting that there was more liberty under a monarchy than\nunder a republic He announced his intention of maintaining monarchical\nexecutive against the new party started into life by the King's flight.\nIn the same journal (July 8th,) Paine accepts the challenge \"with\npleasure.\"** Paine himself was something of an opportunist; as in\nAmerica he had favored reconciliation with George III. up to the\nLexington massacre, so had he desired a _modus vivendi_ with Louis XVI.\nup to his flight.* But now he unfurls the anti-monarchical flag.\n\n     * The club, founded in 1789, was called \"Jacobin,\" because\n     they met in the hall of the Dominicans, who had been called\n     Jacobins from the street St. Jacques in which they were\n     first established, anno 1219.\n\n     ** It was probably this letter that Gouverneur Morris\n     alludes to in his \"Diary,\" when, writing of a Fourth of July\n     dinner given by Mr. Short (U. S. Charge d'Affaires), he\n     mentions the presence of Paine, \"inflated to the eyes and\n     big with a letter of Revolutions.\"\n\n     *** In this spirit was written Part I. of \"The Rights of\n     Man\" whose translation by M. Lanthenas, with new preface,\n     appeared in May. Sieyes agreed that \"hereditaryship\" was\n     theoretically wrong, \"but,\" he said, \"refer to the histories\n     of all elective monarchies and principalities: is there one\n     in which the elective mode is not worse than the hereditary\n     succession?\" For notes on this incident see Professor F. A.\n     Aulard's important work, \"Les Orateurs de l'Assemblee\n     Constituante,\" p. 411. Also Henri Martin's \"Histoire de\n     France,\" i., p. 193.\n\n\"I am not the personal enemy of Kings. Quite the contrary. No man wishes\nmore heartily than myself to see them all in the happy and honorable\nstate of private individuals; but I am the avowed, open, and intrepid\nenemy of what is called monarchy; and I am such by principles which\nnothing can either alter or corrupt--by my attachment to humanity; by\nthe anxiety which I feel within myself for the dignity and honor of\nthe human race; by the disgust which I experience when I observe men\ndirected by children and governed by brutes; by the horror which all the\nevils that monarchy has spread over the earth excite within my breast;\nand by those sentiments which make me shudder at the calamities, the\nexactions, the wars, and the massacres with which monarchy has crushed\nmankind: in short, it is against all the hell of monarchy that I have\ndeclared war.\"\n\nIn reply Sieyes used the terms \"monarchy\" and \"republic\" in unusual\nsenses. He defines \"republic\" as a government in which the executive\npower is lodged in more than one person, \"monarchy\" as one where it is\nentrusted to one only. He asserted that while he was in this sense a\nmonarchist Paine was a \"polycrat.\" In a republic all action must finally\nlodge in an executive council deciding by majority, and nominated by the\npeople or the National Assembly. Sieyes did not, however, care to enter\nthe lists. \"My letter does not announce that I have leisure to enter\ninto a controversy with republican _polycrats_.\"\n\nPaine now set out for London. He travelled with Lord Daer and Etienne\nDumont, Mirabeau's secretary. Dumont had a pique against Paine, whose\nrepublican manifesto had upset a literary scheme of his,--to evoke\nMirabeau from the tomb and make him explain to the National Assembly\nthat the King's flight was a court plot, that they should free Louis\nXVI. from aristocratic captivity, and support him. But on reading\nthe Paine placard, \"I determined,\" says Dumont, \"for fear of evil\nconsequences to myself, to make Mirabeau return to his tomb.\"* Dumont\nprotests that Paine was fully convinced that the world would be\nbenefited if all other books were burned except \"The Rights of Man,\"\nand no doubt the republican apostle had a sublime faith in the sacred\ncharacter of his \"testimonies\" against kings. Without attempting to\ndetermine whether this was the self-reliance of humility or egoism, it\nmay be safely affirmed that it was that which made Paine's strokes so\neffective.\n\n     * \"Souvenirs sur Mirabeau.\" Par Etienne Dumont.\n\nIt may also be remarked again that Paine showed a prudence with which he\nhas not been credited. Thus, there is little doubt that this return to\nLondon was in pursuance of an invitation to attend a celebration of the\nsecond anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. He arrived at the White\nBear, Piccadilly, the day before (July 13th), but on finding that\nthere was much excitement about his republican manifesto in France\nhe concluded that his presence at the meeting might connect it with\nmovements across the Channel, and did not attend. Equal prudence was\nnot, however, displayed by his opponents, who induced the landlord of\nthe Crown and Anchor to close his doors against the advertised meeting.\nThis effort to prevent the free assemblage of Englishmen, and for the\nhumane purpose of celebrating the destruction of a prison whose horrors\nhad excited popular indignation, caused general anger. After due\nconsideration it was deemed opportune for those who sympathized with the\nmovement in France to issue a manifesto on the subject. It was written\nby Paine, and adopted by a meeting held at the Thatched House Tavern,\nAugust 20th, being signed by John Home Tooke, as Chairman. This \"Address\nand Declaration of the Friends of Universal Peace and Liberty,\" though\npreceded by the vigorous \"Declaration of the Volunteers of Belfast,\"\nquoted in its second paragraph, was the earliest warning England\nreceived that the revolution was now its grim guest.\n\n\"Friends and Fellow Citizens: At a moment like the present, when wilful\nmisrepresentations are industriously spread by partizans of arbitrary\npower and the advocates of passive obedience and court government, we\nthink it incumbent upon us to declare to the world our principles, and\nthe motives of our conduct.\n\n\"We rejoice at the glorious event of the French revolution. If it be\nasked, 'What is the French revolution to us?' we answer as has already\nbeen answered in another place, 'It is much--much to us as men; much\nto us as Englishmen. As men, we rejoice in the freedom of twenty-five\nmillions of men.\n\n\"We rejoice in the prospect which such a magnificent example opens to the\nworld.'\n\n\"We congratulate the French nation for having laid the ax; to the root\nof tyranny, and for erecting government on the sacred hereditary rights\nof man; rights which appertain to all, and not to any one more than\nanother.\n\n\"We know of no human authority superior to that of a whole nation; and\nwe profess and claim it as our principle that every nation has at all\ntimes an inherent and indefeasable right to constitute and establish\nsuch government for itself as best accords with its disposition,\ninterest, and happiness.\n\n\"As Englishmen we also rejoice, because we are immediately interested in\nthe French Revolution.\n\n\"Without inquiring into the justice, on either side, of the reproachful\ncharges of intrigue and ambition which the English and French courts\nhave constantly made on each other, we confine ourselves to this\nobservation,--that if the court of France only was in fault, and the\nnumerous wars which have distressed both countries are chargeable to\nher alone, that court now exists no longer, and the cause and the\nconsequence must cease together. The French therefore, by the revolution\nthey have made, have conquered for us as well as for themselves, if it\nbe true that this court only was in fault, and ours never.\n\n\"On this side of the case the French revolution concerns us immediately:\nwe are oppressed with a heavy national debt, a burthen of taxes, an\nexpensive administration of government, beyond those of any people in\nthe world.\n\n\"We have also a very numerous poor; and we hold that the moral\nobligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy, and poverty,\nis far superior to that of supplying the invented wants of courtly\nextravagance, ambition, and intrigue.\n\n\"We believe there is no instance to be produced but in England, of seven\nmillions of inhabitants, which make but little more than one million\nfamilies, paying yearly seventeen millions of taxes.\n\n\"As it has always been held out by the administrations that the restless\nambition of the court of France rendered this ex-pences necessary to us\nfor our own defence, we consequently rejoice, as men deeply interested\nin the French revolution; for that court, as we have already said,\nexists no longer, and consequently the same enormous expences need not\ncontinue to us.\n\n\"Thus rejoicing as we sincerely do, both as men and Englishmen, as\nlovers of universal peace and freedom, and as friends to our national\nprosperity and reduction of our public expences, we cannot but express\nour astonishment that any part or any members of our own government\nshould reprobate the extinction of that very power in France, or wish\nto see it restored, to whose influence they formerly attributed (whilst\nthey appeared to lament) the enormous increase of our own burthens and\ntaxes. What, then, are they sorry that the pretence for new oppressive\ntaxes, and the occasion for continuing many old taxes, will be at an\nend? If so, and if it is the policy of courts and court government to\nprefer enemies to friends, and a system of war to that of peace, as\naffording more pretences for places, offices, pensions, revenue and\ntaxation, it is high time for the people of every nation to look with\ncircumspection to their own interest.\n\n\"Those who pay the expences, and not those who participate in the\nemoluments arising from them, are the persons immediately interested in\ninquiries of this kind. We are a part of that national body on whom this\nannual expence of seventeen millions falls; and we consider the present\nopportunity of the French revolution as a most happy one for lessening\nthe enormous load under which this nation groans. If this be not done we\nshall then have reason to conclude that the cry of intrigue and ambition\nagainst other courts is no more than the common cant of all courts.\n\n\"We think it also necessary to express our astonishment that a\ngovernment desirous of being called free, should prefer connexion with\nthe most despotic and arbitrary powers in Europe. We know of none more\ndeserving this description than those of Turkey and Prussia, and the\nwhole combination of German despots.\n\n\"Separated as we happily are by nature from the tumults of the\ncontinent, we reprobate all systems and intrigues which sacrifice (and\nthat too at a great expence) the blessings of our natural situation.\nSuch systems cannot have a natural origin.\n\n\"If we are asked what government is, we hold it to be nothing more than\na national association; and we hold that to be the best which secures\nto every man his rights and promotes the greatest quantity of happiness\nwith the least expence. We live to improve, or we live in vain; and\ntherefore we admit of no maxims of government or policy on the mere\nscore of antiquity or other men's authority, the old whigs or the new.\n\n\"We will exercise the reason with which we are endued, or we possess it\nunworthily. As reason is given at all times, it is for the purpose of\nbeing used at all times.\n\n\"Among the blessings which the French revolution has produced to that\nnation we enumerate the abolition of the feudal system, of injustice,\nand of tyranny, on the 4th of August, 1789. Beneath the feudal system\nall Europe has long groaned, and from it England is not yet free. Game\nlaws, borough tenures, and tyrannical monopolies of numerous kinds still\nremain amongst us; but rejoicing as we sincerely do in the freedom\nof others till we shall haply accomplish our own, we intended to\ncommemorate this prelude to the universal extirpation of the feudal\nsystem by meeting on the anniversary of that day (the 4th of August)\nat the Crown and Anchor: from this meeting we were prevented by the\ninterference of certain unnamed and sculking persons with the master of\nthe tavern, who informed us that on their representation he would not\nreceive us. Let those who live by or countenance feudal oppressions take\nthe reproach of this ineffectual meanness and cowardice to themselves:\nthey cannot stifle the public declaration of our honest, open, and\navowed opinions. These are our principles, and these our sentiments;\nthey embrace the interest and happiness of the great body of the nation\nof which we are a part. As to riots and tumults, let those answer for\nthem who by wilful misrepresentations endeavour to excite and promote\nthem; or who seek to stun the sense of the nation, and lose the great\ncause of public good in the outrages of a mis-informed mob. We take our\nground on principles that require no such riotous aid.\n\n\"We have nothing to apprehend from the poor for we are pleading their\ncause; and we fear not proud oppression for we have truth on our side.\n\n\"We say and we repeat it that the French revolution opens to the\nworld an opportunity in which all good citizens must rejoice, that of\npromoting the general happiness of man, and that it moreover offers\nto this country in particular an opportunity of reducing our enormous\ntaxes: these are our objects, and we will pursue them.\"\n\nA comparative study of Paine's two republican manifestos--that placarded\nin Paris July 1st, and this of August 20th to the English--reveals the\ndifference between the two nations at that period. No break with the\nthrone in England is suggested, as none had been declared in France\nuntil the King had fled, leaving behind him a virtual proclamation of\nwar against all the reforms he had been signing since 1789. The Thatched\nHouse address leaves it open for the King to take the side of\nthe Republic, and be its chief. The address is simply an applied\n\"Declaration of Rights.\" Paine had already maintained, in his reply to\nBurke, that the English monarch was an importation unrelated to the\nreal nation, \"which is left to govern itself, and does govern itself,\nby magistrates and juries, almost on its own charge, on republican\nprinciples.\" His chief complaint is that royalty is an expensive\n\"sinecure.\" So far had George III. withdrawn from his attempt to govern\nas well as reign, which had ended so disastrously in America. The fall\nof the French King who had aided the American \"rebellion\" was probably\nviewed with satisfaction by the English court, so long as the revolution\nconfined itself to France. But now it had raised its head in England,\nand the alarm of aristocracy was as if it were threatened with an\ninvasion of political cholera.\n\nThe disease was brought over by Paine. He must be isolated. But he had\na hold on the people, including a large number of literary men, and\nNonconformist preachers. The authorities, therefore, began working\ncautiously, privately inducing the landlords of the Crown and Anchor and\nthe Thatched House to refuse their rooms to the \"Painites,\" as they\nwere beginning to be called But this was a confession of Paine's power.\nIndeed all opposition at that time was favorable to Paine. Publicola's\nreply to \"The Rights of Man,\" attributed to Vice-President Adams, could\nonly heighten Paine's fame; for John Adams' blazing court-dress, which\namused us at the Centenary (1889), was not forgotten in England; and\nwhile his influence was limited to court circles, the entrance of so\nhigh an official into the arena was accepted as homage to the author.\nThe publication at the same time of the endorsement of Paine's \"Rights\nof Man\" by the Secretary of State, the great Jefferson, completed the\ntriumph. The English government now had Paine on its hands, and must\ndeal with him in one way or another.\n\nThe closing of one door after another of the usual places of assembly\nto sympathizers with the republican movement in France, being by hidden\nhands, could not be charged upon Pitt's government; it was, however, a\nplain indication that a free expression through public meetings could\nnot be secured without risk of riots. And probably there would have\nbeen violent scenes in London had it not been for the moderation of\nthe Quaker leader. At this juncture Paine held a supremacy in the\nconstitutional clubs of England and Ireland equal to that of Robespierre\nover the Jacobins of Paris. He had the giant's strength, but did not use\nit like a giant. He sat himself down in a quiet corner of London, began\nanother book, and from time to time consulted his Cabinet of Reformers.\n\nHis abode was with Thomas Rickman, a bookseller, his devoted friend.\nHe had known Rickman at Lewes, as a youthful musical genius of the club\nthere, hence called \"Clio.\" He had then set some song of Paine's to\nmusic, and afterwards his American patriotic songs, as well as many of\nhis own. He now lived in London with wife and children--these bearing\nnames of the great republicans, beginning with Thomas Paine,--and with\nthem the author resided for a time. A particular value, therefore,\nattaches to the following passages in Rickman's book:\n\n\"Mr. Paine's life in London was a quiet round of philosophical leisure\nand enjoyment. It was occupied in writing, in a small epistolary\ncorrespondence, in walking about with me to visit different friends,\noccasionally lounging at coffee-houses and public places, or being\nvisited by a select few. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the French and\nAmerican ambassadors, Mr. Sharp the engraver, Romney the painter, Mrs.\nWolstonecraft, Joel Barlow, Mr. Hull, Mr. Christie, Dr. Priestley, Dr.\nTowers, Col. Oswald, the walking Stewart, Captain Sampson Perry, Mr.\nTuffin, Mr. William Choppin, Captain De Stark, Mr. Home Tooke, &c. &c.\nwere among the number of his friends and acquaintance; and of course, as\nhe was my inmate, the most of my associates were frequently his. At this\ntime he read but little, took his nap after dinner, and played with my\nfamily at some game in the evening, as chess, dominos, and drafts,\nbut never at cards; in recitations, singing, music, &c; or passed it\nin conversation: the part he took in the latter was always enlightened,\nfull of information, entertainment, and anecdote. Occasionally we\nvisited enlightened friends, indulged in domestic jaunts and recreations\nfrom home, frequently lounging at the White Bear, Picadilly, with his\nold friend the walking Stewart, and other clever travellers from France,\nand different parts of Europe and America. When by ourselves we sat very\nlate, and often broke in on the morning hours, indulging the reciprocal\ninterchange of affectionate and confidential intercourse. 'Warm from the\nheart and faithful to its fires' was that intercourse, and gave to us\nthe 'feast of reason and the flow of soul.'\"\n\n\"Mr. Paine in his person was about five feet ten inches high, and rather\nathletic; he was broad shouldered, and latterly stooped a little. His\neye, of which the painter could not convey the exquisite meaning, was\nfull, brilliant, and singularly piercing; it had in it the 'muse of\nfire.' In his dress and person he was generally very cleanly, and\nwore his hair cued, with side curls, and powdered, so that he looked\naltogether like a gentleman of the old French school. His manners were\neasy and gracious; his knowledge was universal and boundless; in private\ncompany and among his friends his conversation had every fascination\nthat anecdote, novelty and truth could give it. In mixt company and\namong strangers he said little, and was no public speaker.\"\n\nPaine does not appear to have ever learned that his name had been\npressed for a place in Washington's Cabinet, and apparently he did not\nknow until long after it was over what a tempest in Jefferson's teapot\nhis book had innocently caused. The facts came to him while he was\nengaged on his next work, in which they are occasionally reflected. In\nintroducing an English friend to William Short, U. S. Charge d'Affaires\nat Paris, under date of November 2d, Paine reports progress:\n\n\"I received your favour conveying a letter from Mr. Jefferson and the\nanswers to Publicola for which I thank you. I had John Adams in my mind\nwhen I wrote the pamphlet and it has hit as I expected.\n\n\"M. Lenobia who presents you this is come to pass a few days at Paris.\nHe is a bon republicain and you will oblige me much by introducing him\namong our friends of bon foi. I am again in the press but shall not be\nout till about Christmas, when the Town will begin to fill. By what I\ncan find, the Government Gentry begin to threaten. They have already\ntried all the under-plots of abuse and scurrility without effect; and\nhave managed those in general so badly as to make the work and the\nauthor the more famous; several answers also have been written against\nit which did not excite reading enough to pay the expence of printing.\n\n\"I have but one way to be secure in my next work which is, to go further\nthan in my first. I see that _great rogues_ escape by the excess of\ntheir crimes, and, perhaps, it may be the same in honest cases. However,\nI shall make a pretty large division in the public opinion, probably too\nmuch so to encourage the Government to put it to issue, for it will be\nrather like begging them than me.\n\n\"By all the accounts we have here, the french emigrants are in a\nhopeless condition abroad; for my own part I never saw anything to fear\nfrom foreign courts--they are more afraid of the french Revolution than\nthe revolution needs to be of them; and the same caution which they\ntake to prevent the french principles getting among their armies, will\nprevent their sending armies among the principles.\n\n\"We have distressing accounts here from St. Domingo. It is the natural\nconsequence of Slavery and must be expected every where. The Negroes are\nenraged at the opposition made to their relief and are determined,\nif not to relieve themselves to punish their enemies. We have no new\naccounts from the East Indies, and people are in much doubt. I am,\naffectionately yours, Thomas Paine.\"\n\nThe \"scurrility\" referred to may have been that of George Chalmers,\nelsewhere mentioned. Two days after this letter to Short was written\nPaine received a notable ovation.\n\nThere was a so-called \"Revolution Society\" in London, originally formed\nby a number of prominent dissenters. The Society had manifested its\nexistence only by listening to a sermon on the anniversary of the\nRevolution of 1688 (November 4th) and thereafter dining together. It had\nnot been supposed to interest itself in any later revolution until 1789.\nIn that year the annual sermon was delivered by Dr. Richard Price, the\nUnitarian whose defence of the American Revolution received the thanks\nof Congress. In 1776 Price and Burke stood shoulder to shoulder, but the\nsermon of 1789 sundered them. It was \"On the Love of our Country,\" and\naffirmed the constitutional right of the English people to frame their\nown government, to choose their own governors, and to cashier them for\nmisconduct. This was the \"red rag\" that drew Burke into the arena. Dr.\nPrice died April 19, 1791, and his great discourse gathered new force\nfrom the tributes of Priestley and others at his grave. He had been a\nstaunch friend of Paine, and at the November festival of this year his\nplace was accorded to the man on whom the \"Constitutionalists\" beheld\nthe mantle of Price and the wreath of Washington. The company at this\ndinner of 1791 at the London Tavern, included many eminent men, some of\nthem members of Parliament. The old Society was transformed--William and\nMary and 1688 passed into oblivion before Thomas Paine and 1791. It was\nprobably for this occasion that the song was written (by whom I know\nnot)--\"Paine's Welcome to Great Britain.\"\n\n     \"He comes--the great Reformer comes!\n     Cease, cease your trumpets, cease, cease your drums!\n     Those warlike sounds offend the ear,\n     Peace and Friendship now appear:\n     Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome,\n     Welcome, thou Reformer, here!\n\n     \"Prepare, prepare, your songs prepare,\n     Freedom cheers the brow of care;\n     The joyful tidings spread around,\n     Monarchs tremble at the sound!\n     Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom,--\n     Rights of Man, and Paine resound!\"\n\nMr. Dignum sang (to the tune of \"The tear that bedews sensibility's\nshrine.\")\n\n     \"Unfold, Father Time, thy long records unfold,\n     Of noble achievements accomplished of old;\n     When men, by the standard of Liberty led,\n     Undauntedly conquered or chearfully bled:\n     But now 'midst the triumphs these moments reveal,\n     Their glories all fade and their lustre turns pale,\n     While France rises up, and proclaims the decree\n     That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free.\n\n     \"As spring to the fields, or as dew to the flowers.\n     To the earth parched with heat, as the soft dropping showers,\n     As health to the wretch that lies languid and wan,\n     Or rest to the weary--is Freedom to man!\n     Where Freedom the light of her countenance gives,\n     There only he triumphs, there only he lives;\n     Then seize the glad moment and hail the decree\n     That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free.\n\n     \"Too long had oppression and terror entwined\n     Those tyrant-formed chains that enslaved the free mind;\n     While dark superstition, with nature at strife,\n     For ages had locked up the fountain of life;\n     But the daemon is fled, the delusion is past,\n     And reason and virtue have triumphed at last;\n     Then seize the glad moments, and hail the decree,\n     That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free.\n\n     \"France, we share in the rapture thy bosom that fills,\n     While the Genius of Liberty bounds o'er thy hills:\n     Redundant henceforth may thy purple juice flow,\n     Prouder wave thy green woods, and thine olive trees grow!\n     While the hand of philosophy long shall entwine,\n     Blest emblems, the laurel, the myrtle and vine,\n     And heaven through all ages confirm the decree\n     That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free!\"\n\nPaine gave as his toast, \"The Revolution of the World,\" and no doubt\nat this point was sung \"A New Song,\" as it was then called, written by\nPaine himself to the tune of \"Rule Britannia\":\n\n     \"Hail, Great Republic of the world,\n     The rising empire of the West,\n     Where famed Columbus, with a mighty mind inspired,\n     Gave tortured Europe scenes of rest.\n     Be thou forever, forever great and free,\n     The Land of Love and Liberty.\n\n     \"Beneath thy spreading mantling vine,\n     Beside thy flowery groves and springs,\n     And on thy lofty, thy lofty mountains' brow,\n     May all thy sons and fair ones sing.\n\n     Chorus.\n\n     \"From thee may rudest nations learn\n     To prize the cause thy sons began;\n     From thee may future, may future tyrants know\n     That sacred are the Rights of Man.\n\n     \"From thee may hated discord fly,\n     With all her dark, her gloomy train;\n     And o'er thy fertile, thy fertile wide domain\n     May everlasting friendship reign.\n\n     \"Of thee may lisping infancy\n     The pleasing wondrous story tell,\n     And patriot sages in venerable mood\n     Instruct the world to govern well.\n\n     \"Ye guardian angels watch around,\n     From harm protect the new-born State;\n     And all ye friendly, ye friendly nations join,\n     And thus salute the Child of Fate.\n\n     Be thou forever, forever great and free,\n     The Land of Love and Liberty!\"\n\nNotwithstanding royal tremors these gentlemen were genuinely loyal in\nsinging the old anthem with new words:\n\n     \"God save the Rights of Man!\n     Give him a heart to scan\n     Blessings so dear;\n     Let them be spread around,\n     Wherever Man is found,\n     And with the welcome sound\n     Ravish his ear!\"\n\nNo report is preserved of Paine's speech, but we may feel sure that\nin giving his sentiment \"The Revolution of the World\" he set forth his\nfavorite theme--that revolutions of nations should be as quiet, lawful,\nand fruitful as the revolutions of the earth.\n\n\n\n\n{1792}\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII. THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION\n\nThe Abbe Sieyes did not escape by declining to stand by his challenge\nof the republicans. In the second part of \"The Rights of Man\" Paine\nconsiders the position of that gentleman, namely, that hereditary\nmonarchy is an evil, but the elective mode historically proven worse.\nThat both are bad Paine agrees, but \"such a mode of reasoning on such a\nsubject is inadmissible, because it finally amounts to an accusation of\nprovidence, as if she had left to man no other choice with respect\nto government than between two evils.\" Every now and then this Quaker\nAntaeus touches his mother earth--the theocratic principle--in this way;\nthe invigoration is recognizable in a religious seriousness, which,\nhowever, makes no allowance for the merely ornamental parts of\ngovernment, always so popular. \"The splendor of a throne is the\ncorruption of a state.\" However, the time was too serious for the\nutility of bagatelles to be much considered by any. Paine engages Sieyes\non his own ground, and brings historic evidence to prove that the wars\nof succession, civil and foreign, show hereditary a worse evil than\nelective headship, as illustrated by Poland, Holland, and America. But\nhe does not defend the method of either of these countries, and clearly\nshows that he is, as Sieyes said, a \"poly-crat,\" so far as the numerical\ncomposition of the Executive is concerned.* He affirms, however, that\ngoverning is no function of a republican Executive. The law alone\ngoverns. \"The sovereign authority in any country is the power of making\nlaws, and everything else is an official department.\"\n\n     *\"I have always been opposed to the mode of refining\n     government up to an individual, or what is called a single\n     Executive. Such a man will always be the chief of a party. A\n     plurality is far better. It combines the mass of a nation\n     better together. And besides this, it is necessary to the\n     manly mind of a republic that it lose the debasing idea of\n     obeying an individual.\"--Paine MS.\n\nMore than fifty thousand copies of the first part of \"The Rights of Man\"\nhad been sold, and the public hungrily awaited the author's next work.\nBut he kept back his proofs until Burke should fulfil his promise\nof returning to the subject and comparing the English and French\nconstitutions. He was disappointed, however, at finding no such\ncomparison in Burke's \"Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs.\" It did,\nhowever, contain a menace that was worth waiting for.\n\n\"Oldys\" (Chalmers) says that Paine was disappointed at not being\narrested for his first pamphlet on \"The Rights of Man,\" and had, \"while\nfluttering on the wing for Paris, hovered about London a whole week\nwaiting to be taken.\" It is, indeed, possible that he would have been\nglad to elicit just then a fresh decision from the courts in favor of\nfreedom of speech and of the press, which would strengthen faint hearts.\nIf he had this desire he was resolved not to be disappointed a second\ntime.\n\nA publisher (Chapman) offered him a thousand guineas for the manuscript\nof Part II. Paine declined; \"he wished to reserve it in his own hands.\"\nFacts afterwards appeared which rendered it probable that this was a\nministerial effort to suppress the book.*\n\n     * Paine may, indeed, only have apprehended alterations,\n     which he always dreaded. His friends, knowing how much his\n     antagonists had made of his grammatical faults, sometimes\n     suggested expert revision. \"He would say,\" says Richard\n     Carlile, \"that he only wished to be known as he was, without\n     being decked with the plumes of another.\"\n\nPaine's Part Second was to appear about the first of February, or\nbefore the meeting of Parliament But the printer (Chapman) threw up the\npublication, alleging its \"dangerous tendencies,\" whereby it was delayed\nuntil February 17th, when it was published by Jordan. Meanwhile, his\nelaborate scheme for reducing taxes so resembled that which Pitt had\njust proposed in Parliament that the author appended his reasons\nfor believing that his pages had been read by the government clerk,\nChalmers, and his plan revealed to Pitt. \"Be the case, however, as it\nmay, Mr. Pitt's plan, little and diminutive as it is, would have made a\nvery awkward appearance had this work appeared at the time the printer\nhad engaged to finish it.\"\n\nAt the time (September) when Chapman began printing Paine's Part II.,\nGeorge Chalmers brought to the same press his libellous \"Life of Pain.\"\nOn learning that Chapman was printing Paine, Chalmers took his book\naway. As Chalmers was a government employe, and his work larger. Chapman\nreturned Paine's work to him half printed, and the Chalmers book was\nrestored to him. As Chapman stated in his testimony, and so wrote\nto Paine (January 17, 1792), that he was unwilling to go on with the\nprinting because of the dangerous tendency of a part of it, his offer of\na thousand guineas for it could only have contemplated its expurgation\nor total suppression. That it was the latter, and that the money was\nto be paid by the government, is rendered probable by the evidences in\nChalmers' book, when it appeared, that he had been allowed the perusal\nof Paine's manuscript while in Chapman's hands. Chalmers also displays\nintimate knowledge of Chapman's business transactions with Paine.\n\nIn the light of Pitt's subsequent career it is a significant fact that,\nin the beginning of 1792, he should be suspected of stealing Paine's\nthunder! And, indeed, throughout Paine's Part Second the tone towards\nPitt implies some expectation of reform from him. Its severity is\nthat which English agitators for constitutional reform have for a\nhalf century made familiar and honorable. The historical student finds\nmirrored in this work the rosy picture of the United States as seen\nat its dawn by the disfranchised people of Europe, and beside that\na burdened England now hardly credible. It includes an historical\nstatement of the powers claimed by the crown and gradually distributed\namong non-elective peers and class-elective commoners, the result being\na combination of all three against admission of the people to any degree\nof self-government. Though the arraignment is heavy, the method of\nreform is set forth with moderation. Particular burdens are pointed\nout, and England is warned to escape violent revolution by accommodating\nitself to the new age. It is admitted that no new system need be\nconstructed. \"Mankind (from the long tyranny of assumed power) have\nhad so few opportunities of making the necessary trials on modes\nand principles of government, in order to discover the best, _that\ngovernment is but now beginning to be known_, and experience is yet\nwanting to determine many particulars.\" Paine frankly retracts an old\nopinion of his own, that the legislature should be unicameral. He now\nthinks that, though there should be but one representation, it might\nsecure wiser deliberation to divide it, by lot, into two or three\nparts. \"Every proposed bill shall first be debated in those parts, by\nsuccession, that they may become hearers of each other, but without\ntaking any vote; after which the whole representation to assemble, for a\ngeneral debate, and determination by vote.\" The great necessity is that\nEngland shall gather its people, by representation, in convention\nand frame a constitution which shall contain the means of peaceful\ndevelopment in accordance with enlightenment and necessity.\n\nIn Part I. Paine stated his general principles with some reservations,\nin view of the survival of royalty in the French constitution. In Part\nII. his political philosophy is freely and fully developed, and may be\nsummarized as follows:\n\n1. Government is the organization of the aggregate of those natural\nrights which individuals are not competent to secure individually,\nand therefore surrender to the control of society in exchange for the\nprotection of all rights.\n\n2. Republican government is that in which the welfare of the whole\nnation is the object.\n\n3. Monarchy is government, more or less arbitrary, in which the\ninterests of an individual are paramount to those of the people\ngenerally.\n\n4. Aristocracy is government, partially arbitrary, in which the\ninterests of a class are paramount to those of the people generally.\n\n5. Democracy is the whole people governing themselves without secondary\nmeans.\n\n6. Representative government is the control of a nation by persons\nelected by the whole nation.\n\n7. The Rights of Man mean the right of all to representation.\n\nDemocracy, simple enough in small and primitive societies, degenerates\ninto confusion by extension to large populations. Monarchy, which\noriginated amid such confusion, degenerates into incapacity by extension\nto vast and complex interests requiring \"an assemblage of practical\nknowledges which no one individual can possess.\" \"The aristocratical\nform has the same vices and defects with the monarchical, except that\nthe chance of abilities is better from the proportion of numbers.\"\n\nThe representative republic advocated by Paine is different from merely\nepitomized democracy. \"Representation is the delegated monarchy of a\nnation.\" In the early days of the American republic, when presidential\nelectors were independent of the constituents who elected them, the\nfiltration of democracy was a favorite principle among republicans.\nPaine evidently regards the representative as different from a delegate,\nor mere commissioner carrying out instructions. The representatives of\na people are clothed with their sovereignty; that, and not opinions or\norders, has been transferred to them by constituencies. Hence we find\nPaine, after describing the English people as \"fools\" (p. 260), urging\nrepresentation as a sort of natural selection of wisdom.\n\n\"Whatever wisdom constituency is, it is like a seedless plant; it may be\nreared when it appears, but it cannot be voluntarily produced. There is\nalways a sufficiency somewhere in the general mass of society for all\npurposes; but, with respect to the parts of society, it is continually\nchanging place. It rises in one today, in another tomorrow, and has\nmost probably visited in rotation every family of the earth, and again\nwithdrawn. As this is the order of nature, the order of government\nmust follow it, or government will, as we see it does, degenerate into\nignorance. The hereditary system therefore, is as repugnant to human\nwisdom as to human rights; and is as absurd as unjust As the republic\nof letters brings forward the best literary productions, by giving to\ngenius a fair and universal chance, so the representative system is\ncalculated to produce the wisest laws, by collecting wisdom where it can\nbe found.\"\n\nWe have seen that \"Publicola\" (John Quincy Adams) in his answer to\nPaine's Part I. had left the people no right to alter government but\nthe right of revolution, by violence; Erskine pointed out that Burkes\npamphlet had similarly closed every other means of reform. Paine would\ncivilize reformation:\n\n\"Formerly, when divisions arose respecting governments, recourse was had\nto the sword, and civil war ensued. That savage custom is exploded by\nthe new system, and reference is had to national conventions. Discussion\nand the general will arbitrate the question, private opinion yields with\na good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.\"\n\nThus he is really trying to supplant the right of revolution with the\nright of evolution:\n\n\"It is now towards the middle of February. Were I to take a turn in the\ncountry the trees would present a leafless wintery appearance. As people\nare apt to pluck twigs as they go along, I perhaps might do the same,\nand by chance might observe that a single bud on that twig had begun to\nsmell. I should reason very unnaturally, or rather not reason at all\nto suppose this was the only bud in England which had this appearance.\nInstead of deciding thus, I should instantly conclude that the same\nappearance was beginning, or about to begin, everywhere; and though\nthe vegetable sleep will continue longer on some trees and plants than\nothers, and though some of them may not blossom for two or three years,\nall will be in leaf in the summer, except those which are rotten. What\npace the political summer may keep with the natural, no human foresight\ncan determine. It is, however, not difficult to perceive that the Spring\nis begun. Thus wishing, as I sincerely do, freedom and happiness to all\nnations, I close the Second Part.\"\n\nApparently the publisher expected trouble. In the _Gazetteer_, January\n25th, had appeared the following notice:\n\n\"Mr. Paine, it is known, is to produce another book this season. The\ncomposition of this is now past, and it was given a few weeks since to\ntwo printers, whose presses it was to go through as soon as possible.\nThey printed about half of it, and then, being alarmed by _some\nintimations,_ refused to go further. Some delay has thus occurred, but\nanother printer has taken it, and in the course of the next month it\nwill appear. Its title is to be a repetition of the former, 'The Rights\nof Man,' of which the words 'Part the Second' will shew that it is a\ncontinuation.\"\n\nThat the original printer, Chapman, impeded the publication is suggested\nby the fact that on February 7th, thirteen days after the above\nannouncement, Paine writes: \"Mr. Chapman, please to deliver to Mr.\nJordan the remaining sheets of the Rights of Man.\" And that \"some\nintimations\" were received by Jordan also may be inferred from the\nfollowing note and enclosure to him:\n\n\"February 16, 1792.--For your satisfaction and my own, I send you the\nenclosed, tho' I do not apprehend there will be any occasion to use it.\nIf, in case there should, you will immediately send a line for me under\ncover to Mr. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard, who will forward it to me,\nupon which I shall come and answer personally for the work. Send also to\nMr. Home Tooke.--T. P.\"\n\n\"February 16, 1792.--Sir: Should any person, under the sanction of any\nkind of authority, enquire of you respecting the author and publisher\nof the Rights of Man, you will please to mention me as the author and\npublisher of that work, and shew to such person this letter. I will,\nas soon as I am made acquainted with it, appear and answer for the work\npersonally.--Your humble servant,\n\n\"Thomas Pain.\"\n\n\"Mr. Jordan, No. 166 Fleet-street.\"\n\nSome copies were in Paine's hands three days before publication, as\nappears by a note of February 13th to Jefferson, on hearing of Morris'\nappointment as Minister to France:\n\n\"Mr. Kennedy, who brings this to New York, is on the point of setting\nout. I am therefore confined to time. I have enclosed six copies of my\nwork for yourself in a parcel addressed to the President, and three\nor four for my other friends, which I wish you to take the trouble of\npresenting.\n\n\"I have just heard of Governeur Morris's appointment. _It is a most\nunfortunate one_; and, as I shall mention the same thing to him when I\nsee him, I do not express it to you with the injunction of confidence.\nHe is just now arrived in London, and this circumstance has served, as I\nsee by the french papers, to increase the dislike and suspicion of some\nof that nation and the National Assembly against him.\n\n\"In the present state of Europe it would be best to make no\nappointments.\"\n\nLafayette wrote Washington a strong private protest against Morris, but\nin vain. Paine spoke frankly to Morris, who mentions him on Washington's\nbirthday:\n\n\"February 22. I read Paine's new publication today, and tell him that\nI am really afraid he will be punished. He seems to laugh at this, and\nrelies on the force he has in the nation. He seems to become every hour\nmore drunk with self-conceit. It seems, however, that his work excites\nbut little emotion, and rather raises indignation. I tell him that\nthe disordered state of things in France works against all schemes of\nreformation both here and elsewhere. He declares that the riots and\noutrages in France are nothing at all. It is not worth while to contest\nsuch declarations. I tell him, therefore, that as I am sure he does not\nmean what he says, I shall not dispute it. Visit the Duchess of Gordon,\nwho tells me that she supposes I give Paine his information about\nAmerica, and speaks very slightly of our situation, as being engaged in\na civil war with the Indians. I smile, and tell her that Britain is also\nat war with Indians, though in another hemisphere.\"\n\nIn his appendix Paine alludes vaguely to the book of George Chalmers\n(\"Oldys\").\n\n\"A ministerial bookseller in Picadilly, who has been employed, as common\nreport says, by a clerk of one of the boards closely connected with the\nMinistry (the board of Trade and Plantations, of which Lord Hawkesbury\nis president) to publish what he calls my Life (I wish his own life and\nthat of the Cabinet were as good,) used to have his books printed at the\nsame printing office that I employed.\"\n\nIn his fifth edition Chalmers claims that this notice of his work,\nunaccompanied by any denial of its statements, is an admission of their\ntruth. It looks as if Paine had not then seen the book, but he never\nfurther alluded to it. There was nothing in Chalmers' political or\northographical criticisms requiring answer, and its tar and feathers\nwere so adroitly mixed, and applied with such a masterly hand, that\nPaine had to endure his literary lynching in silence. \"Nothing can lie\nlike the truth.\"*\n\n     * Not that Chalmers confines himself to perversions of fact.\n     The book bore on its title-page five falsehoods: \"Pain,\"\n     instead of \"Paine\": \"Francis Oldys\"; \"A. M.\";\n     \"University of Pennsylvania\"; \"With a Defence of his\n     Writings.\" There is a marked increase of virulence with the\n     successive editions. The second is in cheap form, and bears\n     at the back of its title this note: \"Read this, and then\n     hand it to others who are requested to do likewise.\"\n\nChalmers' libels were so ingeniously interwoven with the actual stumbles\nand humiliations of Paine's early life, that the facts could not be told\nwithout dragging before the public his mother's corpse, and breaking\ntreaty with his divorced wife. Chalmers would have been more successful\nas a government employe in this business had he not cared more for\nhimself than for his party. By advertising, as we have seen (Preface,\nxv), his first edition as a \"Defence\" of Paine's writings he reaped a\npecuniary harvest from the Painites before the substitution of\n\"Review\" tempted the Burkites. This trick probably enraged more than\nit converted. The pompous pseudonym covered a vanity weak enough to\npresently drop its lion skin, revealing ears sufficiently long to expect\nfor a government clerk the attention accorded to a reverend M.A. of\nthe University of Pennsylvania. This degree was not only understood in\nEngland with a clerical connotation, but it competed with Paine's \"M.A.\"\nfrom the same institution. The pseudonym also concealed the record of\nChalmers as a Tory refugee from Maryland, and an opponent of Burke, long\nenough to sell several editions. But the author was known early in 1792,\nand was named in an important pamphlet by no means altogether favorable\nto Paine. After rebuking Paine for personalities towards men whose\nstation prevents reply, this writer also disagrees with him about the\nConstitution. But he declares that Paine has collected the essence of\nthe most venerated writers of Europe in the past, and applied the same\nto the executive government, which cannot stand the test.\n\n\"The Constitution will; but _the present mode of administering that\nConstitution_ must shrink from the comparison. And this is the reason,\nthat foolish Mr. Rose of the Treasury trembles on the bench, and the\ncrafty clerk in Lord Hawkesbury's office, carries on his base attacks\nagainst Paine by sap, fights him under the mask of a Philadelphia\nparson, fit disguise for the most impudent falsehoods that ever were\npublished, and stabs him in the dark. But, of this upstart clerk at the\nCockpit, more hereafter.\"*\n\n     * \"Paine's Political and Moral Maxims, etc. By a Free-Born\n     Englishman. London. Printed for H. D. Symonds, Paternoster\n     Row, 1792.\" The introductory letter is dated May 15th.\n\nGeorge Chalmers being mentioned by name in this and other pamphlets, and\nnothing like a repudiation coming from him or from \"Oldys\" in any of\nhis ten editions, the libel recoiled on the government, while it damaged\nPaine. The meanness of meeting inconvenient arguments by sniffing\nvillage gossip for private scandals was resented, and the calumnies\nwere discounted. Nevertheless, there was probably some weakening in the\n\"Paineite\" ranks. Although this \"un-English\" tracking of a man from\nhis cradle, and masked assassination angered the republicans, it could\nhardly fail to intimidate some. In every period it has been seen that\nthe largest interests, even the liberties, of English peoples may be\nplaced momentarily at the mercy of any incident strongly exciting the\nmoral sentiment A crafty clerk accuses Paine of maltreating his wife;\nthe leader's phalanx of friends is for one instant disconcerted; Burke\nperceives the opportunity and points it out to the King; Pitt must show\nequal jealousy of royal authority; Paine is prosecuted. There is\nlittle doubt that Pitt was forced to this first step which reversed the\ntraditions of English freedom, and gave that Minister his historic place\nas the English Robespierre of counter-revolution.*\n\n     * \"Pitt 'used to say,' according to Lady Hester Stanhope,\n     'that Tom Paine was quite in the right, but then he would\n     add, what am I to do? As things are, if I were to encourage\n     Tom Paine's opinions we should have a bloody revolution.\"--\n     Encyclop. Britaanica.\n\nOn May 14th Paine, being at Bromley, Kent, learned that the government\nhad issued summons against Jordan, his publisher. He hastened to London\nand assumed the expense of Jordan's defence. Jordan, however, privately\ncompromised the affair by agreeing to plead guilty, surrender his notes\nrelating to Paine, and receive a verdict to the author's prejudice--that\nbeing really the end of the government's business with the publisher. On\nMay 21st a summons was left on Paine at his London lodgings (Rickman's\nhouse) to appear at the Court of King's Bench on June 8th. On the same\nday issued a royal proclamation against seditious writings. On May 25th,\nin the debate on the Proclamation, Secretary Dundas said in the House of\nCommons that the proceedings against Jordan were instituted because Mr.\nPaine could not be found. Thereupon Paine, detecting the unreality\nof the prosecution of his publisher, addressed a letter to the\nAttorney-General.. Alluding to the remark of Dundas in Parliament, he\nsays:\n\n\"Mr. Paine, Sir, so far from secreting himself never went a step out\nof his way, nor in the least instance varied from his usual conduct, to\navoid any measure you might choose to adopt with respect to him. It is\non the purity of his heart, and the universal utility of the principles\nand plans which his writings contain, that he rests the issue; and he\nwill not dishonour it by any kind of subterfuge. The apartments which he\noccupied at the time of writing the work last winter, he has continued\nto occupy to the present hour, and the solicitors of the prosecution\nknow where to find him; of which there is a proof in their own office,\nas far back as the 21st of May, and also in the office of my own\nattorney.--But admitting, for the sake of the case, that the reason for\nproceeding against the publication was, as Mr. Dundas stated, that\nMr. Paine could not be found, that reason can now exist no longer. The\ninstant that I was informed that an information was preparing to be\nfiled against me as the author of, I believe, one of the most useful and\nbenevolent books ever offered to mankind, I directed my attorney to put\nin an appearance; and as I shall meet the prosecution fully and fairly,\nand with a good and upright conscience, I have a right to expect that\nno act of littleness will be made use of on the part of the prosecution\ntowards influencing the future issue with respect to the author.\nThis expression may, perhaps, appear obscure to you, but I am in the\npossession of some matters which serve to show that the action against\nthe publisher is not intended to be a _real_ action.\"\n\nHe then intimates that, if his suspicions should prove well-founded,\nhe will withdraw from his intention of defending the publisher, and\nproposes that the case against Jordan be given up. At the close of his\nletter Paine says:\n\n\"I believe that Mr. Burke, finding himself defeated, has been one of\nthe promoters of this prosecution; and I shall return the compliment by\nshewing, in a future publication, that he has been a masked pensioner at\nL1500 per annum for about ten years. Thus it is that the public money is\nwasted, and the dread of public investigation is produced.\"\n\nThe secret negotiations with the publisher being thus discovered, no\nmore was heard of Jordan, except that his papers were brought out at\nPaine's trial.\n\nThe Information against Paine, covering forty-one pages, octavo, is a\ncuriosity. It recites that \"Thomas Paine, late of London, gentleman,\nbeing a wicked, malicious, seditious, and ill-disposed person, and being\ngreatly disaffected to our said Sovereign Lord the now King, and to the\nhappy constitution and government of this kingdom... and to bring them\ninto hatred and contempt, on the sixteenth day of February, in the\nthirty-second year of the reign of our said present Sovereign Lord the\nKing, with force and arms at London aforesaid, to wit, in the parish of\nSt. Mary le Bone, in the Ward of Cheap, he, the said Thomas, wickedly,\nmaliciously and seditiously, did write and publish, and caused to be\nwritten and published, a certain false, scandalous, malicious, and\nseditious libel, of and concerning the said late happy Revolution, and\nthe said settlements and limitations of the crown and regal governments\nof the said kingdoms and dominions... intituled, 'Rights of Man, Part\nthe Second, Combining principle and practice.'... In one part thereof,\naccording to the tenor and effect following, that is to say, 'All\nhereditary government is in its nature tyranny. An heritable crown'\n(meaning, amongst others, the crown of this kingdom) 'or an heritable\nthrone,' (meaning the throne of this kingdom), 'or by what-other\nfanciful name such things may be called, have no other significant\nexplanation than that mankind are heritable property. To inherit a\ngovernment is to inherit the people, as if they were flocks and\nherds.'... 'The time is not very distant when England will laugh at\nitself for sending to Holland, Hanover, Zell, or Brunswick, for men'\n(meaning the said King William the Third, and King George the First) \"\nat the expence of a million a year, who understood neither her laws, her\nlanguage, nor her interest, and whose capacities would scarcely have\nfitted them for the office of a parish constable. If government could be\ntrusted to such hands, it must be some easy and simple thing indeed; and\nmaterials fit for all the purposes may be found in every town and\nvillage in England.' In contempt of our said Lord the now King and his\nlaws, to the evil example of all others in like case offending, and\nagainst the peace of our said Lord the King, his crown and dignity.\nWhereupon the said Attorney General of our said Lord the King, who for\nour said Lord the King in this behalf, prose-cuteth for our said Lord\nthe King, prayeth the consideration of the court here in the premises,\nand that due process of law may be awarded against him, the said Thomas\nPaine, in this behalf, to make him answer to our said Lord the King,\ntouching and concerning the premises aforesaid.\n\n\"To this information the defendant hath appeared, and pleaded Not\nGuilty, and thereupon issue is joined.\"\n\nThe specifications and quotations in the Information are reiterated\ntwice, in one case (Paine's note on William and Mary centenary), three\ntimes.*\n\n     *  \"I happened to be in England at the celebration of the\n     centenary of the Revolution of 1688. The characters of\n     William and Mary have always appeared to me detestable; the\n     one seeking to destroy his uncle, the other her father, to\n     get possession of power themselves; yet, as the nation was\n     disposed to think something of the event, I felt hurt at\n     seeing it ascribe the whole reputation of it to a man who\n     had undertaken it as a job; and who besides what he\n     otherwise got, charged six hundred thousand pounds for the\n     expense of the little fleet that brought him from Holland.\n     George the First acted the same close-fisted part as William\n     had done, and bought the Duchy of Bremen with the money he\n     got from England, two hundred and fifty thousand pounds over\n     and above his pay as King; and, having thus purchased it at\n     the expense of England, added it to his Hanoverian dominions\n     for his own private profit. In fact every nation that does\n     not govern itself is governed as a job. England has been the\n     prey of jobs ever since the Revolution.\"\n\nIt is marvellous that such an author, martial with \"force and arms,\"\ncould still walk freely about London. But the machinery for suppressing\nthought had always a tendency to rust in England; it had to be\nrefurbished. To the royal proclamation against seditious writings\ncorporations and rotten boroughs responded with loyal addresses. In the\ndebate on that proclamation (May 25th) Secretary Dundas and Mr. Adam had\narraigned Paine, and he addressed an open letter to the Secretary (June\n6th) which was well received. Mr. Adam had said that:\n\n\"He had well considered the subject of constitutional publications,\nand was by no means ready to say that books of science upon government\nthough recommending a doctrine or system different from the form of our\nconstitution were fit objects of prosecution; that if he did, he must\ncondemn Harrington for his Oceana, Sir Thomas More for his Utopia, and\nHume for his Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth. But the publication of Mr.\nPaine reviled what was most sacred in the Constitution, destroyed every\nprinciple of subordination, and established nothing in their room.\"\n\nThe real difficulty was that Paine _had_ put something in the room of\nhereditary monarchy--not a Utopia, but the representative system of\nthe United States. He now again compares the governmental expenses\nof England and America and their condition. He shows that the entire\ngovernment of the United States costs less than the English pension list\nalone.\n\n\"Here is a form and system of government that is better organized than\nany other government in the world, and that for less than one hundred\nthousand pounds, and yet every member of Congress receives as a\ncompensation for his time and attendance on public business, one pound\nseven shillings per day, which is at the rate of nearly five hundred\npounds a year. This is a government that has nothing to fear. It needs\nno proclamations to deter people from writing and reading. It needs no\npolitical superstition to support it. It was by encouraging discussion\nand rendering the press free upon all subjects of government, that the\nprinciples of government became understood in America, and the people\nare now enjoying their present blessings under it. You hear of no riots,\ntumults and disorders in that country; because there exists no cause\nto produce them. Those things are never the effect of freedom, but of\nrestraint, oppression, and excessive taxation.\"\n\nOn June 8th Paine appeared in court and was much disappointed by the\npostponement of his trial to December. Lord Onslow having summoned\na meeting at Epsom of the gentry in Surrey, to respond to the\nproclamation, receives due notice. Paine sends for presentation to the\ngentlemen one hundred copies of his \"Rights of Man,\" one thousand of his\n\"Letter to Dundas.\" The bearer is Home Tooke, who opens his speech of\npresentation by remarking on the impropriety that the meeting should be\npresided over by Lord Onslow, a bed-chamber lord (sinecure) at L1,000,\nwith a pension of L3,000. Tooke, being cut short, his speech was\ncontinued by Paine, whose two letters to Onslow (June 17th and 21st)\nwere widely circulated.*\n\n     * To this noble pensioner and sinecurist he says: \"What\n     honour or happiness you can derive from being the principal\n     pauper of the neighborhood, and occasioning a greater\n     expence than the poor, the aged, and the infirm for ten\n     miles round, I leave you to enjoy. At the same time I can\n     see that it is no wonder you should be strenuous in\n     suppressing a book which strikes at the root of these\n     abuses.\"\n\nOn June 20th was written a respectful letter to the Sheriff of Sussex,\nor other presiding officer, requesting that it be read at a meeting to\nbe held in Lewes. This interesting letter has already been quoted in\nconnection with Paine's early residence at Lewes. In these letters the\nauthor reinforces his accused book, reminds the assemblies of their\nillegal conduct in influencing the verdict in a pending matter, taunts\nthem with their meanness in seeking to refute by brute force what forty\npamphlets had failed to refute by argument.\n\nThe meeting at Lewes, his old town, to respond to the proclamation\noccurred on the fourth of July. That anniversary of his first cause was\ncelebrated by Paine also. Notified by his publisher that upwards of a\nthousand pounds stood to his credit, he directed it to be all sent as a\npresent to the Society for Constitutional Information.*\n\nA careful tract of 1793 estimates the sales of \"The Rights of Man\" up to\nthat year at 200,000 copies.** In the opinion of the famous publisher\nof such literature, Richard Carlile, the kings proclamation seriously\nimpeded the sale. \"One part of the community is afraid to sell, and\nanother to purchase, under such conditions. It is not too much to\nsay that, if 'Rights of Man' had obtained two or three years' free\ncirculation in England and Scotland, it would have produced a similar\neffect to that which 'Common Sense' did in the United States.\" However,\nthe reign of terror had not yet begun in France, nor the consequent\nreign of panic in England.\n\n     * The Argus, July 6, 1792. See \"Biographia Addenda,\" No.\n     Til., London, 1792. To the same society Paine had given the\n     right to publish his \"Letter to Dundas,\" \"Common Sense,\" and\n     \"Letter to Raynal\" in new editions.\n\n     ** \"Impartial Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Paine,\" London,\n     1793. There were numbers of small \"Lives\" of Paine printed\n     in these years, but most of them were mere stealings from\n     \"Oldys.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII. THE DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION\n\nThe prosecution of Paine in England had its counterpart in a shrine\nacross the channel. The _Moniteur_, June 17, 1792, announces the burning\nof Paine's works at \"Excester,\" and the expulsion from Manchester of\na man pointed out as Paine. Since April 16th his \"Rights of Man,\"\nsympathetically translated by M. Lanthenas, had been in every French\nhome. Paine's portrait, just painted in England by Romney and engraved\nby Sharpe, was in every cottage, framed in immortelles. In this book the\nphilosophy of visionary reformers took practical shape. From the ashes\nof Rousseau's \"Contrat Social,\" burnt in Paris, rose \"The Rights of\nMan,\" no phoenix, but an eagle of the new world, with eye not blinded by\nany royal sun.*\n\n     * L'Esprit da Contrat Social; suivi de l'Esprit de Sens\n     Commun do Thomas Paine. Present a la Convention. Par le\n     Citoyen Boinvilliers, Instituteur et ci-devant Membre de\n     plusieurs Soci&es Litteraires. L'an second.\n\nIt comes to tell how by union of France and America--of Lafayette and\nWashington--the \"Contrat Social\" was framed into the Constitution of a\nhappy and glorious new earth, over it a new heaven unclouded by priestly\npower or superstitions. By that book of Paine's (Part I), the idea of a\nnational convention was made the purpose of the French leaders who were\nreally inspired by an \"enthusiasm of humanity.\" In December, 1791, when\nthe legislature sits paralyzed under royal vetoes, Paine's panacea is\nproposed.*\n\nOn the tenth of August, 1792, after the massacre of the Marseillese by\nthe King's Swiss guards, one book, hurled from the window of the mobbed\npalace, felled an American spectator--Robert Gilmor, of Baltimore--who\nconsoled himself by carrying it home. The book, now in the collection\nof Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, New York, was a copy of \"The Thirteen\nConstitutions,\" translated by Franklin's order into French (1783) and\ndistributed among the monarchs of Europe.**\n\n     * \"Veto after Veto; your thumbscrew paralysed! Gods and men\n     may see that the Legislature is in a false position. As,\n     alas, who is in a true one? Voices already murmur for a\n     National Convention.\"--Carlyle.\n\n     ** \"Constitutions des Treize etats-Unis de l'Amerique.\" The\n     French king's arms are on the red morocco binding, and on\n     the title a shield, striped and winged; above this thirteen\n     minute stars shaped into one large star, six-pointed. For\n     the particulars of Franklin's gift to the monarchs see\n     Sparks' \"Franklin,\" x., p. 39.    See also p. 390 of this\n     volume.\n\nWhat a contrast between the peace and order amid which the thirteen\npeoples, when the old laws and authorities were abolished, formed new\nones, and these scenes in France! \"For upwards of two years from the\ncommencement of the American war,\" wrote Paine, \"and a longer period,\nin several of the American States, there were no established forms of\ngovernment. The old governments had been abolished, and the country was\ntoo much occupied in defence to employ its attention in establishing new\ngovernments; yet, during this interval, order and harmony were preserved\nas inviolate as in any country in Europe.\" When Burke pointed to the\nfirst riots in France, Paine could make a retort: the mob is what\nyour cruel governments have made it, and only proves how necessary the\noverthrow of such governments. That French human nature was different\nfrom English nature he could not admit. Liberty and equality would soon\nend these troubles of transition. On that same tenth of August Paine's\ntwo great preliminaries are adopted: the hereditary representative is\nsuperseded and a national convention is called. The machinery for such\nconvention, the constituencies, the objects of it, had been read in \"The\nRights of Man,\" as illustrated in the United States and Pennsylvania, by\nevery French statesman.1 It was the American Republic they were about to\nfound; and notwithstanding the misrepresentation of that nation by its\nsurviving courtiers, these French republicans recognized their real\nAmerican Minister: Paine is summoned.\n\n     * \"Theorie et Pratique des Droits de l'Homme. Par Thomas\n     Paine, Secrettaire da Congres au Departement des Affaires\n     Ltrangeres pendant la guerre d'Araenque, auteur du ' Sens\n     Commun,' et des Reponses a Burke. Traduit en Francais par F.\n     Lanthenas, D.M., et par le Traducteur du \"Sens Common.\" A\n     Paris: Chez les Directeurs de l'lmprimerie du Cercle Social,\n     rue du Theatre Francais, No. 4. 1792. L'an quatrierae de La\n     Liberte.\"\n\nOn August 26, 1792, the National Assembly, on proposal of M. Guadet,\nin the name of the \"Commission Extraordinaire,\" conferred the title of\nFrench citizen on \"Priestley, Payne, Ben thorn, Wilberforce, Clarkson,\nMackintosh, David Williams, Gorani, Anacharsis Clootz, Campe, Cornielle,\nPaw, N. Pestalozzi, Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Klopstoc, Kosciusko,\nGilleers.\" Schiller was afterwards added, and on September 25 th the\n_Patriote_ announces the same title conferred on Thomas Cooper, John\nHome Tooke, John Oswald, George Boies, Thomas Christie, Dr. Joseph\nWarner, Englishmen, and Joel Barlow, American.*\n\n     * \"Life and Letters of Joel Barlow,\" etc., by Charles Burr\n     Todd, New York, 1886, p. 97.\n\nPaine was elected to the French Convention by four different\ndepartments--Oise, Puy-de-Dome, Somme, and Pas-de-Calais. The votes\nappear to have been unanimous.\n\nHere is an enthusiastic appeal (Riom, le 8 Septembre) signed by Louvet,\n\"auteur de la Sentinelle,\" and thirty-two others, representing nine\ncommunes, to Paine, that day elected representative of Puy-de-Dome:\n\n\"Your love for humanity, for liberty and equality, the useful works that\nhave issued from your heart and pen in their defence, have determined\nour choice. It has been hailed with universal and reiterated applause.\nCome, friend of the people, to swell the number of patriots in an\nassembly which will decide the destiny of a great people, perhaps of\nthe human race. The happy period you have predicted for the nations has\narrived. Come! do not deceive their hope!\"\n\nBut already Calais, which elected him September 6th, had sent a\nmunicipal officer, Achille Audibert, to London, to entreat Paine's\nacceptance. Paine was so eager to meet the English government in court,\nthat he delayed his answer. But his friends had reason to fear that\nhis martyrdom might be less mild than he anticipated, and urged his\nacceptance. There had been formed a society of the \"Friends of Liberty,\"\nand, at its gathering of September 12th, Paine appears to have poured\nforth \"inflammatory eloquence.\" At the house of his friend Johnson,\non the following evening, Paine was reporting what he had said to some\nsympathizers, among them the mystical William Blake, who was convinced\nthat the speech of the previous night would be followed by arrest.\nGilchrist's account of what followed is here quoted:\n\n\"On Paine's rising to leave, Blake laid his hand on the orator's\nshoulder, saying, 'You must not go home, or you are a dead man,' and\nhurried him off on his way to France, whither he was now in any case\nbound to take his seat as a legislator. By the time Paine was at\nDover, the officers were in his house, [he was staying at Rickman's, in\nMarylebone] and, some twenty minutes after the Custom House officials\nat Dover had turned over his slender baggage, narrowly escaped from the\nEnglish Tories. Those were hanging days! Blake on the occasion showed\ngreater sagacity than Paine, whom, indeed, Fuseli affirmed to be more\nignorant of the common affairs of life than himself even. Spite of\nunworldliness and visionary faculty, Blake never wanted for prudence and\nsagacity in ordinary matters.\"*\n\n     * \"Life of William Blake,\" by Alexander Gilchrist, p. 94.\n\nBefore leaving London Paine managed to have an interview with the\nAmerican Minister, Pinckney, who thought he could do good service in the\nConvention.\n\nMr. Frost, who accompanied Paine and Audibert, had information of\ncertain plans of the officials. He guided them to Dover by a circuitous\nroute--Rochester, Sandwich, Deal. With what emotions does our\nworld-wanderer find himself in the old town where he married and\nsuffered with his first love, Mary Lambert, whose grave is near! Nor\nis he so far from Cranbrook, where his wife receives her mysterious\nremittances, but since their separation \"has not heard of\" this said\nThomas Paine, as her testimony goes some years later. Paine is parting\nfrom England and its ghosts forever. The travellers find Dover excited\nby the royal proclamation. The collector of customs has had general\ninstructions to be vigilant, and searches the three men, even to their\npockets. Frost pretended a desire to escape, drawing the scent from\nPaine. In his report (September 15th) of the search to Mr. Dundas, Paine\nsays:\n\n\"Among the letters which he took out of my trunk were two sealed\nletters, given into my charge by the American minister in London\n[Pinckney], one of which was addressed to the American minister at\nParis, the other to a private gentleman; a letter from the president of\nthe United States, and a letter from the secretary of State in America,\nboth directed to me, and which I had received from the American\nminister, now in London, and were private letters of friendship; a\nletter from the electoral body of the department of Calais, containing\nthe notification of my being elected to the National Convention; and a\nletter from the president of the National Assembly informing me of my\nbeing also elected for the department of the Oise [Versailles].... When\nthe collector had taken what papers and letters he pleased out of the\ntrunks, he proposed to read them. The first letter he took up for this\npurpose was that from the president of the United States to me. While\nhe was doing this I said, that it was very extraordinary that General\nWashington could not write a letter of private friendship to me, without\nits being subject to be read by a customhouse officer. Upon this Mr.\nFrost laid his hand over the face of the letter, and told the collector\nthat he should not read it, and took it from him. Mr. Frost then,\ncasting his eyes on the concluding paragraph of the letter, said, I will\nread this part to you, which he did; of which the following is an exact\ntranscript--'And as no one can feel a greater interest in the happiness\nof mankind than I do, it is the first wish of my heart that the\nenlightened policy of the present age may diffuse to all men those\nblessings to which they are entitled and lay the foundation of happiness\nfor future generations.'\"\n\nSo Washington's nine months' delay (p. 302) in acknowledging Paine's\nletter and gift of fifty volumes had brought his letter in the nick of\ntime. The collector quailed before the President's signature. He took\naway the documents, leaving a list of them, and they were presently\nreturned. Soon afterward the packet sailed, and \"twenty minutes later\"\nthe order for Paine's arrest reached Dover. Too late! Baffled pursuers\ngnash their teeth, and Paine passes to his ovation.\n\nWhat the ovation was to be he could hardly anticipate even from the\ncordial, or glowing, letter of Herault Sechelles summoning him to the\nConvention,--a fine translation of which by Cobbett is given in the\nAppendix. Ancient Calais, in its time, had received heroes from across\nthe channel, but hitherto never with joy. That honor the centuries\nreserved for a Thetford Quaker. As the packet sails in a salute is fired\nfrom the battery; cheers sound along the shore. As the representative\nfor Calais steps on French soil soldiers make his avenue, the officers\nembrace him, the national cockade is presented. A beautiful lady\nadvances, requesting the honor of setting the cockade in his hat, and\nmakes him a pretty speech, ending with Liberty, Equality, and France.\nAs they move along the Rue de l'Egalite (late Rue du Roi) the air\nrings with \"Vive Thomas Paine!\" At the town hall he is presented to the\nMunicipality, by each member embraced, by the Mayor also addressed. At\nthe meeting of the Constitutional Society of Calais, in the _Minimes_,\nhe sits beside the president, beneath the bust of Mirabeau and the\nunited colors of France, England, and America. There is an official\nceremony announcing his election, and plaudits of the crowd, \"_Vive la\nNation!_\" \"_Vive Thomas Paine!_\" The _Minimes_ proving too small,\nthe meeting next day is held in the church, where martyred saints and\nmiraculous Madonnas look down on this miraculous Quaker, turned savior\nof society. In the evening, at the theatre, a box is decorated \"For the\nAuthor of 'The Rights of Man.'\"\n\nThus for once our wayfarer, so marked by time and fate, received such\nwelcome as hitherto had been accorded only to princes. Alas, that the\naged eyes which watched over his humble cradle could not linger long\nenough to see a vision of this greatness, or that she who bore the name\nof Elizabeth Paine was too far out of his world as not even to know\nthat her husband was in Europe. A theatrical La France must be his\nonly bride, and in the end play the role of a cruel stepmother. When\nWashington was on his way to his inauguration in New York, passing\nbeneath triumphal arches, amid applauding crowds, a sadness came\nover him as he reflected, so he wrote a friend, how easily all this\nenthusiasm might be reversed by a failure in the office for which he\nfelt himself so little competent But for Paine on his way to sit in the\nConvention of a People's representatives--one summoned by his own pen\nfor objects to which his life was devoted, for which he had the training\nof events as well as studies,--for him there could be no black star\nhovering over his welcome and his triumphal pathway to Paris. For,\nbesides his fame, there had preceded him to every town rumors of how\nthis representative of man--of man in America, England, France--had been\nhunted by British oppressors down to the very edge of their coast. Those\noutwitted pursuers had made Paine a greater power in France than he\nmight otherwise have been. The _Moniteur_ (September 23d) told the\nstory, and adds: \"Probably M. Payne will have been indemnified for such\ninjustices by the brilliant reception accorded him on his arrival on\nFrench soil.\"\n\nOther representatives of Calais were Personne, Carnat, Bollet, Magniez,\nVarlet, Guffroy, Eulard, Duquesnoy, Lebas, Daunon. It could hardly\nbe expected that there should be no jealousy of the concentration of\nenthusiasm on the brilliant Anglo-American. However, none of this\nyet appeared, and Paine glided flower-crowned in his beautiful barge,\nsmoothly toward his Niagara rapids. He had, indeed, heard the distant\nroar, in such confused, hardly credited, rumors of September massacres\nas had reached London, but his faith in the National Convention was\ndevout. All the riots were easily explained by the absence of that\ncharm. He had his flask of constitutional oil, other representatives\nno doubt had theirs, and when they gathered on September 21 st, amid\nequinoctial gales, the troubled waters would be still.\n\nPaine reached White's Hotel, Paris, September 19th; on the 20th attends\na gathering of the \"Conventionnels\"; on the 21st moves in their\nprocession to the Tuileries, for verification of credentials by the\nexpiring Assembly, repairing with them for work in the Salle du Manege.\nHe was introduced by the Abbe Gregoire, and received with acclamations.\n\nOn September 21st, then, the Year One opens. It greets mankind with the\ndecree: \"Royalty is from this day abolished in France.\"\n\nSeptember 22d, on a petition from Orleans, Dan-ton proposes removal\nof the entire administrative corps, municipal and judicial, to prevent\ntheir removal by popular violence. Paine (through Goupilleau) suggests\npostponement for more thorough discussion. Having got rid of kings they\nmust be rid of royal hirelings; but if partial reforms are made in the\njudiciary system those institutions cannot possess coherence; for the\npresent persons might be changed without altering laws; finally, justice\ncannot be administered by men ignorant of the laws. Danton welcomes\nPaine's views, and it is decreed that the administrative bodies be\nrenewed by popular election; but the limitations on eligibility, fixed\nby the Constitution of 1791, are abolished--the judge need not be a\nlawyer, nor the municipal officer a proprietor.\n\nOn September 25th appears Paine's letter to his \"Fellow Citizens,\"\nexpressing his \"affectionate gratitude\" for his adoption and his\nelection. \"My felicity is increased by seeing the barrier broken down\nthat divided patriotism by spots of earth, and limited citizenship\nto the soil, like vegetation.\" The letter is fairly \"floreal\" with\noptimistic felicities. \"An over-ruling Providence is regenerating the\nold world by the principles of the new.\" \"It is impossible to conquer\na nation determined to be free.\" \"It is now the cause of all nations\nagainst the cause of all courts.\" \"In entering on this great scene,\ngreater than any nation has been called to act in, let us say to the\nagitated mind, be calm! Let us punish by instruction, rather than by\nrevenge. Let us begin the new era by a greatness of friendship, and hail\nthe approach of union and success.\"\n\nOctober 11th, a committee to frame a constitution is appointed,\nconsisting of Sieyes, Paine, Bris-sot, Potion, Vergniaud, Gensonne,\nBarrere, Danton, Condorcet. Supplementary--Barbaroux, Herault Sechelles,\nLanthenas, Debry, the Abbe Fauchet, Lavicourterie. Paine was placed\nsecond to his old adversary, Sieyes, only because of his\nunfamiliarity with French. At least four of the committee understood\nEnglish--Condorcet, Danton, Barrere, and Brissot. Paine had known\nBrissot in America, their friendship being caused by literary tastes in\ncommon, and the zeal of both for negro emancipation.\n\nOn October 25th was written for _Le Patriote Francais_ (edited by\nBrissot) an address by Paine arguing carefully the fallacies of\nroyalism. He tersely expresses the view now hardly paradoxical, that \"a\ntalented king is worse than a fool.\"\n\n\"We are astonished at reading that the Egyptians set upon the throne a\nstone, which they called king. Well! such a monarch was less absurd and\nless mischievous than those before whom nations prostrate themselves. At\nleast he deceived no one. None supposed that he possessed qualities or a\ncharacter. They did not call him Father of his People; and yet it\nwould have been scarcely more ridiculous than to give such a title to a\nblockhead (_un eturdi_) whom the right of succession crowns at eighteen.\nA dumb idol is better than one animated.\"'\n\nIn this letter Paine adroitly prepares the way for his purpose of saving\nthe life of Louis XVI., for whose blood the thirst is growing. \"It is\nlittle,\" he says, \"to overthrow the idol; it is the pedestal which must\nespecially be beaten down. It is the kingly _office_, rather than the\nofficer, that is destructive (_meurtriere_). This is not seen by every\none.\"\n\nIn those who sympathized with the human spirit of his views Paine\ninspired deep affection. A volume might be filled with the personal\ntributes to him. In Paris he was the centre of a loving circle, from the\nfirst. \"I lodge,\" writes Lord Edward Fitzgerald to his mother (October\n30th), \"with my friend Paine--we breakfast, dine, and sup together. The\nmore I see of his interior, the more I like and respect him. I cannot\nexpress how kind he is to me; there is a simplicity of manner, a\ngoodness of heart, and a strength of mind in him, that I never knew a\nman before possess.\"**\n\n     * \"Father of his People\" was a title of Geo. III. \"Father of\n     his Country\" was applied to Peyton Randolph, first president\n     of Congress. Paine's essay, quoted above, which is not\n     included in the editions of Paine's works, was printed by\n     James Watson in London, 1843, the translation being by W. J.\n     Linton, who, while editing the National, also wrote the same\n     year, and for the same publisher, a small but useful \"Life\n     of Paine.\"\n\n     ** Moore's \"Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald.\"\n\nPaine was chosen by his fellow-deputies of Calais to offer the\nConvention the congratulations of their department on the abolition of\nmonarchy. This letter, written October 27th, was on that day read in\nConvention, in French.\n\n\"Citizen President: In the name of the deputies of the department of\nPas de Calais, I have the honor of presenting to the Convention the\nfelicitations of the General Council of the Commune of Calais on the\nabolition of royalty.\n\n\"Amid the joy inspired by this event, one can not forbear some pain at\nthe folly of our ancestors, who have placed us under the necessity of\ntreating seriously (_solennellement_) the abolition of a phantom.\n\n\"Thomas Paine, Deputy, etc.\"*\n\nThe _Moniteur_, without printing the letter, says that applause followed\nthe word \"_fantome_\" The use of this word was a resumption of Paine's\neffort to save the life of the king, then a prisoner of state, by a\nsuggestion of his insignificance.** But he very soon realizes the power\nof the phantom, which lies not only in the monarchical Trade Union\nof Europe but in the superstition of monarchy in those who presently\nbeheaded poor Louis. Paine was always careful to call him Louis Capet,\nbut the French deputies took the king seriously to the last. The king's\ndivine foot was on their necks in the moment when their axe was on his.\nBut Paine feared a more terrible form which had arisen in place of the\nroyal prisoner of the Temple. On the fourth day of the Convention Marat\narose with the words, \"It seems a great many here are my enemies,\" and\nreceived the shouted answer, \"All! all!\" Paine had seen Marat hypnotize\nthe Convention, and hold it subdued in the hollow of his hand. Here was\nKing Stork ready to succeed King Log.\n\n     * This letter I copied and translated in the Historical\n     Exhibition of the Revolution, in Paris, 1889. This letter of\n     the \"_philosophe anglais_\" as he is described in the\n     catalogue, is in the collection of M. Charavay, and was\n     framed with the Bonneville portrait of Paine.\n\n     ** In his republican manifesto at the time of the king's\n     flight he had deprecated revenge towards the captured\n     monarch.\n\nBut what has the Convention to do with deciding about Louis XVI., or\nabout affairs, foreign or domestic? It is there like the Philadelphia\nConvention of 1787; its business is to frame a Constitution, then\ndissolve, and let the organs it created determine special affairs. So\nthe committee work hard on the Constitution; \"Deputy Paine and France\ngenerally expect,\" finds Carlyle, \"all finished in a few months.\" But,\nalas, the phantom is too strong for the political philosophers. The\ncrowned heads of Europe are sinking their differences for a time and\nconsulting about this imprisoned brother. And at the same time the\nsubjects of those heads are looking eagerly towards the Convention.*\n\n     * \"That which will astonish posterity is that at Stockholm,\n     five months after the death of Gustavus, and while the\n     northern Powers are leaguing themselves against the liberty\n     of France, there has been published a translation of Thomas\n     Paine's \"Rights of Man,\" the translator being one of the\n     King's secretaries! \"--Moniteur Nov. 8, 1792.\n\nThe foreign menaces had thus far caused the ferocities of the\nrevolution, for France knew it was worm-eaten with enemies of\nrepublicanism. But now the Duke of Brunswick had retreated, the French\narms were victorious everywhere; and it is just possible that the\nsuicide of the Republic--the Reign of Terror--might never have been\ncompleted but for that discovery (November 20th) of secret papers walled\nup in the Tuileries. These papers compromised many, revealed foreign\nschemes, and made all Paris shriek \"Treason!\" The smith (Gamain) who\nrevealed the locality of that invisible iron press which he had set\nunder the wainscot, made a good deal of history that day.\n\nA cry for the king's life was raised, for to France he was the head and\nfront of all conspiracy.\n\nHow everybody bent under the breath of those days may be seen in the\nfact that even Gouverneur Morris is found writing to Lord Wycombe\n(November 22d): \"All who wish to partake thereof [freedom] will find\nin us (ye French) a sure and certain ally. We will chase tyranny, and,\nabove all, _aristocracy_, off the theatre of the Universe.\"*\n\n     * \"Diary and Letters.\" The letter was probably written with\n     knowledge of its liability to fall into the hands of the\n     French Committee. It could not deceive Wycombe.\n\nPaine was living in the \"Passage des Petites Peres, No. 7.\" There are\nnow two narrow passages of that name, uniting near the church \"Notre\nDame des Victoires,\" which still bears the words, \"Liberty Egalite,\nFraternity.\" No. 7 has disappeared as a number, but it may have\ndescribed a part of either No. 8 or No. 9,--both ancient. Here he was\nclose to a chapel of the Capucines, unless, indeed, it had already been\nreplaced by this church, whose interior walls are covered with tablets\nset up by individuals in acknowledgment of the Virgin's miraculous\nbenefits to them. Here he might study superstition, and no doubt did;\nbut on November 20th he has to deal with the madness of a populace which\nhas broken the outer chains of superstition with a superstition of their\nown, one without restraints to replace the chains. Beneath his window\nthe Place des Victoires will be crowded with revolutionists, frantic\nunder rumors of the discovered iron press and its treasonable papers. He\ncould hardly look out without seeing some poor human scape-goat\nseeking the altar's safety. Our Lady will look on him from her church\nthe sad-eyed inquiry: \"Is this, then, the new religion of Liberty, with\nwhich you supplant the Mother and Babe?\"\n\nPaine has carried to success his anti-monarchical faith. He was the\nfirst to assail monarchy in America and in France. A little more than a\nyear before, he had founded the first Republican Society in Europe, and\nwritten its Declaration on the door of the National Assembly. Sieyes\nhad denounced him then as a \"polyarchist.\" Now he sat with Sieyes\ndaily, framing a republican Constitution, having just felicitated the\nConvention on the abolition of the phantom--Royalty. And now, on this\nterrible night of November 20th, this unmaker of kings finds himself the\nsolitary deputy ready to risk his life to save the man whose crown he\nhad destroyed. It is not simply because the old Quaker heart in him\nrecoils from bloodshed, but that he would save the Republic from the\nperil of foreign invasion, which would surely follow the execution of\nLouis, and from disgrace in America, whose independence owed much to the\nfallen monarch.\n\nIn his little room, the lonely author, unable to write French, animated\nby sentiments which the best of the French revolutionists could not\nunderstand--Danton reminding him that \"revolutions are not made of\nrose-water\"--must have before the morrow's Convention some word that\nshall control the fury of the moment. Rose-water will not answer now.\nLouis must pass his ordeal; his secret schemes have been revealed; the\ntreachery of his submissions to the people exposed. He is guilty, and\nthe alternatives are a calm trial, or death by the hands of the mob.\nWhat is now most needed is delay, and, that secured, diversion of\nnational rage from the individual Louis to the universal anti-republican\nSatan inspiring the crowned heads of Europe. Before the morning dawns,\nPaine has written his letter to the president It is translated before\nthe Convention meets, November 21st, and is read to that body the same\nday.* Louis XVI., he says, should be tried. The advice is not suggested\nby vengeance, but by justice and policy. If innocent, he may be allowed\nto prove it; if guilty, he must be punished or pardoned by the nation.\nHe would, however, consider Louis, individually, beneath the notice of\nthe republic. The importance of his trial is that there is a conspiracy\nof \"crowned brigands\" against the liberties not only of France, but of\nall nations, and there is ground for suspecting that Louis XVI. was a\npartner in it. He should be utilized to ferret out the whole gang, and\nreveal to the various peoples what their monarchs, some of whom work in\nsecret for fear of their subjects, are doing. Louis XVI. should not be\ndealt with except in the interest of all Europe.\n\n\"If, seeing in Louis XVI. only a weak and narrow-minded man, badly\nreared, as all like him, subject, it is said, to intemperance,\nimprudently re-established by the Constituent Assembly on a throne for\nwhich he was unfit,--if we hereafter show him some compassion, this\ncompassion should be the effect of national magnanimity, and not a\nresult of the burlesque notion of pretended inviolability.'\"\n\n     * \"L' Histoire Parlementaire,\" xx., p. 367.\n\n     ** This essay has suffered in the translation found in\n     English and American editions of Paine. The words \"national\n     magnanimity\" are omitted. The phrase \"brigands couronnes\"\n     becomes \"crowned robbers\" in England, and \"crowned ruffians\"\n     in America. Both versions are commonplace, and convey an\n     impression of haste and mere abuse. But Paine was a slow\n     writer, and weighed his words even when \"quarelling in\n     print. When this letter was written to the Convention its\n     members were reading his Essay on Royalty, which filled\n     seven columns of Brissot's Patriot Francois three weeks\n     before. In that he had traced royalty to the bandit-chief.\n     Several troops of banditti assemble for the purpose of\n     upsetting some country, of laying contributions over it, of\n     seizing the landed property, of reducing the people to\n     thraldom. The expedition being accomplished, the chief of\n     the gang assumes the title of king or monarch. Such has been\n     the origin of royalty among all nations who live by the\n     chase, agriculture, or the tending of flocks. A second\n     chieftain arriving obtains by force what has been acquired\n     by violence. He despoils his predecessor, loads him with\n     fetters, puts him to death, and assumes his title. In the\n     course of ages the memory of the outrage is lost; his\n     successors establish new forms of government; through\n     policy, they become the instruments of a little good; they\n     invent, or cause to be invented, false genealogical tables;\n     they employ every means to render their race sacred; the\n     knavery of priests steps in to their assistance; for their\n     body-guard they take religion itself; then it is that\n     Royalty, or rather Tyranny, becomes immortal. A power\n     unjustly usurped is transformed into a hereditary right.\"\n\nLamartine, in his history of the Girondists, reproaches Paine for these\nwords concerning a king-who had shown him friendship during the American\nwar. But the facts were not well explored in Lamartine's time. Louis\nBlanc recognizes Paine's intent.*\n\n     * \"Hist, de la Revolution,\" etc., vol. vii., p. 396.\n\n\"He had learned in England that killing a monarch does not kill\nmonarchs.\" This grand revolutionary proposal to raise the inevitable\ntrial from the low plane of popular wrath against a prisoner to the\ndignity of a process against European monarchy, would have secured delay\nand calmer counsels. If the reader, considering the newly discovered\npapers, and the whole situation, will examine critically Paine's words\njust quoted, he will find them meriting a judgment the reverse of\nLamartine's. With consummate art, the hourly imperilled king is shielded\nfrom vindictive wrath by the considerations that he is _non compos_,\nnot responsible for his bringing up, was put back on the throne by the\nAssembly, after he had left it, acknowledging his unfitness, and that\ncompassion for him would be becoming to the magnanimity of France.\nA plea for the King's immunity from trial, for his innocence or his\nvirtues, would at that juncture have been fatal. As it was, this\ningenious document made an impression on the Convention, which ordered\nit to be printed. *\n\n     * \"Convention Nationale. Opinion de Thomas Payne, Depute\"\n     du Departement de la Somme, concern ant le jugement de Louis\n     XVI. Precede\" de sa lettre d'envoi au President de la\n     Convention. Imprime\" par ordre de la Convention Nationale. A\n     Paris. De rimprimerie Nationale.\" It is very remarkable\n     that, in a State paper, Paine should be described as deputy\n     for the Somme. His votes in the Convention are all entered\n     under Calais. Dr. John Moore, who saw much of Paine at this\n     time, says, in his work on the French Revolution, that his\n     (Paine's) writings for the Convention were usually\n     translated into French by the Marchioness of Condorcet.\n\nThe delay which Paine's proposal would involve was, as Louis Blanc\nremarks, fatal to it. It remains now only to work among the members of\nthe Convention, and secure if possible a majority that will be content,\nhaving killed the king, to save the man; and, in saving him, to preserve\nhim as an imprisoned hostage for the good behavior of Europe. This is\nnow Paine's idea, and never did man toil more faithfully for another\nthan he did for that discrowned Louis Capet.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV. OUTLAWED IN ENGLAND\n\nWhile Paine was thus, towards the close of 1792, doing the work of a\nhumane Englishman in France, his works were causing a revolution in\nEngland--a revolution the more effectual because bloodless.\n\nIn Paine's letter to Secretary Dundas (Calais, September 15th),\ndescribing the examination of his papers at Dover, a \"postscript\" states\nthat among the papers handled was \"a printed proof copy of my Letter\nto the Addressers, which will soon be published.\" This must have been\na thumbscrew for the Secretary when he presently read the pamphlet that\nescaped his officers. In humor, freedom, and force this production may\nbe compared with Carlyle's \"Latter Day Pamphlets.\" Lord Stormont\nand Lord Grenville having made speeches about him, their services are\nreturned by a speech which the author has prepared for them to deliver\nin Parliament. This satirical eulogy on the British constitution set the\nfashion for other radical encomiums of the wisdom of the king and of the\npeers, the incorruptibility of the commons, beauty of rotten boroughs,\nand freedom of the people from taxes, with which prosecuting attorneys\nwere unable to deal. Having felicitated himself on the circulation of\nhis opinions by the indictment, and the advertisements of his books\nby loyal \"Addresses,\" Paine taunts the government for its method of\nanswering argument. It had been challenging the world for a hundred\nyears to admire the perfection of its institutions. At length the\nchallenge is taken up, and, lo, its acceptance is turned into a crime,\nand the only defence of its perfection is a prosecution! Paine points\nout that there was no sign of prosecution until his book was placed\nwithin reach of the poor. When cheap editions were clamored for by\nSheffield, Leicester, Chester, Warwickshire, and Scotland, he had\nannounced that any one might freely publish it. About the middle of\nApril he had himself put a cheap edition in the press. He knew he would\nbe prosecuted for that, and so wrote to Thomas Walker.*\n\n     * At the trial the Attorney-General admitted that he had not\n     prosecuted Part I. because it was likely to be confined to\n     judicious readers; but this still more reprehensible Part\n     II. was, he said, with an industry incredible, ushered into\n     the world in all shapes and sizes, thrust into the hands of\n     subjects of every description, even children's sweetmeats\n     being wrapped in it.\n\nIt was the common people the government feared. He remarks that on\nthe same day (May 21st) the prosecution was instituted and the royal\nproclamation issued--the latter being indictable as an effort to\ninfluence the verdict in a pending case. He calls attention to the\n\"special jury,\" before which he was summoned. It is virtually selected\nby the Master of the Crown Office, a dependant on the Civil List\nassailed in his book. The special jury is treated to a dinner, and\ngiven two guineas for a conviction, and but one guinea and no dinner for\nacquittal. Even a fairly selected local jury could not justly determine\na constitutional issue affecting every part of the empire. So Paine\nbrings under scrutiny every part of the legal machinery sprung on him,\nadding new illustrations of his charges against the whole system. He\nbegins the siege, which Bradlaugh was to carry forward in a later time,\nagainst the corrupt Pension List, introducing it with his promised\nexposure of Edmund Burke. Near the end of Lord North's administration\nBurke brought in a bill by which it was provided that a pension or\nannuity might be given without name, if under oath that it was not for\nthe benefit of a member of the House of Commons. Burke's pension had\nbeen taken out under the name of another man; but being under the\nnecessity of mortgaging it, the real pensioner had to be disclosed to\nthe mortgagee.* For the rest, this \"Address to the Addressers,\" as it\nwas popularly called,--or \"Part Third of the Rights of Man,\" as one\npublisher entitled it,--sowed broadcast through England passages that\nwere recited in assemblies, and sentences that became proverbs.\n\n     * This disclosure, though not disproved, is passed over\n     silently by most historians. Nevertheless it was probably\n     that which ended Burke's parliamentary career. Two years\n     later, at the age of sixty-two, he retired with an\n     accumulation of pensions given at the king's request,\n     amounting to L3,700 per annum. His reputation had been built\n     up on his supposed energy in favor of economy. The secret\n     and illegal pension (L1,500) cast light on his sudden\n     coalition with Lord North, whom he once proposed to impeach\n     as a traitor. The title of \"masked pensioner\" given by Paine\n     branded Burke. Writing in 1819 Cobbett says: \"As my Lord\n     Grenville introduced the name of Burke, suffer me, my Lord,\n     to introduce that of the man [Paine] who put this Burke to\n     shame, who drove him off the public stage to seek shelter in\n     the pension list, and who is now named fifty million times\n     where the name of the pensioned Burke is mentioned once.\"\n\n\"It is a dangerous attempt in any government to say to a Nation, _Thou\nshalt not read_.\"\n\n\"Thought, by some means or other, is got abroad in the world, and cannot\nbe restrained, though reading may.\"\n\n\"Whatever the rights of the people are, they have a right to them, and\nnone have a right either to withhold or to grant them.\"\n\n\"The project of hereditary Governors and Legislatures was a treasonable\nusurpation over the rights of posterity.\"\n\n\"Put a country right, and it will soon put government right.\"\n\n\"When the rich plunder the poor of his rights, it becomes an example to\nthe poor to plunder the rich of his property.\"\n\n\"Who are those that are frightened at reform? Are the public afraid\ntheir taxes should be lessened too much? Are they afraid that sinecure\nplaces and pensions should be abolished too fast? Are the poor afraid\nthat their condition should be rendered too comfortable?\"\n\n\"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be.\"\n\n\"If to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy, and every species\nof hereditary government--to lessen the oppression of taxes--to propose\nplans for the education of helpless infancy, and the comfortable support\nof the aged and distressed--to endeavour to conciliate nations with each\nother--to extirpate the horrid practice of war--to promote universal\npeace, civilization, and commerce--and to break the chains of political\nsuperstition, and raise degraded man to his proper rank--if these things\nbe libellous, let me live the life of a Libeller, and let the name of\nLibeller be engraven on my tomb.\"\n\nTwo eminent personages were burnt in effigy in Europe about this time,\none in France, the other in England: Paine and the Pope.\n\nUnder date of December 19th, the American minister (Morris) enters in\nhis diary: \"Several Americans dine with me. Paine looks a little down at\nthe news from England; he has been burned in effigy.\"\n\nThis was the reply of the Addressers, the noblemen and gentry, to\nPaine's \"Letter.\" It is said that on the Fifth of November it was hinted\nto the boys that their Guy Fawkes would extort more pennies if labelled\n\"Tom Paine,\" and that thenceforth the new Guy paraded with a pair of\nstays under his arm. The holocaust of Paines went on through December,\nbeing timed for the author's trial, set for the eighteenth. One gets\nglimpses in various local records and memoirs of the agitation in\nEngland. Thus in Mrs. Henry Sandford's account of Thomas Poole,* we read\nin Charlotte Poole's journal:\n\n\"December 18, 1792.--John dined with Tom Poole, and from him heard that\nthere was a great bustle at Bridgwater yesterday--that Tom Paine was\nburnt in Effigy, and that he saw Richard Symes sitting on the Cornhill\nwith a table before him, receiving the oaths of loyalty to the king, and\naffection to the present constitution, from the populace. I fancy this\ncould not have been a very pleasant sight to Tom Poole, for he has\nimbibed some of the wild notions of liberty and equality that at present\nprevail so much; and it is but within these two or three days that a\nreport has been circulated that he has distributed seditious pamphlets\nto the common people of Stowey. But this report is entirely without\nfoundation. Everybody at this time talks politicks, and is looking with\nanxiety for fresh intelligence from France, which is a scene of guilt\nand confusion.\"\n\n     * \"Thomas Poole and his Friends.\" By Mrs. Henry Sandford.\n     New York: Macmillan, 1888.\n\nIn Richardson's \"Borderer's Table Book\" is recorded: \"1792 (Dec.)--This\nmonth, Thomas Paine, author of the 'Rights of Man,' &c. &c., was burnt\nat most of the towns and considerable villages in Northumberland and\nDurham.\" No doubt, among the Durham towns, Wearmouth saw at the stake an\neffigy of the man whose iron bridge, taken down at Paddington, and sold\nfor other benefit than Paine's, was used in spanning the Wear with\nthe arch of his invention; all amid shouts of \"God save the King,\" and\nplaudits for the various public-spirited gentlemen and architects, who\npatriotically appropriated the merits and patent of the inventor. The\n_Bury Post_ (published near Paine's birthplace) says, December 12th:\n\n\"The populace in different places have been lately amusing themselves\nby burning effigies. As the culprit on whom they meant to execute this\npunishment was Thomas Paine, they were not interrupted by any power\ncivil or military. The ceremony has been at Croydon in Surrey, at\nWarrington, at Lymington, and at Plymouth.\"\n\nJanuary 9, 1793:\n\n\"On Saturday last the effigy of Thomas Paine was carried round the town\nof Swaffham, and afterwards hung on a gibbet, erected on the market-hill\nfor that purpose. In the evening his remains were committed to the\nflames amidst acclamations of God save the King, etc.\"\n\nThe trial of Paine for high treason was by a Special Jury in the Court\nof King's Bench, Guildhall, on Tuesday, December 18, 1792, before Lord\nKenyon.*\n\n     * Special Jury: John Campbell, John Lightfoot, Christopher\n     Taddy, Robert Oliphant, Cornelias Donovan, Robert Rolleston,\n     John Lubbock, Richard Tuckwell, William Porter, Thomas\n     Bruce, Isaac Railton, Henry Evans. Counsel for the Crown:\n     Sir Archibald Macdonald (Attorney-General), Solicitor-\n     General, Mr. Bearcroft, Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Wood, Mr. Per-\n     cival. Counsel for the Defendant: The Hon. Thomas Erskine,\n     Mr. Piggot, Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. F. Vaughan.\n     Solicitors: For the Crown, Messrs. Chamberlayne and White;\n     for Defendant, Mr. Bonney.\n\nThe \"Painites\" had probably little hope of acquittal. In Rickman's\njournal (manuscript) he says: \"C. Lofft told me he knew a gentleman who\ntried for five or six years to be on the special juries, but could not,\nbeing known to be a liberty man. He says special juries are packed\nto all intents and purposes.\" The reason for gathering such powerful\ncounsel for defence must have been to obtain from the trial some\ndefinitive adjudication on the legal liabilities of writers and\nprinters, and at the same time to secure, through the authority\nof Erskine, an affirmation of their constitutional rights. Lord\nLoughborough and others vainly tried to dissuade Erskine from defending\nPaine. For himself, Paine had given up the case some time before, and\nhad written from Paris, November 11th, to the Attorney-General, stating\nthat, having been called to the Convention in France, he could not stay\nto contest the prosecution, as he wished.\n\n\"My necessary absence from your country affords the opportunity of\nknowing whether the prosecution was intended against Thomas Paine, or\nagainst the Rights of the People of England to investigate systems\nand principles of government; for as I cannot now be the object of the\nprosecution, the going on with the prosecution will show that something\nelse was the object, and that something else can be no other than\nthe People of England.... But I have other reasons than those I\nhave mentioned for writing you this letter; and however you chuse\nto interpret them they proceed from a good heart. The time, Sir, is\nbecoming too serious to play with Court prosecutions, and sport with\nnational rights. The terrible examples that have taken place here\nupon men who, less than a year ago, thought themselves as secure as\nany prosecuting Judge, Jury, or Attorney-General can do now in England,\nought to have some weight with men in your situation.\nThat the Government of England is as great, if not the greatest\nperfection of fraud and corruption that ever took place since\ngovernments began, is what you cannot be a stranger to; unless the\nconstant habit of seeing it has blinded your sense. But though you\nmay not chuse to see it, the people are seeing it very fast, and the\nprogress is beyond what you may chuse to believe. Is it possible that\nyou or I can believe, or that reason can make any other man believe,\nthat the capacity of such a man as Mr. Guelph, or any of his profligate\nsons, is necessary to the government of a nation? I speak to you as one\nman ought to speak to another; and I know also that I speak what other\npeople are beginning to think. That you cannot obtain a verdict (and if\nyou do it will signify nothing) without _packing a Jury_, and we _both_\nknow that such tricks are practised, is what I have very good reason to\nbelieve.... Do not then, Sir, be the instrument of drawing away twelve\nmen into a situation that may be injurious to them afterwards. I do not\nspeak this from policy, but from benevolence; but if you chuse to go on\nwith the process, I make it my request that you would read this letter\nin Court, after which the Judge and the Jury may do what they please. As\nI do not consider myself the object of the prosecution, neither can I be\naffected by the issue one way or the other, I shall, though a foreigner\nin your country, subscribe as much money as any other man towards\nsupporting the right of the nation against the prosecution; and it is\nfor this purpose only that I shall do it. As I have not time to copy\nletters, you will excuse the corrections.\"\n\nA month after this awful letter was written, Paine no doubt knew its\nimprudence. It was sprung on the Court by the Attorney-General, and\nmust alone have settled the verdict, had it not been foregone. Erskine,\nPaine's leading counsel, was Attorney-General for the Prince of\nWales--foremost of \"Mr. Guelph's profligate sons,\"--and he was compelled\nto treat as a forgery the letter all felt to be genuine. He endeavored\nto prevent the reading of it, but Lord Kenyon decided that \"in\nprosecutions for high treason, where overt acts are laid, you may prove\novert acts not laid to prove those that are laid. If it [the letter]\ngoes to prove him the author of the book, I am bound to admit it.\"\nAuthorship of the book being admitted, this was only a pretext. The\nAttorney-General winced a good deal at the allusion to the profligate\nsons, and asked:\n\n\"Is he [Paine] to teach human creatures, whose moments of existence\ndepend upon the permission of a Being, merciful, long-suffering, and\nof great goodness, that those whose youthful errors, from which even\nroyalty is not exempted, are to be treasured up in a vindictive memory,\nand are to receive sentence of irremissible sin at His hands?\"\n\nIt may be incidentally remarked here that the Attorney-General could\nhardly have failed to retort with charges against the author, had not\nPaine's reputation remained proof against the libellous \"biography\" by\nthe government clerk, Chalmers.\n\nThe main part of the prosecution was thus uttered by Paine himself.\nWhile reading the letter the prosecutor paused to say: \"If I succeed in\nthis prosecution he shall never return to this country otherwise than\n_in vinculis_, for I will outlaw him.\"*\n\n     * 22 Howell's State Trials 357. Other reports are by Joseph\n     Gurney and \"by an eminent advocate.\" The brief evidence\n     consisted mainly of the notes and statements of Paine's\n     publishers already mentioned in connection with the\n     publication of the indicted work. The Attorney-General cited\n     effectively the reply to Paine which he attributed to Vice-\n     President Adams. Publicola's pamphlet gave great comfort to\n     Paine's prosecutors. Mr. Long writes to Mr. Miles, agent in\n     Paris (December 1st), about this \"book by the American\n     Adams, which is admirable, proving that the American\n     government is not founded upon the absurd doctrine of the\n     pretended rights of man, and that if it had been it could\n     not have stood for a week.\"\n\nErskine's powerful defence of the constitutional rights of thought\nand speech in England is historical. He built around Paine an enduring\nconstitutional fortress, compelling Burke and Fox to lend aid from their\nearlier speeches. The fable with which he closed was long remembered.\n\n\"Constraint is the natural parent of resistance, and a pregnant proof\nthat reason is not on the side of those who use it. You must all\nremember, gentlemen, Lucian's pleasant story: Jupiter and a countryman\nwere walking together, conversing with great freedom and familiarity\nupon the subject of heaven and earth. The countryman listened with\nattention and acquiescence, while Jupiter strove only to convince\nhim; but happening to hint a doubt, Jupiter turned hastily around and\nthreatened him with his thunder. 'Ah, ha!' says the countryman, 'now,\nJupiter, I know that you are wrong; you are always wrong when you appeal\nto your thunder.'\n\n\"This is the case with me. I can reason with the people of England, but\nI cannot fight against the thunder of authority.\"\n\nMr. Attorney-General arose immediately to reply to Mr. Erskine, when Mr.\nCampbell (the foreman of the jury) said: \"My Lord, I am authorized\nby the jury here to inform the Attorney-General that a reply is not\nnecessary for them, unless the Attorney-General wishes to make it, or\nyour Lordship.\" Mr. Attorney-General sat down, and the jury gave in\ntheir verdict--Guilty.\n\nPaine was outlawed.\n\nThe eye of England followed its outlaw before and after his trial. In\nthe English state archives is a note of G. Munro to Lord Grenville,\nSeptember 8th, announcing \"Mr. Payne's election for the Departement\nde l'Oise.\" Earl Gower announces, on information of Mr. Mason, that \"Tom\nPayne is on his road to take his seat.\" On September 22d a despatch\nmentions Paine's speech on the judiciary question. \"December 17, 1792.\nTom Payne is in the country unwell, or pretending to be so. The most\nremarkable of the secret despatches, however, are two sent from Paris\non the last day of the year 1792. One of these alludes to the effect of\nPaine's trial and outlawry on the English radicals in Paris:\n\n\"Tom Payne's fate and the unanimity of the English has staggered the\nboldest of them, and they are now dwindling into nothing. Another\naddress was, however, proposed for the National Convention; this motion,\nI understand, was made by Tom Payne and seconded by Mr. Mery; it was\nopposed by Mr. Frost, seconded by Mr. McDonald.\"\n\nThe second allusion to Paine on December 31st deserves to be pondered by\nhistorians:\n\n\"Tom Payne has proposed banishing the royal family of France, and I have\nheard is writing his opinion on the subject; his consequence seems daily\nlessening in this country, and I should never be surprised if he some\nday receives the fate he merits.\"\n\nIt thus seems that whatever good deed Paine was about, he deserves\ndeath. Earl Gower, and the agents he left on his departure (September)\nin Paris, must have known that Paine's proposal was the only alternative\nof the king's execution, and that if his consequence was lessening it\nwas solely because of labors to save the lives of the royal family. This\nhumane man has the death-sentence of Robespierre on him anticipated by\nthe ambassador of a country which, while affecting grief for Louis XVI.,\nwas helping on his fate.* Danton said to Count Theodore de Lameth:\n\n\"I am willing to try and save the King, but I must have a million of\nmoney to buy up the necessary votes, and the money must be on hand in\neight days. I warn you that although I may save his life I shall vote\nfor his death; I am quite willing to save his head, but not to lose\nmine.\"\n\n\n\n\n{1793}\n\nThe Count and the Spanish Ambassador broached the matter to Pitt, who\nrefused the money.** He was not willing to spend a few thousands to save\nthe life of America's friend, though he made his death a pretext for\nexhausting his treasury to deluge Europe with blood.\n\nGouverneur Morris, whose dislike of Paine's republicanism was equally\ncynical,*** was intimate with Earl Gower, and no doubt gave him his\ninformation.\n\n     * After September it was, as Talleyrand says, \"no longer a\n     question that the king should reign, but that he himself,\n     the queen, their children, his sister, should be saved. It\n     might have been done. It was at least a duty to attempt it.\n     At that time France was only at war with the Emperor\n     [Austria], the Empire [the German states], and Sardinia, Had\n     all the other states concerted themselves to offer their\n     mediation by proposing to recognise whatever form of\n     government France might be pleased to adopt, with the sole\n     condition that the prisoners in the Temple should be allowed\n     to leave the country and retire wherever they liked, though\n     such a proposal, as may be supposed, would not have filled\n     the demagogues with delight, they would have been powerless\n     to resist it.\"--Memoirs of the Prince de Talleyrand.    New\n     York, 1891, i., p. 168.\n\n     **  Taine's \"French Revolution\" (American ed.), iii., p.\n     135. See also the \"Correspondence of W. A. Miles on the\n     French Revolution,\" London, 1890, i., p. 398. The Abbe Noel,\n     a month before the king's death, pointed out to this British\n     agent how he might be saved.\n\n     ***  In relating to John Randolph of Roanoke Paine's\n     exposure of Silas Deane, Morris regards it as the prevention\n     of a fraud, but nevertheless thinks Paine deserved\n     punishment for his \"impudence\"!\n\n\n\nMorris was clear-headed enough to perceive that the massacres in France\nwere mainly due to the menaces of foreign monarchs, and was in hearty\nsympathy with Paine's plan for saving the life of Louis XVI. On December\n28th he writes to Washington that a majority of the Convention\n\n\"...have it in contemplation not only to refer the judgment to the\nelectors of France, that is, to her people, but also to send him and his\nfamily to America, which Paine is to move for. He mentioned this to me\nin confidence, but I have since heard it from another quarter.\"\n\nOn January 6, 1793, Morris writes to Washington concerning Genet, the\nnew Minister to the United States, who had been introduced to him by\nPaine, and dined with him. At the close he says:\n\n\"The King's fate is to be decided next Monday the 14th. That unhappy\nman, conversing with one of his council on his own fate, calmly summed\nup the motives of every kind, and concluded that a majority of the\nCouncil [Convention] would vote for referring his case to the people,\nand that in consequence he should be massacred. I think he must die or\nreign.\"\n\nPaine also feared that a reference to the populace meant death. He had\ncounted a majority in the Convention who were opposed to the execution.\nSubmission of the question to the masses would thus, if his majority\nstood firm, be risking the life of Louis again. Unfortunately this\nquestion had to be determined before the vote on life or death. At\nthe opening of the year 1793 he felt cheerful about the situation. On\nJanuary 3d he wrote to John King, a retreating comrade in England, as\nfollows:\n\n\"Dear King,--I don't know anything, these many years, that surprised and\nhurt me more than the sentiments you published in the Courtly Herald,\nthe 12th December, signed John King, Egham Lodge. You have gone back\nfrom all you ever said. When I first knew you in Ailiffe-street, an\nobscure part of the city, a child, without fortune or friends, I noticed\nyou; because I thought I saw in you, young as you was, a bluntness\nof temper, a boldness of opinion, and an originality of thought, that\nportended some future good. I was pleased to discuss with you, under our\nfriend Oliver's lime-tree, those political notions which I have since\ngiven the world in my 'Rights of Man.'\n\n\"You used to complain of abuses as well as me. What, then, means this\nsudden attachment to Kings? this fondness of the English Government,\nand hatred of the French? If you mean to curry favour, by aiding your\nGovernment, you are mistaken; they never recompence those who serve it;\nthey buy off those who can annoy it, and let the good that is rendered\nit be its own reward. Believe me, King, more is to be obtained by\ncherishing the rising spirit of the People, than by subduing it.\nFollow my fortunes, and I will be answerable that you shall make your\nown.--Thomas Paine.\"*\n\n     * \"Mr. King's Speech, at Egham, with Thomas Paine's Letter,\"\n     etc Egham, 1793. In his reply, January 11th, King says:\n     \"Such men as Frost, Barlow, and others, your associates,\n     show the forlornness of your cause. Our respectable citizens\n     do not go to you,\" etc. Writing February 11th, King\n     expresses satisfaction at Paine's vote on the King's fate:\n     \"the imputation of cruelty will not now be added to the\n     other censures on your character; but the catastrophe of\n     this unhappy Monarch has shewn you the danger of putting a\n     nation in ferment.\"\n\nThis last sentence may even now raise a smile. King must subsequently\nhave reflected with satisfaction that he did not \"follow the fortunes\"\nof Paine, which led him into prison at the end of the year. A third\nletter from him to Paine appeared in the _Morning Herald_, April 17,\n1793, in which he says:\n\n\"'If the French kill their king, it will be a signal for my departure,\nfor I will not abide among such sanguinary men.' These, Mr. Paine, were\nyour words at our last meeting; yet after this you are not only with\nthem, but the chief modeller of their new Constitution.\"\n\nMr. King might have reflected that the author of the \"Rights of Man,\"\nwhich he had admired, was personally safer in regicide France than in\nliberticide England, which had outlawed him.\n\nEND OF VOL. I.","title":"The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. 1. (of 2): With A History of His Literary, Political and Religious Career in America France, and England; to which is added a Sketch of Paine by William Cobbett","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":123113}