YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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/ETAT. 67
FROM A PICTURE BY JARVIS, IN POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.

THE

LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE

WITH A HISTORY OF HIS LITERARY, POLITICAL
AND RELIGIOUS CAREER IN AMERICA
FRANCE, AND ENGLAND

MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY
author of " omlttkd chapters op history disclosed in the life and papers of
edmund randolph," u george washington and mount vernon,"
" Washington's ' rules of civility,' " etc.

TO WHICH IS ADDED A SKETCH OF PAINE
BY WILLIAM COBBETT
(hitherto unpublished)

VOLUME I.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK LONDON
27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND
$bc 'Jmiehcrboclut ^icss

Copyright, 1892
BY
MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY

co.^

Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by
TXbe Tftnicfccibocljcr press, IHcw ILlorli
G. P. Putnam's Sons ^ ^

INSCRIBED TO
GEORGE HOADLY

PREFACE.

At Hornsey, England, I saw a small round ma
hogany table, bearing at its centre the following
words : " This Plate is inscribed by Thos. Clio
Rickman in Remembrance of his dear friend
Thomas Paine, who on this table in the year 1 792
wrote several of his invaluable Works."
The works written by Paine in Rickman's house
were the second part of "The Rights of Man," and
" A Letter to the Addressers." Of these two books
vast numbers were circulated, and though the gov
ernment prosecuted them, they probably contributed
largely to make political progress in England evolu
tionary instead of revolutionary. On this table he
set forth constitutional reforms that might be peace
fully obtained, and which have been substantially
obtained. And here he warned the " Addressers,"
petitioning the throne for suppression of his works :
" It is dangerous in any government to say to a
nation, Thou shalt not read. This is now done in
Spain, and was formerly done under the old gov
ernment of France ; but it served to procure the
downfall of the latter, and is subverting that of the
former ; and it will have the same tendency in all
countries ; because Thought, by some means or

VI PREFACE.
other, is got abroad in the world, and cannot be re
strained, though reading may."
At this table the Quaker chieftain, whom Danton
rallied for hoping to make revolutions with rose-
water, unsheathed his pen and animated his Round
Table of Reformers for a conflict free from the
bloodshed he had witnessed in America, and saw
threatening France. This little table was the field
chosen for the battle of free speech ; its abundant
ink-spots were the shed blood of hearts transfused
with humanity. I do not wonder that Rickman
was wont to show the table to his visitors, or that
its present owner, Edward Truelove — a bookseller
who has suffered imprisonment for selling pro
scribed books, — should regard it with reverence.
The table is what was once called a candle-stand,
and there stood on it, in my vision, Paine's clear,
honest candle, lit from his " inner light," now cov
ered by a bushel of prejudice. I myself had once
supposed his light an infernal torch ; now I sat at
the ink-spotted candle-stand to write the first page
of this history, for which I can invoke nothing
higher than the justice that inspired what Thomas
Paine here wrote.
The educated ignorance concerning Paine is
astounding. I once heard an English prelate speak
of " the vulgar atheism of Paine." Paine founded
the first theistic society in Christendom ; his will
closes with the words, " I die in perfect composure,
and resignation to the will of my Creator, God."
But what can be expected of an English prelate
when an historian like Jared Sparks, an old Uni
tarian minister, could suggest that a letter written

PREFACE. vii
by Franklin, to persuade some one not to publish a
certain attack on religion, was "probably" addressed
to Paine. (Franklin's "Writings," vol. x., p. 281.)
Paine never wrote a page that Franklin could have
so regarded, nor anything in the way of religious
controversy until three years after Franklin's death.
" The remarks in the above letter," says Sparks,
" are strictly applicable to the deistical writings
which Paine afterwards published." On the con
trary, they are strictly inapplicable. They imply
that the writer had denied a " particular provi
dence," which Paine never denied, and it is asked,
" If men are so wicked with religion, what would
they be without it ? " Paine's " deism " differed
from Franklin's only in being more fervently re
ligious. No one who had really read Paine could
imagine the above question addressed to the author
to whom the Bishop of Llandaff wrote : " There is
a philosophical sublimity in some of your ideas
when speaking of the Creator of the Universe."
The reader may observe at work, in this example,
the tiny builder, prejudice, which has produced the
large formation of Paine mythology. Sparks, hav
ing got his notion of Paine's religion at second
hand, becomes unwittingly a weighty authority for
those who have a case to make out. The American
Tract Society published a tract entitled " Don't
Unchain the Tiger," in which it is said : " When
an infidel production was submitted — probably by
Paine — to Benjamin Franklin, in manuscript, he
returned it to the author, with a letter from which
the following is extracted : ' I would advise you
not to attempt unchaining the Tiger, but to burn

Vltt PREFACE.
this piece before it is seen by any other person.' '
Thus our Homer of American history nods, and a
tract floats through the world misrepresenting both
Paine and Franklin, whose rebuke is turned from
some anti-religious essay against his own convic
tions. Having enjoyed the personal friendship of
Mr. Sparks, while at college, and known his charity
to all opinions, I feel certain that he was an uncon
scious victim of the Paine mythology to which he
added. His own creed was, in essence, little differ
ent from Paine's. But how many good, and even
liberal, people will find by the facts disclosed in this
volume that they have been accepting the Paine
mythology and contributing to it ? It is a notable
fact that the most effective distortions of Paine's
character and work have proceeded from unor
thodox writers — some of whom seem not above
throwing a traditionally hated head to the orthodox
mob. A recent instance is the account given of
Paine in Leslie Stephen's "History of English
Thought in the Eighteenth Century." On its ap
pearance I recognized the old effigy of Paine
elaborately constructed by Oldys and Cheetham,
and while writing a paper on the subject {Fort
nightly Review, March, 1879) discovered that those
libels were the only " biographies " of Paine in the
London Library, which (as I knew) was used by
Mr. Stephen. The result was a serious miscarriage
of historical and literary justice. In his second
edition Mr. Stephen adds that the portrait pre
sented " is drawn by an enemy," but on this Mr.
Robertson pertinently asks why it was allowed to
stand? (" Thomas Paine : an Investigation," by

PREFACE. ix
John M. Robertson, London, 1888). Mr. Stephen,
eminent as an agnostic and editor of a "biographical
dictionary, is assumed to be competent, and his dis
paragements of a fellow heretic necessitated by
verified facts. His scholarly style has given new
lease to vulgar slanders. Some who had discovered
their untruth, as uttered by Paine's personal ene
mies, have taken them back on Mr. Stephen's
authority. Even brave O. B. Frothingham, in his
high estimate of Paine, introduces one or two
of Mr. Stephen's depreciations (Frothingham's
" Recollection and Impressions," 1891).
There has been a sad absence of magnanimity
among eminent historians and scholars in deal
ing with Paine. The vignette in Oldys — Paine
with his " Rights of Man " preaching to apes ; — the
Tract Society's picture of Paine's death-bed — hair
on end, grasping a bottle, — might have excited
their inquiry. Goethe, seeing Spinoza's face de-
monized on a tract, was moved to studies of that
philosopher which ended in recognition of his great
ness. The chivalry of Goethe is indeed almost as
rare as his genius, but one might have expected in
students of history an historic instinct keen enough
to suspect in the real Paine some proportion to his
monumental mythology, and the pyramidal cairn of
curses covering his grave. What other last-century
writer on political and religious issues survives in
the hatred and devotion of a time engaged with
new problems ? What power is confessed in that
writer who was set in the place of a decadent Satan,
hostility to him being a sort of sixth point of Cal
vinism, and fortieth article of the Church ? Large

X PREFACE.

indeed must have been the influence of a man still
perennially denounced by sectarians after heretical
progress has left him comparatively orthodox, and
retained as the figure-head of " Freethought " after
his theism has been abandoned by its leaders.
" Religion," said Paine, " has two principal enemies,
Fanaticism and Infidelity." It was his strange des
tiny to be made a battle-field between these enemies.
In the smoke of the conflict the man has been
hidden. In the catalogue of the British Museum
Library I counted 327 entries of books by or con
cerning Thomas Paine, who in most of them is a
man-shaped or devil-shaped shuttlecock tossed be
tween fanatical and " infidel " rackets.
Here surely were phenomena enough to attract
the historic sense of a scientific age, yet they are
counterpart of an historic suppression of the most
famous author of his time. The meagre references
to Paine by other than controversial writers are
perfunctory ; by most historians he is either wronged
or ignored. Before me are two histories of " Ameri
can Slavery " by eminent members of Congress ;
neither mentions that Paine was the first political
writer who advocated and devised a scheme of
emancipation. Here is the latest " Life of Wash
ington " (1889), by another member of Congress,
who manages to exclude even the name of the man
who, as we shall see, chiefly converted Washington
to the cause of independence. And here is a his
tory of the " American Revolution " (1891), by John
Fiske, who, while recognizing the effect of " Com
mon Sense," reveals his ignorance of that pamphlet,
and of all Paine's works, by describing it as full of

PREFACE. xi
scurrilous abuse of the English people, — whom
Paine regarded as fellow-sufferers with the Ameri
cans under royal despotism.
It may be said for these contemporaries that the
task of sifting out the facts about Paine was for
midable. The intimidated historians of the last
generation, passing by this famous figure, left an
historic vacuum, which has been filled with mingled
fact and fable to an extent hardly manageable by
any not prepared to give some years to the task.
Our historians, might, however, have read Paine's
works, which are rather historical documents than
literary productions. None of them seem to have
done this, and the omission appears in many a flaw
in their works. The reader of some documents in
this volume, left until now to slumber in accessible
archives, will get some idea of the cost to historic
truth of this long timidity and negligence. But
some of the results are more deplorable and
irreparable, and one of these must here be dis
closed. In 1802 an English friend of Paine, Redman
Yorke, visited him in Paris. In a letter written at
the time Yorke states that Paine had for some time
been preparing memoirs of his own life, and his
correspondence, and showed him two volumes of
the same. In a letter of Jan. 25, 1805, to Jeffer
son, Paine speaks of his wish to publish his works,
which will make, with his manuscripts, five octavo
volumes of four hundred pages each. Besides which
he means to publish " a miscellaneous volume of
correspondence, essays, and some pieces of poetry."
He had also, he says, prepared historical prefaces,

Xli PREFACE.
stating the circumstances under which each work
was written. All of which confirms Yorke's state
ment, and shows that Paine had prepared at least
two volumes of autobiographic matter and cor
respondence. Paine never carried out the design
mentioned to Jefferson, and his manuscripts passed
by bequest to Madame Bonneville. This lady, after
Paine's death, published a fragment of Paine's third
part of " The Age of Reason," but it was afterwards
found that she had erased passages that might
offend the orthodox. Madame Bonneville returned
to her husband in Paris, and the French " Biographi
cal Dictionary" states that in 1829 she, as the
depositary of Paine's papers, began " editing " his
life. This, which could only have been the auto
biography, was never published. She had become
a Roman Catholic. On returning (1833) to Amer
ica, where her son, General Bonneville, also a
Catholic, was in military service, she had personal
as well as religious reasons for suppressing the
memoirs. She might naturally have feared the
revival of an old scandal concerning her relations
with Paine. The same motives may have pre
vented her son from publishing Paine's memoirs
and manuscripts. Madame Bonneville died at the
house of the General, in St. Louis. I have a note
from his widow, Mrs. Sue Bonneville, in which
she says : " The papers you speak of regarding
Thomas Paine are all destroyed — at least all which
the General had in his possession. On his leaving
St. Louis for an indefinite time all his effects — a
handsome library and valuable papers included —
were stored away, and during his absence the store-

PREFA CE. Xlll
house burned down, and all that the General stored
away were burned."
There can be little doubt that among these papers
burned in St. Louis were the two volumes of Paine's
autobiography and correspondence seen by Red
man Yorke in 1802. Even a slight acquaintance
with Paine's career would enable one to recognize
this as a catastrophe. No man was more intimately
acquainted with the inside history of the revo
lutionary movement, or so competent to record it.
Franklin had deposited with him his notes and
papers concerning the American Revolution. He
was the only Girondist who survived the French
Revolution who was able to tell their secret history.
His personal acquaintance included nearly every
great or famous man of his time, in England, Amer
ica, France. From this witness must have come
testimonies, facts, anecdotes, not to be derived from
other sources, concerning Franklin, Goldsmith, Fer
guson, Rittenhouse, Rush, Fulton, Washington,
Jefferson, Monroe, the Adamses, Lees, Morrises,
Condorcet, Vergennes, Sieyes, Lafayette, Danton,
Genet, Brissot, Robespierre, Marat, Burke, Erskine,
and a hundred others. All this, and probably in
valuable letters from these men, have been lost
through the timidity of a woman before the theo
logical "boycott" on the memory of a theist, and
the indifference of this country to its most import
ant materials of History.
When I undertook the biography of Edmund
• Randolph I found that the great mass of his corre
spondence had been similarly destroyed by fire in
New Orleans, and probably a like fate will befall

xiv PREFACE.
the Madison papers, Monroe papers, and others,
our national neglect of which will appear criminal
to posterity. After searching through six States to
gather documents concerning Randolph which
should all have been in Washington City, the writer
petitioned the Library Committee of Congress to
initiate some action towards the preservation of our
historical manuscripts. The Committee promptly
and unanimously approved the proposal, a definite
scheme was reported by the Librarian of Congress,
and — there the matter rests. As the plan does not
include any device for advancing partisan interests,
it stands a fair chance of remaining in our national
oubliette of intellectual desiderata.
In writing the " Life of Paine " I have not been
saved much labor by predecessors in the same field.
They have all been rather controversial pamphlet
eers than biographers, and I have been unable to
accept any of their statements without verification.
They have been useful, however, in pointing out
regions of inquiry, and several of them — Rickman,
Sherwin, Linton — contain valuable citations from
contemporary papers. The truest delineation of
Paine is the biographical sketch by his friend Rick- ;
man. The " Life " by Vale, and sketches by Rich
ard Carlile, Blanchard, and others, belong to the
controversial collectanea in which Paine's posthu
mous career is traceable. The hostile accounts of
Paine, chiefly found in tracts and encyclopaedias,
are mere repetitions of those written by George
Chalmers and James Cheetham.
The first of these was published in 1791 under
the title : " The Life of Thomas Pain, Author of

PREFACE. XV

" The Rights of Men,' with a Defence of his Writ
ings. By Francis Oldys, A.M., of the University of
Pennsylvania. London. Printed for John Stock-
dale, Pickadilly." This writer, who begins his vivi
section of Paine by accusing him of adding " e " to
his name, assumed in his own case an imposing
pseudonym. George Chalmers never had any
connection with the University of Philadelphia,
nor any such degree. Sherwin (1819) states that
Chalmers admitted having received ^500 from
Lord Hawksbury, in whose bureau he was a clerk,
for writing the book ; but though I can find no de
nial of this I cannot verify it. In his later editions
the author claims that his book had checked the
influence of Paine, then in England, and his
" Rights of Man," which gave the government
such alarm that subsidies were paid several journals
to counteract their effect. (See the letter of
Freching, cited from the Vansitart Papers, British
Museum, by W. H. Smith, in the Century, August,
1 89 1.) It is noticeable that Oldys, in his first
edition, entitles his work a " Defence " of Paine's
writings — a trick which no doubt carried this elab
orate libel into the hands of many " Paineites." The
third edition has, " With a Review of his Writings."
In a later edition we find the vignette of Paine sur
rounded by apes. Cobbett's biographer, Edward
Smith, describes the book as " one of the most hor
rible collections of abuse which even that venal day
produced." The work was indeed so overweighted
with venom that it was sinking into oblivion when
Cobbett reproduced its libels in America, for which
he did penance through many years. My reader

XVI PREFACE.

will perceive, in the earlier chapters of this work,
that Chalmers tracked Paine in England with en
terprise, but there were few facts that he did not
manage to twist into his strand of slander.
In 1809, not long after Paine's death, James
Cheetham's " Life of Thomas Paine " appeared in
New York. Cheetham had been a hatter in Man
chester, England, and would probably have con
tinued in that respectable occupation had it not
been for Paine. When Paine visited England and
there published " The Rights of Man " Cheetham
became one of his idolaters, took to political writ
ing, and presently emigrated to America. He
became editor of The American Citizen, in New
York. The cause of Cheetham's enmity to- Paine
was the discovery by the latter that he was betray- h
ing the Jeffersonian party while his paper was en
joying its official patronage. His exposure of the
editor was remorseless ; the editor replied with per
sonal vituperation ; and Paine was about instituting
a suit for libel when he died. Of Cheetham's inge
nuity in falsehood one or two specimens may be
given. During Paine's trial in London, for writing
" The Rights of Man," a hostile witness gave testi
mony which the judge pronounced " impertinent " ;
Cheetham prints it "important." He says that
Madame de Bonneville accompanied Paine on his
return from France in 1802 ; she did not arrive ¦
until a year later. He says that when Paine was
near his end Monroe wrote asking him to acknowl- |
edge a debt for money loaned in Paris, and that \
Paine made no reply. But before me is Monroe's
statement, while President, that for his advances to

PREFACE. xvii
Paine " no claim was ever presented on my part,
nor is any indemnity now desired." Cheetham's
book is one of the most malicious ever written, and
nothing in it can be trusted.
Having proposed to myself to write a critical and
impartial history of the man and his career, I found
the vast Paine literature, however interesting as a
shadow measuring him who cast it, containing con
ventionalized effigies of the man as evolved by
friend and foe in their long struggle. But that war
has ended among educated people. In the labori
ous work of searching out the real Paine I have
found a general appreciation of its importance, and
it will be seen in the following pages that generous
assistance has been rendered by English clergymen,
by official persons in Europe and America, by per
sons of all beliefs and no beliefs. In no instance
have I been impeded by any prejudice, religious or
political. The curators of archives, private collec
tors, owners of important documents bearing on the
subject, have welcomed my effort to bring the truth
to light. The mass of material thus accumulated
is great, and its compression has been a difficult
task. But the interest that led me to the subject
has increased at every step ; the story has abounded
in thrilling episodes and dramatic surprises ; and I
have proceeded with a growing conviction that the
simple facts, dispassionately told, would prove of
importance far wider than Paine's personality, and
find welcome with all students of history. I have
brought to my task a love for it, the studies of some
years, and results of personal researches made in
Europe and America : qualifications which I count

XV111 PREFACE.
less than another which I venture to claim — the
sense of responsibility, acquired by a public teacher
of long service, for his words, which, be they truths
or errors, take on life, and work their good or evil
to all generations.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

CHAPTER PAGE
Preface  . . v
I. — Early Influences  i
II. — Early Struggles  14
III. — Domestic Trouble  31
IV. — The New World  40
V. — Liberty and Equality  49
VFD — " Common Sense "  61
VII. — Under the Banner of Independence . . 78
VIII. — Soldier and Secretary  90
IX. — French Aid, and the Paine-Deane Contro
versy  116
X. — A Story by Gouverneur Morris . .138
— Cause, Country, Self . ... 145
— A Journey to France  167
XIIL — The Muzzled Ox Treading Out the Grain. 177
XIV. — Great Washington and Poor Paine . . 197
XV. — Pontifical and Political Inventions . .212
XVI. — Returning to the Old Home . . . 227
XVII. — A British Lion with an American Heart . 239
XVIip— Paine's Letters to Jefferson in Paris . . 252
(XIX?— The Key of the Bastille .... 268
j^X)— " The Rights of Man "  278
(XXJ? — Founding the European Republic . . 304
QiXH-? — The Right of Evolution .... 328
^XXLJJX — The Deputy for Calais in the Convention . 347
XXfw. — Outlawed in England  366
xix

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.

CHAPTER I.
EARLY INFLUENCES.
The history here undertaken is that of an Eng
lish mechanic, of Quaker training, caught in politi
cal cyclones of the last century, and set at the centre
of its revolutions, in the old world and the new.
In the church register of Euston Parish, near
Thetford, England, occurs this entry : " 1734.
Joseph Pain and Frances Cocke were married
June 20th." These were the parents of Thomas
Paine. The present rector of Euston Church, Lord
Charles Fitz Roy, tells me that the name is there
plainly " Pain," but in the Thetford town-records
of that time it is officially entered " Joseph Paine."
Paine and Cocke are distinguished names in the
history of Norfolk County. In the sixteenth cen
tury Newhall Manor, on the road between Thetford
and Norwich, belonged to a Paine family. In 1553
Thomas Paine, Gent., was, by license from Queen
Mary, trustee for the Lady Elizabeth, daughter of
Henry VIII., by Queen Anne Bullen. In St.
Thomas Church, Norwich, stands the monument of
Sir Joseph Paine, Knt, the most famous mayor
Vol. I— 1 1

2 THE LIFE OF THOA1AS PAINE.
and benefactor of that city in the seventeenth
century. In St. John the Baptist Church is the
memorial of Justice Francis Cocke (d. 1628).
Whether our later Joseph and Thomas were re
lated to these earlier Paines has not been ascer
tained, but Mr. E. Chester Waters, of London, an
antiquarian especially learned in family histories,
expressed to me his belief that the Norfolk County
Paines are of one stock. There is equal probability
that John Cocke, Deputy Recorder of Thetford in
1629, pretty certainly ancestor of Thomas Paine's
mother, was related to Richard Cock, of Norwich,
author of " English Law, or a Summary Survey of
the Household of God upon Earth " (London,
165 1). The author of " The Rights of Man " may
therefore be a confutation of his own dictum : "An
hereditary governor is as inconsistent as an heredi
tary author." One Thomas Payne, of the Norfolk
County family, was awarded ^20 by the Council of
State (1650) "for his sufferings by printing a book
for the cause of Parliament." Among the seques
trators of royalist church livings was Charles George
Cock, " student of Christian Law, of the Society of
the Inner Temple, now [165 1 J resident of Norwich."
In Blomefield's " History of Norfolk County" other
notes may be found suggesting that whatever may
have been our author's genealogy he was spiritually
descended from these old radicals.
At Thetford I explored a manuscript — "Free
man's Register Book" (1610-1756) — and found
that Joseph Paine (our author's father) was made
a freeman of Thetford April 18, 1737, and Henry
Cock May 16, 1740. The freemen of this borough

EARLY INFLUENCES. 3
were then usually members of trade guilds. Their
privileges amounted to little more than the right of
pasturage on the commons. The appointment did
not imply high position, but popularity and in
fluence. Frances Cocke had no doubt resided in
Euston Parish, where she was married. She was
a member of the Church of England and daughter
of an attorney of Thetford. Her husband was a
Quaker and is said to have been disowned by the
Society of Friends for being married by a priest.
A search made for me by official members of that
Society in Norfolk County failed to discover either
the membership or disownment of any one of the
name. Joseph's father, a farmer, was probably a
Quaker. Had the son (b. 1 708) been a Quaker by
conversion he would hardly have defied the rules
of the Society at twenty-six.
Joseph was eleven years younger than his wife.
According to Oldys he was " a reputable citizen
and though poor an honest man," but his wife was
" a woman of sour temper and an eccentric char
acter." Thomas Paine's writings contain several
affectionate allusions to his father, but none to his
mother. " They say best men are moulded out of
faults," and the moulding begins before birth.
Thomas Paine was born January 29, 1 736-7, at
Thetford. The house was in Bridge Street (now
White Hart) and has recently made way for a
pretty garden and fountain. I was inclined to
adopt a more picturesque tradition that the birth
place was in old Heathenman Street, as more
appropriate for a paten (no doubt the origin of
Paine's name), who also bore the name of the

4 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
doubting disciple. An appeal for allowances might
be based on such a conjunction of auspices, but a
manuscript of Paine's friend Rickman, just found
by Dr. Clair J. Grece, identifies the house beyond
question. Thomas Paine is said by most of his biographers
to have never been baptized. This rests solely on
a statement by Oldys :
" It arose probably from the tenets of the father, and from
the eccentricity of the mother, that our author was never bap
tized, though he was privately named ; and never received,
like true Christians, into the bosom of any church, though he
was indeed confirmed by the bishop of Norwich : This last
circumstance was owing to the orthodox zeal of Mistress Cocke,
his aunt, a woman of such goodness, that though she lived
on a small annuity, she imparted much of this little to his
mother. . . .
" As he was not baptized, the baptism of Thomas Pain is
not entered on the parish books of Thetford. It is a remark
able fact, that the leaves of the two registers of the parishes
of St. Cuthbert's and St. Peter's, in Thetford, containing the
marriages, births, and burials, from the end of 1733, to the be
ginning of 1737, have been completely cut out. Thus, a felony
has been committed against the public, and an injury done to
individuals, by a hand very malicious and wholly unknown,
Whether our author, when he resided in Thetford in 1 787,
looked into these registers for his own birth ; what he saw, or
what he did, we will not conjecture. They contain the bap
tism of his sister Elizabeth, on the 28th of August, 1738."
This is Oldysian. Of course, if there was any
mischief Paine did it, albeit against his own inter
ests. But a recent examination shows that there
has been no mutilation of the registers. St. Peter's
and St. Cuthbert's had at the time one minister.
In 1736, just before Paine's birth, the minister

EARLY INFLUENCES. 5
(John Price) died, and his successor (Thomas
Vaughan) appears to have entered on his duties in
March, 1737. A little before and during this in
terregnum the registers were neglected. In St.
Cuthbert's register is the entry : " Elizabeth,
Daughter of Joseph Payne and Frances his wife of
this parish, was born Aug't the 29th, 1 738, baptized
September ye 20, 1738." This (which Oldys has
got inaccurately, suo more) renders it probable that
Thomas Paine was also baptized. Indeed) he would
hardly have been confirmed otherwise.
The old historian of Norfolk County, Francis
Blomefield, introduces us to Thetford (Sitomagus,
Tedford, Theford, " People of the Ford ") with a
strain of poetry :
" No situation but may envy thee,
Holding such intimacy with the sea,
Many do that, but my delighted muse
Says, Neptune's fairest daughter is the Little Ouse."
After reading Blomefield's history of the ancient
town, and that of Martin, and after strolling
through the quaint streets, I thought some poet
should add to this praise for picturesqueness some
tribute on Thetf ord's historic vistas. There is indeed
" a beauty buried everywhere," as Browning says.
Evelyn, visiting his friend Lord Arlington at
Euston in September, 1677, writes :
" I went to Thetford, the Burrough Towne, where stand the
ruines of a religious house ; there is a round mountaine arti
ficially raised, either for some castle or monument, which
makes a pretty landscape. As we went and return'd, a tum
bler shew'd his extraordinary addresse in the Warren. I also
saw the Decoy, much pleas'd with the stratagem."

6 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
Evelyn leaves his own figure, his princely friends,
and the tumbler in the foreground of "a pretty
landscape " visible to the antiquarian all around
Thetford, whose roads, fully followed, would lead
past the great scenes of English history. In gen
eral appearance the town (population under five
thousand) conveys the pleasant impression of a
fairly composite picture of its eras and generations.
There is a continuity between the old Grammar
School, occupying the site of the ancient cathedral,
and the new Guildhall, with its Mechanics' Institute.
The old churches summon their flocks from ec
centric streets suggestive of literal sheep-paths.
Of the ignorance with which our democratic age
sweeps away as cobwebs fine threads woven by
the past around the present, Thetford showed few
signs, but it is sad to find " Guildhall " effacing
" Heathenman " Street, which pointed across a
thousand years to the march of the "heathen
men " (Danes) of Anglo-Saxon ' chronicles.
" A. 870. This year the [heathen] army rode across Mer-
cia into East Anglia, and took up their winter quarters in
Thetford ; and the same winter King Edmund fought against
them, and the Danes got the victory, and slew the king, and
subdued all the land, and destroyed all the ministers which
they came to. The names of their chiefs who slew the king
were Hingwar and Habba."
If old Heathenman Street be followed histori
cally, it would lead to Bury St. Edmunds, where,
on the spot of his coronation, the young king
" was placed in a goodly shrine, richly adorned
with jewels and precious stones," and a royal saint
added to the calendar. The blood of St. Edmund
reconsecrated Thetford.

EARLY INFLUENCES. 7
"A. 1094. Then at Candlemas the king [William Rufus]
went to Hastings, and whilst he waited there for a fair wind
he caused the monastery on the field of battle to be conse
crated ; and he took the staff from Herbert Losange, bishop
of Thetford."The letters of this Bishop Herbert, discovered
at Brussels, give him an honorable place in the list of
Thetford authors ; wherein also occur the names of
Richard of Thetford, author of a treatise on preach
ing, Jeffrey de Rocherio, who began a history of
the monarchy, and John Brame, writer and translator
of various treatises. The works of these Thetford
authors are preserved at Cambridge, England.
Thetford was, in a way, connected with the first
newspaper enterprise. Its member of Parliament,
Sir Joseph Williamson, edited the London Gazette,
established by the Crown to support its own policy.
The Crown claimed the sole right to issue any jour
nal, and its license was necessary for every book.
In 1674 Sir Joseph, being Secretary of State (he
bought the office for ,£5,000), had control of the
Gazette and of literature. In that year, when
M ilton died, his treatise on " Christian Doctrine " was
brought to Williamson for license. He said he
could " countenance nothing of Milton's writings,"
and the treatise was locked up by this first English
editor, to be discovered a hundred and forty-nine
years later.
On his way to the Grammar School (founded by
bequest of Sir Richard Fulmerston, 1566) Paine
might daily read an inscription set in the Fulmer
ston almshouse wall : " Follow peace and holines
with all men without the which no man shall see
the Lord." But many memorials would remind

8 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
him of how Williamson, a poor rector's son, had
sold his talent to a political lord and reached power
to buy and sell Cabinet offices, while suppressing
Milton. Thomas Paine, with more talent than
Williamson to dispose of, was born in a time semi-
barbaric at its best, and savage at its worst. Hav
ing got in the Quaker meeting an old head on his
young shoulders, he must bear about a burden
against most things around him. The old churches
were satanic steeple-houses, and if he strolled over
to that in which his parents were married, at
Euston, its new splendors were accused by
surrounding squalor.
Mr. F. H. Millington of Thetford, who has told
Williamson's story,1 has made for me a search into
Paine's time there.
"In Paine's boyhood [says Mr. Millington in a letter I
have from him] the town (about 2,000 inhabitants) pos
sessed a corporation with mayor, aldermen, sword-bearers,
macemen, recorder. The corporation was a corrupt body,
under the dominance of the Duke of Grafton, a prominent
member of the Whig government. Both members of Parlia
ment (Hon. C. Fitzroy, and Lord Augustus Fitzroy) were
nominees of Grafton. The people had no interest and no
power, and I do not think politics were of any account in
Paine's childhood. From Paine's ' Rights of Man ' (Part ii.,
p. 108) it is clear that his native town was the model in his
mind when he wrote on charters and corporations. The
Lent Assizes for the Eastern Circuit were held here, and
Paine would be familiar with the procedure and pomp of a.
court of justice. He would also be familiar with the sight of
men and women hung for trivial offences. Thetford was on
the main road to London, and was a posting centre. Paine
1 " Sir Joseph Williamson, Knt., a.d. 1630-1701. A Page in the History
of Thetford." A very valuable contribution to local history.

EARLY INFLUENCES. 9
would be familiar with the faces and equipages of some of
the great Whig nobles in Norfolk. Walpole might pass
through on his way to Houghton. The river Ouse was navi
gable to Lynn, and Paine would probably go on a barge to
that flourishing seaport. Bury St. Edmunds was a provin
cial capital for the nobility and gentry of the district. It was
twelve miles from Thetford, and in closest connection with it.
The religious life of Thetford would be quiet. The churches
were poor, having been robbed at the reformation. The
Quakers were the only non-conformists in the town. There
is a tradition that Wesley visited the town ; if he did Paine
would no doubt be among his hearers. On the whole, I
think it easy to trace in Paine's works the influence of his
boyhood here. He would see the corrupting influence of the
aristocracy, the pomp of law, the evils of the unreformed
corporations ; the ruins of great ecclesiastical establishments,
much more perfect than now, would bring to his mind what a
power the church had been. Being of a mechanical turn of
mind no doubt he had often played about the paper-mill
which was, and is, worked by water-power."
When Paine was a lad the grand gentlemen who
purloined parks and mansions from the Treasury
were sending children to the gallows for small
thefts instigated by hunger. In his thirteenth
year he might have seen under the shadow of Ely
Minster, ten miles away, the execution of Amy
Hutchinson, aged seventeen, for poisoning her
husband. " Her face and hands were smeared
with tar, and having a garment daubed with pitch,
after a short prayer the executioner strangled her,
and twenty minutes after the fire was kindled and
burnt half an hour." (Notes and Queries, 27 Sep
tember, 1873.) Against the prevailing savagery a
human protest was rarely heard outside the Quaker
meeting. Whether disowned or not, Paine's father
remained a Quaker, and is so registered at burial ;

IO THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
and his eminent son has repeatedly mentioned his
own training in the principles of that Society. Re
membering the extent to which Paine's Quakerism
had influenced his political theories, and instances of
their bearing on great events, I found something
impressive in the little meeting-house in Cage Lane,
Thetford. This was his more important birth
place. Its small windows and one door open on
the tombless graveyard at the back, — perhaps that
they might not be smashed by the mob, or admit
the ribaldry of the street. The interior is hardly
large enough to seat fifty people. Plymouth
Brethren have for some years occupied the place,
but I was told that the congregation, reduced to
four or five, would soon cease to gather there.
Adjoining the meeting-house, and in contact with
it, stands the ancient gaol, from which may have
been derived the name " Cage Lane." In its front
are two iron-grated arches, at one of which was
the pillory, at the other the stocks, — the latter
remembered by some now living.
On "first day," when his schoolmates went in
fine clothes to grand churches, to see gay people,
and hear fine music, little Thomas, dressed in drab,
crept affrighted past the stocks to his childhood's
pillory in the dismal meeting-house. For him no
beauty or mirth, no music but the oaths of the pil
loried, or shrieks of those awaiting the gallows.
There could be no silent meeting in Cage Lane.
Testimonies of the "Spirit" against inhumanity,
delivered beside instruments of legal torture, bred
pity in the child, who had a poetic temperament.
The earliest glimpses we have of his childhood are

EARL Y INFL UENCES. 1 1
in lines written on a fly caught in a spider's web,
and an epitaph for a crow which he buried in the
garden : " Here lies the body of John Crow,
Who once was high, but now is low ;
Ye brother Crows take warning all,
For as you rise, so must you fall."
This was when he was eight years of age. It
seems doubtful whether the child was weeping
or smiling, but the humor, if it be such, is grim,
and did not last long. He had even then already,
as we shall see, gained in the Quaker meeting a feel
ing that " God was too good " to redeem man by his
son's death, as his Aunt Cocke instructed him, and
a heart so precocious was a sad birthright in the
Thetford of that day. We look in vain for any
thing that can be described as true boyhood in
Paine. Oldys was informed, no doubt rightly,
that " he was deemed a sharp boy, of unsettled
application ; but he left no performances which
denote juvenile vigour or uncommon attainments."
'' There are, indeed, various indications that, in one
way and another, Thetford and Quakerism to
gether managed to make the early years of their
famous son miserable. ') Had there been no Quaker
ism there had been no Thomas Paine ; his con
sciousness of this finds full recognition in his
works ; yet he says :
"Though I reverence their philanthropy, I cannot help
smiling at the conceit, that if the taste of a Quaker had been
consulted at the creation, what a silent and drab-coloured
creation it would have been ! Not a flower would have
blossomed its gaieties, nor a bird been permitted to sing."

12 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
There is a pathos under his smile at this conceit.
Paine wrote it in later life, amid the flowers and
birds of his garden, which he loved, but whose
gaieties he could never imitate. He with diffi
culty freed himself from his early addiction to an
unfashionable garb ; he rarely entered a theatre,
and could never enjoy cards.
By the light of the foregoing facts we may
appreciate the few casual reminiscences of his
school-days found in Paine's writings :
" My parents were not able to give me a shilling, beyond
what they gave me in education ; and to do this they distressed
themselves. " My father being of the Quaker profession, it was my good
fortune to have an exceeding good moral education, and a
tolerable stock of useful learning. Though I went to the
grammar school (the same school, Thetford in Norfolk, that
the present counsellor Mingay went to, and under the same
master), I did not learn Latin, not only because I had no
inclination to learn languages, but because of the objection
the Quakers have against the books in which the language is
taught. But this did not prevent me from being acquainted
with the subjects of all the Latin books used in the school.
The natural bent of my mind was to science. I had some turn,
and I believe some talent, for poetry ; but this I rather
repressed than encouraged, as leading too much into the field
of imagination.
" I happened, when a schoolboy, to pick up a pleasing
natural history of Virginia, and my inclination from that day
of seeing the western side of the Atlantic never left me."
Paine does not mention his proficiency in mathe
matics, for which he was always distinguished.
To my own mind his " turn " for poetry possesses
much significance in the light of his career. In
excluding poets from his " Republic " Plato may

EARLY INFLUENCES. 1 3
have had more reasons than he has assigned.
The poetic temperament and power, repressed in
the purely literary direction, are apt to break out
in glowing visions of ideal society and fiery denun
ciations of the unlovely world.
Paine was not under the master of Thetford
School (Colman), who taught Latin, but under the
usher, Rev. William Knowler, who admitted the
Quaker lad to some intimacy, and related to him
his adventures while serving on a man-of-war.
Paine's father had a small farm, but he also carried
on a stay-making business in Thetford, and his son
was removed from school, at the age of thirteen, to
be taught the art and mystery of making stays.
To that he stuck for nearly five years. But his
father became poorer, his mother probably more
discontented, and the boy began to dream over the
adventures of Master Knowler on a man-of-war.

CHAPTER II.
EARLY STRUGGLES.
In the middle of the eighteenth century England
and France were contending for empire in India
and in America. For some service the ship Terrible,
Captain Death, was fitted out, and Thomas Paine
made an effort to sail on her. It seems, however,
that he was overtaken by his father on board, and
carried home again. " From this adventure I was
happily prevented by the affectionate and moral
remonstrances of a good father, who from the
habits of his life, being of the Quaker profession,
looked on me as lost." This privateer lost in an
engagement one hundred and seventy-five of its
two hundred men. Thomas was then in his seven
teenth year. The effect of the paternal remon
strances, unsupported by any congenial outlook at
Thetford, soon wore off, and, on the formal
declaration of war against France (1756), he was
again seized with the longing for heroic adventure,
and went to sea on the King of Prussia, privateer,
Captain Mendez. Of that he soon got enough, but
he did not return home.
Of Paine's adventures with the privateer there is
no record. Of yet more momentous events of his
life for some years there is known nothing beyond
14

EARLY STRUGGLES. I 5
the barest outline. In his twentieth year he found
work in London (with Mr. Morris, stay-maker,
Hanover Street, Longacre), and there remained
near two years. These were fruitful years. " As
soon as I was able I purchased a pair of globes, and
attended the philosophical lectures of Martin and
Ferguson, and became afterwards acquainted with
Dr. Bevis, of the society called the Royal Society,
then living in the Temple, and an excellent astron
omer." In 1758 Paine found employment at Dover with
a stay-maker named Grace. In April, 1759, he re
paired to Sandwich, Kent, where he established
himself as a master stay-maker. There is a tradi
tion at Sandwich that he collected a congregation
in his room in the market-place, and preached to
them " as an independent, or a Methodist." Here,
at twenty-two, he married Mary Lambert. She
was an orphan and a waiting-woman to Mrs. Rich
ard Solly, wife of a woollen-draper in Sandwich.
The Rev. Horace Gilder, Rector of St. Peter's,
Sandwich, has kindly referred to the register, and
finds the entry : " Thomas Pain, of the parish of
St. Peters, in the town of Sandwich, in Kent, bache
lor, and Mary Lambert, of the same parish, spins
ter, were married in this church, by licence, this
27th day of Sept., 1759, by me William Bunce,
Rector." Signed " Thomas Pain, Mary Lambert.
In the presence of Thomas Taylor, Maria Solly,
John Joslin."
The young couple began housekeeping on Dol
phin Key, but Paine's business did not thrive, and
he went to Margate. There, in 1 760, his wife died.

1 6 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
Paine then concluded to abandon the stay-making
business. His wife's father had once been an ex
ciseman. Paine resolved to prepare himself for
that office, and corresponded with his father on the
subject. The project found favor, and Paine, after
passing some months of study in London, returned
to Thetford in July, 1761. Here, while acting as a
supernumerary officer of excise, he continued his
studies, and enjoyed the friendship of Mr. Cock-
sedge, the Recorder of Thetford. On 1 December,
1762, he was appointed to gM£ge brewers' casks at
Grantham. On 8 August, 1764, he was set to
watch smugglers at Alford.
Thus Thomas Paine, in his twenty-fifth year, was
engaged in executing Excise Acts, whose applica
tion to America prepared the way for indepen
dence. Under pressure of two great hungers — for
bread, for science — the young exciseman took little
interest in politics. " I had no disposition for what
is called politics. It presented to my mind no
other idea than is contained in the word jockey-
ship." The excise, though a Whig measure, was
odious to the people, and smuggling was regarded
as not only venial but clever. Within two years
after an excise of £1 per gallon was laid on spirits
(1746), twelve thousand persons were convicted for
offences against the Act, which then became a dead
letter. Paine's post at Alford was a dangerous
one. The exciseman who pounced on a party of
smugglers got a special reward, but he risked his
life. The salary was only fifty pounds, the promo
tions few, and the excise service had fallen into
usages of negligence and corruption to which Paine

EARLY STRUGGLES. 1 7
was the first to call public attention. " After tax,
charity, and fitting expenses are deducted, there
remains very little more than forty-six pounds ; and
the expenses of housekeeping in many places can
not be brought under fourteen pounds a year,
besides the purchase at first, and the hazard of
life, which reduces it to thirty-two pounds per an
num, or one shilling and ninepence farthing per
day." It is hardly wonderful that Paine with his globes
and scientific books should on one occasion have
fallen in with the common practice of excisemen
called " stamping," — that is, setting down surveys
of work on his books, at home, without always
actually travelling to the traders' premises and ex
amining specimens. These detective rounds were
generally offensive to the warehouse people so
visited, and the scrutiny had become somewhat
formal. For this case of " stamping," frankly con
fessed, Paine was discharged from office, 27 August,
I765-1
1 I am indebted to Mr. G. J. Holyoake for documents that shed full light
on an incident which Oldys has carefully left in the half-light congenial
to his insinuations. The minute of the Board of Excise, dated 27 August,
1765, is as follows :
" Thomas Paine, officer of Alford (Lincolnshire), Grantham collection,
having on July nth stamped the whole ride, as appears by the specimens not
being signed in any part thereof, though proper entry was shown in journal,
and the victualler's stocks drawn down in his books as if the same had been
surveyed that day, as by William Swallow, Supervisor's letter of 3rd instant,
and the collector's report thereon, also by the said Paine's own confession of
the 13th instant, ordered to be discharged ; that Robert Peat, dropped malt
assistant in Lynn collection, succeed him."
The following is Paine's petition for restoration :
' ' London, July 3, 1766. Honourable Sirs, — In humble obedience to your
honours' letter of discharge hearing date August 29, 1765, I delivered up my
•commission and since that time have given you no trouble. I confess the
Vol. I.— 2

1 8 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
After Paine's dismission he supported himself as
a journeyman with Mr. Gudgeon, a stay-maker of
Diss, Norfolk, where he is said to have frequently
quarrelled with his fellow-workmen. To be cast
back on the odious work, to be discharged and pen
niless at twenty-eight, could hardly soothe the poor
man's temper, and I suppose he did not remain long
at Diss. He is traceable in 1766 in Lincolnshire,
by his casual mention of the date in connection
with an incident related in his fragment on " For-
getfulness." He was on a visit at the house of a
widow lady in a village of the Lincolnshire fens,
and as they were walking in the garden, in the sum
mer evening, they beheld at some distance a white
figure moving. He quitted Mrs. E. and pursued
the figure, and when he at length reached out his
hand, " the idea struck me," he says, " will my hand
pass through the air, or shall I feel anything ? " It
proved to be a love-distracted maiden who, on hear
ing of the marriage of one she supposed her lover, '
meant to drown herself in a neighboring pond.
justice of your honours' displeasure and humbly beg to add my thanks for
the candour and lenity with which you at that unfortunate time indulged me.
And though the nature of the report and my own confession cut off all
expectations of enjoying your honours' favour then, yet I humbly hope it has
not finally excluded me therefrom, upon which hope I humbly presume to
entreat your honours to restore me. The time I enjoyed my former com
mission was short and unfortunate — an officer only a single year. No com
plaint of the least dishonesty or intemperance ever appeared against me ;
and, if I am so happy as to succeed in this, my humble petition, I will .
endeavour that my future conduct shall as much engage your honours' ¦
approbation as my former has merited your displeasure. I am, your hon
ours' most dutiful humble servant, Thomas PArNE."
Board's minute : " July 4, 1766. Ordered that he be restored on a proper
vacancy." Mr. B. F. Dun, for thirty-three years an officer of excise, discovered the
facts connected with Paine's discharge, and also saw Paine's letter and
entry books. In a letter before me he says : " I consider Mr. Paine's res
toration as creditable to him as to the then Board of Excise.'-

EARLY STRUGGLES. 19
That Thomas Paine should sue for an office
worth, beyond its expenses, thirty-two pounds,
argues not merely penury, but an amazing uncon
sciousness, in his twenty-ninth year, of his pow
ers. In London, for some months there stood
between him and starvation only a salary of twenty-
five pounds, given him by a Mr. Noble for teach
ing English in his academy in Goodman's Fields.
This was the year 1766, for though Paine was
restored to the excise on July nth of this year no
place was found for him. In January, 1767, he
was employed by Mr. Gardiner in his school at
Kensington. Rickman and others have assigned
to this time Paine's attendance of lectures at the
Royal Society, which I have however connected
with his twentieth year. He certainly could not
have afforded globes during this pauperized year
1766. In reply to Rickman's allusion to the lowly
situations he had been in at this time, Paine re
marked : " Here I derived considerable informa
tion ; indeed I have seldom passed five minutes of
my life, however circumstanced, in which I did not
acquire some knowledge."
According to Oldys he remained in the school
at Kensington but three months. " His desire of
preaching now returned on him," says the same
author, " but applying to his old master for a certifi
cate of his qualifications, to the bishop of London,
Mr. Noble told his former usher, that since he was
only an English scholar he could not recommend
him as a* proper candidate for ordination in the
church." It would thus appear that Paine had
not parted from his employer in Goodman's Fields
in any unpleasant way. Of his relation with his

20 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
pupils only one trace remains — a letter in which
he introduces one of them to General Knox, Sep
tember 17, 1783: "Old friend, I just take the
opportunity of sending my respects to you by Mr.
Darby, a gentleman who was formerly a pupil of
mine in England."
Oldys says that Paine, " without regular
orders," preached in Moorfields and elsewhere in
England, " as he was urged by his necessities or
directed by his spirit." Although Paine's friendly
biographers have omitted this preaching episode,
it is too creditable to Paine's standing with the
teacher with whom he had served a year for
Oldys to have invented it. It is droll to think
that the Church of England should ever have had
\ an offer of Thomas Paine's services. The Quak
erism in which he had been nurtured had never
been formally adopted by him, and it offered no
opportunities for the impulse to preach which
seems to mark a phase in the life of every active
English brain.
On May 15, 1767, Paine was appointed excise
officer at Grampound, Cornwall, but " prayed
leave to wait another vacancy." On February
19, 1768, he was appointed officer at Lewes,
Sussex, whither, after a brief visit to Thetford,
he repaired.
Not very unlike the old Norfolk borough in
which Paine was born was Lewes, and with even
literally an Ouse flowing through it. Here also
marched the " Heathen Men," who have'left only
the legend of a wounded son of Harold nursed
into health by a Christian maiden. The ruined

EARLY STRUGGLES. 21
castle commands a grander landscape than the
height of Thetford, and much the same historic
views. Seven centuries before Paine opened his
office in Lewes came Harold's son, possibly to take
charge of the excise as established by Edward the
Confessor, just deceased.
" Paine " was an historic name in Lewes also. In
1688 two French refugees, William and Aaron
Paine, came to the ancient town, and found there
as much religious persecution as in France. It was
directed chiefly against the Quakers. But when
Thomas Paine went to dwell there the Quakers
and the " powers that be " had reached a modus
vivendi, and the new exciseman fixed his abode
with a venerable Friend, Samuel Ollive, a tobacco
nist. The house then adjoined a Quaker meeting
house, now a Unitarian chapel. It is a quaint
house, always known and described as " the house
with the monkey on it." The projecting roof is
supported by a female nondescript rather more
human than anthropoid. I was politely shown
through the house by its occupant, Mr. Champion,
and observed in the cellar traces of Samuel Ollive's
— afterward Paine's — tobacco mill. The best room
upstairs long bore on its wall " Tom Paine's study."
The plaster has now flaked off, but the proprietor,
Mr. Alfred Hammond, told me that he remembers
it there in 1840. Not far from the house is
the old mansion of the Shelleys, — still called
" The Shelleys," — ancestors of a poet born with
the " Rights of Man," and a child of Paine's revo
lution. And — such are the moral zones and poles
in every English town — here in the graveyard of

22 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
Jireh Chapel — is the tomb of William Huntington
S. S. [Sinner Saved] bearing this epitaph :
" Here lies the Coalheaver, beloved of God, but abhorred of
men : the omniscient Judge, at the grand assize, shall ratify
and confirm that to the confusion of many thousands ; for
England and its metropolis shall know that there hath been a
prophet among them. W. H : S. S."
While Paine was at Lewes this Hunt alias Hunt
ington was a pious tramp in that part of England,
well known to the police. Yet in his rubbish there
is one realistic story of tramp-life which incidentally
portrays an exciseman of the time. Huntington
(born 1744), one of the eleven children of a day-
laborer earning from seven to nine shillings a week
in Kent, was sent by some friends to an infant
school. " And here I remember to have heard my mistress reprove
me for something wrong, telling me that God Almighty took
notice of children's sins. It stuck to my conscience a great
while ; and who this God Almighty could be I could not con
jecture ; and how he could know my sins without asking my
mother I could not conceive. At that time there was a person
named Godfrey, an exciseman in the town, a man of a stern
and hard-favoured countenance, whom I took notice of for
having a stick covered with figures, and an ink-bottle hanging
at the button-hole of his coat. I imagined that man to be
employed by God Almighty to take notice, and keep an
account of children's sins ; and once I got into the market-
house, and watched him very narrowly, and found that he was
always in a hurry by his walking so fast ; and I thought he
had need to hurry, as he must have a deal to do to find out all
the sins of children. I watched him out of one shop into
another, all about the town, and from that time eyed him
as a most formidable being, and the greatest enemy I had
in all the world."

EARLY STRUGGLES. 23
To the shopkeepers this exciseman was really an
adversary and an accuser, and one can well believe
that his very physiognomy would be affected by
such work, and the chronic consciousness of being
unwelcome. We may picture Paine among the
producers of Lewes — with but four or five thousand
people, then a notorious seat of smugglers — with
his stick and ink-bottle ; his face prematurely aged,
and gathering the lines and the keen look which
mask for casual eyes the fundamental candor and
kindliness of his face.
Paine's surveys extended to Brighton ; the bril
liant city of our time being then a small fishing-
town known as Brighthelmston. It was scarce ten
miles distant, and had no magistrates, offenders
being taken to Lewes. There was a good deal of
religious excitement in the neighborhood about the
time Paine went there to reside, owing to the
preaching of Rev. George Whitefield, chaplain of
Lady Huntingdon, at a chapel built by her ladyship
at Brighthelmston. Lady Huntingdon already had
a quasi-miraculous fame which in Catholic times
would have caused her to be honored as St. Selina.
In those days a pious countess was more miracu
lous than the dream that foretold about Lady Hunt
ingdon's coming. Surrounded by crowds, she had to
send for her chaplain, Whitefield, who preached in
a field till a chapel was built. At the time when
Lady Huntingdon was exhorting the poor villagers
of Brighton, two relatives of hers, Governor Shirley
of Massachusetts and his aide-de-camp Colonel
George Washington, were preparing the way for
the great events in which Paine was to bear a part.

24 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
When Paine went on his survey he might have
observed the Washington motto, possibly a trace
of the pious countess, which long remained on a
house in Brighton : Exitus acta probat. There
was an ancient Washington who fought at the
battle of Lewes ; but probably if our exciseman ever
thought of any Washington at all it was of the
anomalous Colonel in Virginia founding a colonial
association to disuse excisable articles imported
from England. But if such transatlantic phenomena,
or the preaching of Whitefield in the neighborhood,
concerned Paine at all, no trace of their impression
is now discoverable. And if there were any protest
in him at that time, when the English government
had reached its nadir of corruption, it cannot be
heard. He appears to have been conventionally
patriotic, and was regarded as the Lewes laureate.
He wrote an election song for the Whig candidate
at New Shoreham, for which the said candidate,
(Rumbold by name) paid him three guineas ; and
he wrote a song on the death of General Wolfe,
which, when published some years later, was set to
music, and enjoyed popularity in the Anacreontic
and other societies. While Britannia mourns for
her Wolfe, the sire of the gods sends his messengers
to console " the disconsolate dame," assuring her
that her hero is not dead but summoned to lead
"the armies above" against the proud giants
marching against Heaven.
The ballad recalls Paine the paien, but the Thet
ford Quaker is not apparent. And, indeed, there
are various indications about this time that some
reaction had set in after the preaching phase.

EARLY STRUGGLES. 2$
" Such was his enterprise on the water," says Oldys,
" and his intrepidity on the ice that he became
known by the appellation of Commodore." William
Carver (MS.) says he was at this time " tall and
slim, about five feet eight inches."
At Lewes, where the traditions concerning Paine
are strong, I met Miss Rickman, a descendant of
Thomas "Clio" Rickman — the name Clio, under
which his musical contributions to the Revolution
were published, having become part of his name.
Rickman was a youth in the Lewes of Paine's time,
and afterwards his devoted friend. His enthusiasm
was represented in children successively named
Paine, Washington, Franklin, Rousseau, Petrarch,
Volney. Rickman gives an account of Paine at
Lewes :
" In this place he lived several years in habits of intimacy
with a very respectable, sensible, and convivial set of acquaint
ance, who were entertained with his witty sallies and informed
by his more serious conversations. In politics he was at this
time a Whig, and notorious for that quality which has been
defined perseverance in a good cause and obstinacy in a bad
one. He was tenacious of his opinions, which were bold,
acute, and independent, and which he maintained with ardour,
elegance, and argument. At this period, at Lewes, the White
Hart evening club was the resort of a social and intelligent
circle who, out of fun, seeing that disputes often ran very
warm and high, frequently had what they called the ' Head
strong Book.' This was no other than an old Greek Homer
which was sent the morning after a debate vehemently
maintained, to the most obstinate haranguer in the Club :
this book had the following title, as implying that Mr. Paine
the best deserved and the most frequently obtained it : ' The
Headstrong Book, or Original Book of Obstinacy.' Written
by ***** ****, of Lewes, in Sussex, and Revised and Cor
rected by Thomas Paine.

26 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
" ' Immortal Paine, while mighty reasoners jar,
We crown thee General of the Headstrong War ;
Thy logic vanquish'd error, and thy mind
No bounds but those of right and truth confined.
Thy soul of fire must sure ascend the sky,
Immortal Paine, thy fame can never die ;
For men like thee their names must ever save
From the black edicts of the tyrant grave.'
" My friend Mr. Lee, of Lewes, in communicating this to me
in September, 1810, said : ' This was manufactured nearly
forty years ago, as applicable to Mr. Paine, and I believe you
will allow, however indifferent the manner, that I did not very
erroneously anticipate his future celebrity.' "
It was probably to amuse the club at the White
Hart, an ancient tavern, that Paine wrote his
humorous poems.
On the 26 March, 1 771, Paine married Eliza
beth, daughter of Samuel Ollive, with whom he
had lodged. This respected citizen had died in
July, 1769, leaving in Lewes a widow and one
daughter in poor circumstances. Paine then took
up his abode elsewhere, but in the following year
he joined the Ollives in opening a shop, and the
tobacco-mill went on as before. His motive was
probably compassion, but it brought him into
nearer acquaintance with the widow and her daugh
ter. Elizabeth is said to have been pretty, and,
being of Quaker parentage, she was no doubt fairly
educated. She was ten years younger than Paine,
and he was her hero. They were married in St.
Michael's Church, Lewes, on the 26th of March,
1 771, by Robert Austen, curate, the witnesses being
Henry Verrall and Thomas Ollive, the lady's brother.
Oldys is constrained to give Paine's ability
recognition. "He had risen by superior energy,

EARLY STRUGGLES. 27
more than by greater honesty, to be a chief among
the excisemen." They needed a spokesman at that
time, being united in an appeal to Parliament to
raise their salaries, and a sum of money, raised to
prosecute the matter, was confided to Paine. In
1772 he prepared the document, which was printed,
but not published until 1793.1 Concerning the
plea for the excisemen it need only be said that
it is as clear and complete as any lawyer could
make it. There was, of course, no room for origi
nality in the simple task of showing that the ill-
paid service must be badly done, but the style is
remarkable for simplicity and force.
Paine put much time and pains into this com
position, and passed the whole winter of 1772-3
trying to influence members of Parliament and
others in favor of his cause. " A rebellion of the
excisemen," says Oldys, "who seldom have the
populace on their side, was not much feared by
their superiors." Paine's pamphlet and two further
leaflets of his were printed. The best result of his
pamphlet was to secure him an acquaintance with
Oliver Goldsmith, to whom he addressed the fol
lowing letter :
1 The document was revived as a. pamphlet, though its subject was no
longer of interest, at a time when Paine's political writings were under
prosecution, and to afford a vehicle for an "introduction," which gives a
graphic account of Paine's services in the United States. On a copy of
this London edition (1793) before me, one of a number of Paine's early
pamphlets bearing marks of his.contemporary English editor, is written with
pencil: "With a preface (Qy. J. Barlow)." From this, and some charac
teristics of the composition, I have no doubt that the vigorous introduction
was Barlow's. The production is entitled, " The Case of the Officers of
Excise ; with remarks on the qualifications of Officers ; and of the numerous
evils arising to the Revenue, from the insufficiency of the present salary.
Humbly addressed to the Hon. and Right Hon. Members of both Houses
of Parliament."

28 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
"Honored Sir, — Herewith I present you with the Case of the
Officers of Excise. A compliment of this kind from an entire
stranger may appear somewhat singular, but the following
reasons and information will, I presume, sufficiently apologize.
I act myself in the humble station of an officer of excise,
though somewhat differently circumstanced to what many of
them are, and have been the principal promoter of a plan for
applying to Parliament this session for an increase of salary.
A petition for this purpose has been circulated through every
part of the kingdom, and signed by all the officers therein.
A subscription of three shillings per officer is raised, amount
ing to upwards of ^500, for supporting the expenses. The
excise officers, in all cities and corporate towns, have obtained
letters of recommendation from the electors to the members
in their behalf, many or most of whom have promised their
support. The enclosed case we have presented to most of the
members, and shall to all, before the petition appear in the
House. The memorial before you met with so much appro
bation while in manuscript, that I was advised to print 4000
copies ; 3000 of which were subscribed for the officers in gen
eral, and the remaining 1000 reserved for presents. Since the
delivering them I have received so many letters of thanks and
approbation for the performance, that were I not rather singu
larly modest, I should insensibly become a little vain. The
literary fame of Dr. Goldsmith has induced me to present one
to him, such as it is. It is my first and only attempt, and
even now I should not have undertaken it, had I not been
particularly applied to by some of my superiors in office. I
have some few questions to trouble Dr. Goldsmith with, and
should esteem his company for an hour or two, to partake of
a bottle of wine, or any thing else, and apologize for this
trouble, as a singular favour conferred on
" His unknown " Humble servant and admirer,
" Thomas Paine.
" Excise Coffee House,
"Broad Street, Dec. 21, 1772.
" P. S. Shall take the liberty of waiting on you in a day or
two." '
1 Goldsmith responded to Paine's desire for his acquaintance. I think
Paine may be identified as the friend to whom Goldsmith, shortly before his

EARLY STRUGGLES. 29
To one who reads Paine's argument, it appears
wonderful that a man of such ability should, at the
age of thirty-five, have had his horizon filled with
such a cause as that of the underpaid excisemen.
Unable to get the matter before Parliament, he
went back to his tobacco-mill in Lewes, and it
seemed to him like the crack of doom when, 8
April, 1774, he was dismissed from the excise.
The cause of Paine's second dismission from the
excise being ascribed by his first biographer
(Oldys) to his dealing in smuggled tobacco, with
out contradiction by Paine, his admirers have been
misled into a kind of apology for him on account
of the prevalence of the custom. But I have before
me the minutes of the Board concerning Paine,
and there is no hint whatever of any such accusa
tion.1 The order of discharge from Lewes is as
follows :
' Friday 8th April 1774. Thomas Pain, Officer of Lewes
4th O. Ride Sussex Collection having quitted his Business,
without obtaining the Board's Leave for so doing, and being
gone off on Account of the Debts which he hath contracted, as
by Letter of the 6th instant from Edward Clifford, Supervisor,
and the said Pain having been once before Discharged, Or
dered that he be again discharged."
In Paine's absence in London, writing his pleas
for the excisemen, laboring with members of Par
liament, his tobacco-mill had been still, his grocer-
death, gave the epitaph first printed in Paine's Pennsylvania Magazine,
January, 1775, beginning,
" Here Whitefoord reclines, and deny it who can,
Though he merrily lived he is now a grave man."
In giving it Goldsmith said, " It will be of no use to me where I am going."
1 I am indebted for these records to the Secretary of Inland Revenue, Eng
land, and to my friend, Charles Macrae, who obtained them for me.

30 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
ies unsold, and his wife and her mother had been
supported from the bank of flattering hope. No
sooner was it known that the hope of an increased
salary for the exciseman had failed than he found
himself in danger of arrest for debt. It was on
this account that he left Lewes for a time, but it
was only that he might take steps to make over all
of his possessions to his creditors. This was done.
The following placard appeared :
" To be sold by auction, on Thursday the 14th of April,
and following day, all the household furniture, stock in trade
and other effects of Thomas Pain, grocer and tobacconist,
near the West Gate, in Lewes : Also a horse tobacco and
snuff mill, with all the utensils for cutting tobacco and grind
ing off snuff ; and two unopened crates of cream-coloured
stone ware."
This sale was announced by one Whitfield, gro
cer, and if there were other creditors they were no
doubt paid by the results, for Paine had no diffi
culty in returning to Lewes. He once more had
to petition the Board, which shortly before had com
mended his assiduity. Its commissioner, George
Lewis- Scott, labored in his behalf. In vain.
Whether it was because it was a rule that a second
discharge should be final, or that his failure to move
Parliament had made him a scapegoat for the dis
appointed excisemen, his petition was rejected. At
thirty-seven Paine found himself penniless.

CHAPTER III.
DOMESTIC TROUBLE.
The break-up of Paine's business at Lewes
brought to a head a more serious trouble. On
June 4th of the same miserable year, 1774, Paine
and his wife formally separated.
The causes of their trouble are enveloped in
mystery. It has been stated by both friendly and
hostile biographers that there was from the first no
cohabitation, and that concerning the responsibility
for this neither of them was ever induced to utter
a word. Even his friend Rickman was warned off
the subject by Paine, who, in reply to a question
as to the reason of the separation, said : " It is
nobody's business but my own ; I had cause for it,
but I will name it to no one."
William Huntington, in his " Kingdom of
Heaven," mentions a usage of some Quakers in
his time, "that when a young couple are espoused,
they are to be kept apart for a season to mourn " ;
this being their interpretation of Zech. xii., 12-14.
As Huntington was mainly acquainted with this
Sussex region, it is not inconceivable that Eliza
beth Ollive held some such notion, and that this
led to dissension ending in separation. Nor is it
inconceivable that Paine himself, finding his excise
31

32 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
office no support, and his shop a failure, resolved
that no offspring should suffer his penury or in
crease it. It is all mere guesswork.
Mr. Alfred Hammond, of Lewes, who owns the
property, showed me the documents connected with
it. After the death of Samuel Ollive in 1769,
Esther, his widow, enjoyed the messuage until her
own death, in 1800, when a division among the
heirs became necessary. Among the documents is
one which recites some particulars of the separation
between Paine and his wife.
" Soon after the Testator's death, his daughter Elizabeth
married Thos. Pain from whom she afterwards lived separate
under articles dated 4th June 1774, and made between the
said Thos. Pain of the first part, the said Elizabeth of the
2nd part, and the Rev. James Castley, Clerk, of the 3d part.
by which Articles, after reciting (inter alia) that Dissentions
had arisen between the said Thos. Pain and Elizabeth his
wife, and that they had agreed to live separate. And also recit
ing the Will of the said Saml. Ollive and that the said Thomas
Pain had agreed that the said Elizabeth should have and take
her share of the said Monies of the said House when the
same should become due and payable and that he would give
any Discharge that should then be required to and for the
use of the said Elizabeth : The said Thos. Pain did covenant
to permit the said Elizabeth to live separate from him and
to carry on such Trade and Business as she should think fit,
notwithstanding her coverture and as if she were a Feme.
Sole. And that he would not at any time thereafter claim or
demand the said monies which she should be entitled to at the
time of the sale of the said House in Lewes aforesaid, or any
of the Monies Rings Plate Cloathes Linen Woollen Household
Goods or Stock in Trade which the said Elizabeth should
or might at any time thereafter buy or purchase or which
should be devised or given to her or she should otherwise
acquire and that she should and might enjoy and absolutely

DOMESTIC TROUBLE. 33
dispose of the same as if she were a Feme. Sole and unmar
ried. And also that it should and might be lawful for the
said Elizabeth to have receive and take to her own separate
use and benefit her said share of the Monies for which the
said Messuage or Tenement in Lewes should be sold when the
same should become due and payable."
Another paper is a Release to Francis Mitchener,
October 14, 1800, in which it is recited :
" That the said Elizabeth Pain had ever since lived sepa
rate from him. the said Thos. Pain, and never had any issue,
and the said Thomas Pain had many years quitted this king
dom and resided (if living) in parts beyond the seas, but had
not since been heard of by the said Elizabeth Pain, nor was it
known for certain whether he was living or dead."
This release is signed by Robert Blackman and
wife, and eight others, among these being the
three children of Samuel Ollive, who under his
will were to " share alike " — Samuel, Thomas, and
Elizabeth (Mrs. Paine). The large seals attached
to the signatures were fortunately well preserved,
for each represents the head of Thomas Paine.
By the assistance of Mr. Hammond I am able to
present this little likeness of Paine that must have
been made when he was about thirty-five, or nearly
twenty years earlier than any other portrait of
him. The reader must form his own conjecture as
to the origin of this seal, its preservation by the
wife, and use on this document. At this time, and
probably since her separation, Elizabeth Paine
would appear to have resided with her brother
Thomas, a watchmaker in Cranbrook, Kent. That
she and the family did not know Paine's where
abouts in 1800, or whether he were dead or alive,
Vol. I.— 3

34 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
argues that they had not followed his career or
the course of public events with much interest.
One would be glad to believe that Elizabeth cher
ished kindly remembrance of the man who, consid
ering his forlorn condition, had certainly shown
generosity in the justice with which he renounced
all of his rights in the property she had brought him,
and whose hand she might naturally have suspected
behind the monies anonymously sent her. We will
therefore hope that it was from some other mem
ber of the family that Oldys obtained, — unless,
like his " A. M. of the University of Philadelphia,"
it was invented, — the letter said to have been writ
ten by Paine's mother to his wife.1 The letter may
have been manipulated, but it is not improbable
that rumors, " exaggerated by enmity or misstated
1 " Thetford, Norfolk, 27th July, 1774. Dear Daughter, — I must beg
leave to trouble you with my inquiries concerning my unhappy son and
your husband : various are the reports, which I find come originally from
the Excise-office. Such as his vile treatment to you, his secreting upwards
of 30/. intrusted with him to manage the petition for advance of salary ; and
that since his discharge, he have petitioned to be restored, which was
rejected with scorn. Since which I am told he have left England. To all
which I beg you'll be kind enough to answer me by due course of post.
— You '11 not be a little surprized at my so strongly desiring to know what 's
become of him after I repeat to you his undutiful behavior to the tenderest
of parents ; he never asked of us anything, but what was granted, that
were in our poor abilities to do ; nay, even distressed ourselves, whose
works are given over by old age, to let him have 20/. on bond, and every
other tender mark a parent could possibly shew a child ; his ingratitude, or
rather want of duty, has been such, that he have not wrote to me upwards
of two years. — If the above account be true, I am heartily sorry, that a
woman whose character and amiableness deserves the greatest respect, love,
and esteem, as I have always on enquiry been informed yours did, should be
tied for life to the worst of husbands. I am, dear daughter, your affection
ate mother, " F. Pain.
"P. S. For God's sake, let me have your answer, as I am almost, dis
tracted."

DOMESTIC TROUBLE. 35
by malice," as Oldys confesses, elicited some
such outburst from Thetford.1 The excisemen,
angry at the failure to get their case before Parlia
ment, and having fixed on Paine as their scape
goat, all other iniquities were naturally laid on him.
Eighteen years later, when the scapegoat who had
gone into the American wilderness returned with
the renown of having helped to make it a nation,
he addressed a letter to Lewes, which was about to
hold a meeting to respond to a royal proclamation
for suppressing seditious writings. His tone is
not that of a man who supposed that Lewes had
aught against him on the score of his wife.
" It is now upwards of eighteen years since I was a resident
inhabitant of the town of Lewes. My situation among you as
an officer of the revenue, for more than six years, enabled me
to see into the numerous and various distresses which the
weight of taxes even at that time of day occasioned ; and feel
ing, as I then did, and as it is natural for me to do, for the
hard condition of others, it is with pleasure I can declare, and
every person then under my survey, and now living, can wit
ness the exceeding candor, and even tenderness, with which
that part of the duty that fell to my share was executed. The
name of Thomas Paine is not to be found in the records of the
Lewes justices, in any one act of contention with, or severity
of any kind whatever towards, the persons whom he surveyed,
either in the town or in the country ; of this Mr. Fuller and
Mr. Shelley, who will probably attend the meeting, can, if they
please, give full testimony. It is, however, not in their power
to contradict it. Having thus indulged myself in recollecting
a place where I formerly had, and even now have, many
friends, rich and poor, and most probably some enemies,
1 When Paine had the money he did forward twenty pounds to his parents,
and made provision for his mother when she was a widow. As to writing to
her, in those unhappy years, he probably thought it better to keep his burdens
to himself. He may also have been aware of his mother's severity without
knowing her interest in him.

36 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
I proceed to the import of my letter. Since my departure
from Lewes, fortune or providence has thrown me into a line
of action which my first setting out in life could not possibly
have suggested to me. Many of you will recollect that, whilst
I resided among you, there was not a man more firm and open
in supporting the principles of liberty than myself, and I still
pursue, and ever will, the same path."
Finally, it should be added that Rickman, a
truthful man, who admits Paine's faults, says :
" This I can assert, that Mr. Paine always spoke
tenderly and respectfully of his wife ; and sent her
several times pecuniary aid, without her knowing
even whence it came."
While Paine was in London, trying to get before
Parliament a measure for the relief of excisemen,
he not only enjoyed the friendship of Goldsmith,
but that of Franklin. In the Doctor's electrical
experiments he took a deep interest ; for Paine
was devoted to science, and the extent of his
studies is attested by his description of a new
electrical machine and other scientific papers,
signed " Atlanticus," in the Pennsylvania Maga
zine. The sale of his effects in Lewes paid his
debts, but left him almost penniless. He came
to London, and how he lived is unknown — that is,
physically, for we do find some intimation of his
mental condition. In a letter written many years
after to John King, a political renegade, Paine
says :
" When I first knew you in Ailiffe-street, an obscure part of
the City, a child, without fortune or friends, I noticed you ;
because I thought I saw in you, young as you was, a bluntness
of temper, a boldness of opinion, and an originality of thought,
that portended some future good. I was pleased to discuss,

DOMESTIC TROUBLE. tf
with you, under our friend Oliver's lime-tree, those political
notions, which I have since given the world in my ' Rights of
Man.' You used to complain of abuses, as well as me, and
write your opinions on them in free terms — What then means
this sudden attachment to Kings ? "
This " Oliver" was probably the famous Alderman
Oliver who was imprisoned in the Tower during
the great struggle of the City with the Government,
on account of Wilkes. Paine tells us that in early
life he cared little for politics, which seemed to him
a species of " jockeyship " ; and how apt the term is
shown by the betting-book kept at Brooks' Club,
in which are recorded the bets of the noblemen and
politicians of the time on the outcome of every mo
tion and course of every public man or minister.
But the contemptuous word proves that Paine was
deeply interested in the issues which the people
had joined with the king and his servile ministers.
He could never have failed to read with excitement
the letters of Junius, whose "brilliant pen," he
afterwards wrote, " enraptured without convincing ;
and though in the plenitude of its rage it might be
said to give elegance to bitterness, yet the policy
survived the blast." We may feel sure that he had
heard with joy that adroit verdict of the jury at the
King's Bench on Woodfall, Junius' printer, which
secured liberty of the press until, twenty-two years
later, it was reversed by revolutionary panic, in the
same court, for Paine himself. Notwithstanding
the private immorality of Wilkes, in which his
associates were aristocratic, the most honorable
political elements in England, and the Independents
and Presbyterians, were resolute in defending the

38 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.
rights of his constituents against the authority
arrogated by the Commons to exclude him. Burke
then stood by Wilkes, as John Bright stood by
Bradlaugh at a later day. And while Paine was
laboring to carry his excise bill through Parliament
he had good opportunity to discover how com
pletely that body's real opinions were overruled by
royal dictation. It was at that time that George
III., indifferent to his brother's profligacies, would
not forgive his marriage with a commoner's sister,
and forced on Parliament a Marriage Act which
made all marriages in the royal family illegitimate
without his consent. The indignant resignation
of Fox modified the measure slightly, limiting
the King's interference at the twenty-sixth year of
the marrying parties, and then giving the veto to
Parliament. For this the King turned his wrath on
Fox. This was but one of the many instances
of those years— all told in Trevelyan's admirable
work1 — which added to Paine's studies of the
Wilkes conflicts a lasting lesson in the conserva
tion of despotic forces. The barbaric eras of
prerogative had returned under the forms of min
isterial government. The Ministry, controlled by
the Court, ruled by corruption of commoners.
It was a regime almost incredible to us now,
when England is of all nations most free from
corruption and court influence in politics ; and it
was little realized in English colonies before the
Revolution. But Franklin was in London to wit
ness it, and Paine was there to grow familiar with
the facts. To both of them the systematic in-
1 " The Early History of Charles James Fox," 1880.

i i \

DOMESTIC TROUBLE. 39
humanity and injustice were brought home person
ally. The discharged and insulted postmaster
could sympathize with the dismissed and starving
exciseman. Franklin recognized Paine's ability,
and believed he would be useful and successful in
America. So on this migration Paine decided, and
possibly the determination brought his domestic
discords to a crisis.

CHAPTER IV.
THE NEW WORLD.
Paine left England in October and arrived in
America November 30, 1774. He bore a letter of
introduction from Dr. Franklin to Richard Bache,
his son-in-law, dated September 30, 1774 :
" The bearer Mr. Thomas Paine is very well recommended
to me as an ingenious worthy young man. He goes to Penn
sylvania with a view of settling there. I request you to give
him your best advice and countenance, as he is quite a stranger
there. If you can put him in a way of obtaining employment
as a clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or assistant surveyor,
of all of which I think him very capable, so that he may pro
cure a subsistence at least, till he can make acquaintance and
obtain a knowledge of the country, you will do well, and much
oblige your affectionate father."
On March 4, 1775, Paine writes Franklin from
Philadelphia :
" Your countenancing me has obtained for me many friends
and much reputation, for which please accept my sincere
thanks. I have been applied to by several gentlemen to in
struct their sons on very advantageous terms to myself, and a
printer and bookseller here, a man of reputation and property,
Robert Aitkin, has lately attempted a magazine, but having
little or no turn that way himself, he has applied to me for as
sistance. He had not above six hundred subscribers when I
first assisted him. We have now upwards of fifteen hundred,
40

1775] THE NEW WORLD. 41
and daily increasing. I have not entered into terms with him
This is only the second number. The first I was not con
cerned in."
It has been often stated that Paine was befriended
by Dr. Rush, but there is no indication of this.
Their acquaintance was casual.
"About the year 1773 [says Dr. Rush — the date is an error
for 1774] I met him accidentally in Mr. Aitkin's bookstore,
and was introduced to him by Mr. Aitkin. We conversed a
few minutes, and I left him. Soon afterwards I read a short
essay with which I was much pleased, in one of Bradford's
papers, against the slavery of the Africans in our country, and
which I was informed was written by Mr. Paine. This ex
cited my desire to be better acquainted with him. We met
soon afterwards in Mr. Aitkin's bookstore, where I did homage
to his principles and pen upon the subject of the enslaved
Africans. He told me the essay to which I alluded was the
first thing he had ever published in his life. After this Mr.
Aitkin employed him as the editor of his Magazine, with a
salary of fifty pounds currency a year. This work was well
supported by him. His song upon the death of Gen. Wolfe,
and his reflections upon the death of Lord Clive, gave it a
sudden currency which few works of the kind have since had
in our country."
As the anti-slavery essay was printed ]Y|;fl.rr.h-&r
222^> it appears that Paine had been in America
more than three months before Rush noticed him.
The first number of the Pennsylvania Magazine,
or American Museum, appeared at the end of
January, 1775. Though "not concerned" in it
pecuniarily, not yet being editor, his contributions
increased the subscription list, and he was at once
engaged. For eighteen months Paine edited this
magazine, and probably there never was an equal

42 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l775
amount^of good literary work done on a salary of
fifty pounds a year. It was a handsome magazine,
with neat vignette — book, plough, anchor, and
olive-twined shield, — the motto, Juvat in sylvis
habitare. The future author of the " Rights of
Man " and " Age of Reason " admonishes corre
spondents that religion and politics are forbidden
topics ! The first number contains a portrait of
Goldsmith and the picture of a new electrical ma
chine. A prefatory note remarks that " the present
perplexities of affairs" have "encompassed with
difficulties the first number of the magazine, which,
like the early snowdrop, comes forth in a barren
season, and contents itself with modestly foretelling
that choicer flowers are preparing to appear." The
opening essay shows a fine literary touch, and occa
sionally a strangely modern vein of thought. " Our
fancies would be highly diverted could we look back
afid behold a circle of original Indians haranguing
/on the sublime perfections of the age ; yet 't is not
impossible but future times may exceed us as much
as we have exceeded them."
Here is a forerunner of Macaulay's New Zea-
lander sketching the ruins of St. Paul's. It is
followed by a prediction that the coming Ameri
can magazine will surpass the English, " because
we are not exceeded in abilities, have a more
extended field for inquiry, and whatever may be
our political state, our happiness will always depend
upon ourselves." A feature of the magazine was
the description, with plates, of recent English in
ventions not known in the new world — threshing-
machine, spinning-machine, etc., — such papers be-

I775] THE NEW WORLD.

43

ing by Paine. These attracted the members of the
Philosophical Society, founded by Franklin, and
Paine was welcomed into their circle by Ritten-
house, Clymer, Rush, Muhlenberg, and other rep
resentatives of the scientific and literary metropohsT
Many a piece composed for the Headstrong Club
at Lewes first saw the light in this magazine, — such
as the humorous poems, " The Monk and the Jew,"
" The Farmer and Short's Dog, Porter " ; also the
famous ballad " On the Death of General Wolfe,"
printed March, 1775, with music. Lewes had not,
indeed, lost sight of him, as is shown by a commu
nication in April from Dr. Matthew Wilson, dated
from that town, relating to a new kind of fever
raging in England.
The reader who has studied Paine's avowed and
well-known works finds no difficulty in tracking him
beneath the various signatures by which he avoided
an appearance of writing most of the articles in
the Pennsylvania Magazine, though he really di4r
He is now " Atlanticus," now " Vox Populi," or
-<ryEspp," and ofte,ner_ affixes no signature. The
Thetford Quaker is still here in " Reflections on
the Death of Lord Clive " (reprinted as a pam
phlet in England), " A New Anecdote of Alexan
der the Great," and " Cursory Reflections on the
Single Combat or Modern Duel." The duel was
hardly yet challenged in America when Paine wrote
(May, 1775)
" From the peculiar prevalence of this custom in countries
where the religious system is established which, of all others,
most expressly prohibits the gratification of revenge, with
every species of outrage and violence, we too plainly see

44 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775
how little mankind are in reality influenced by the precepts
of the religion by which they profess to be guided, and in
defence of which they will occasionally risk even their lives."
But with this voice from Thetford meeting-house
mingles the testimony of " common sense." In
July, 1775, he writes :
" I am thus far a Quaker, that I would gladly agree with all
the world to lay aside the use of arms, and settle matters by
negotiations ; but, unless the whole world wills, the matter
ends, and I take up my musket, and thank heaven he has put
it in my power. . . . We live not in a world of angels.
The reign of Satan is not ended, neither can we expect to be
defended by miracles."
Titles he sees through (May, 1775) :
"The Honourable plunderer of his country, or the Right
Honourable murderer of mankind, create such a contrast of
ideas as exhibit a monster rather than a man. The lustre of
the Star, and the title of My Lord, overawe the superstitious
vulgar, and forbid them to enquire into the character of the
possessor : Nay more, they are, as it were, bewitched to
admire in the great the vices they would honestly condemn
in themselves. . . . The reasonable freeman sees through the
magic of a title, and examines the man before he approves
him. To him the honours of the worthless seem to write their
masters' vices in capitals, and their Stars shine to no other end
than to read them by. Modesty forbids men separately, or
collectively, to assume titles. But as all honours, eVen that of
kings, originated from the public, the public may\ justly be
called the true fountain of honour. And it is with much
pleasure I have heard the title 'Honourable' applied; to a
body of men, who nobly disregarding private ease and interest
for public welfare, have justly merited the address of The
Honourable Continental Congress."
He publishes (May, 1775), and I think wrote,
a poetical protest against cruelty to animals, to

1775] THE NEW WORLD. 45
whose rights Christendom was then not awakened.
His pen is unmistakable in " Reflections on Un- x
happy Marriages" (June, 1775) : " As extasy abates
coolness succeeds, which often makes way for indif
ference, and that for neglect. Sure of each other
by the nuptial bond, they no longer take any pains /
to be mutually agreeable. Careless if they dis- \
please, and yet angry if reproached ; with so little V
relish for each other's company that anybody else's
is more welcome, and more entertaining." It is'
a more pointed statement of the problem already
suggested, in the April magazine, by his well-known
fable " Cupid and Hymen," whose controversies are
now settled in the Divorce Court.
In his August (1775) number is found the earli
est American plea for woman. It is entitled " An
Occasional Letter on the Female Sex," and un
signed, but certainly by Paine. His trick of intro
ducing a supposititious address from another per
son, as in the following extract, appears in many „
examples. " Affronted in one country by polygamy, which gives them
their rivals for inseparable companions ; inslaved in another
by indissoluble ties, which often join the gentle to the rude,
and sensibility to brutality : Even in countries where they
may be esteemed most happy, constrained in their desires in
the disposal of their goods, robbed of freedom of will by the
laws, the slaves of opinion, which rules them with absolute
sway, and construes the slightest appearances into guilt, sur
rounded on all sides by judges who are at once their tyrants
and seducers, and who after having prepared their faults,
punish every lapse with dishonour — nay usurp the right of de
grading them on suspicion ! — who does not feel for the tender
sex ? Yet such I am sorry to say is the lot of woman over the
whole earth. Man with regard to them, in all climates and in

46 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l775
all ages, has been either an insensible husband or an oppressor ;
but they have sometimes experienced the cold and deliberate
oppression of pride, and sometimes the violent and terrible
tyranny of jealousy. When they are not beloved they are
nothing ; and when they are they are tormented. They have
almost equal cause to be afraid of indifference and love. Over
three quarters of the globe Nature has placed them between
contempt and misery."
" Even among people where beauty receives the highest
homage we find men who would deprive the sex of every kind
of reputation. ' The most virtuous woman,' says a celebrated
Greek, ' is she who is least talked of.' That morose man,
while he imposes duties on women, would deprive them of the
sweets of public esteem, and in exacting virtues from them
would make it a crime to aspire to honour. If a woman were
to defend the cause of her sex she might address him in the
following manner :
" ' How great is your injustice ! If we have an equal right
with you to virtue, why should we not have an equal right to
praise ? The public esteem ought to wait upon merit. Our
duties are different from yours, but they are not less difficult
to fulfil, or of less consequence to society : They are the
foundations of your felicity, and the sweetness of life. We are
wives and mothers. 'T is we who form the union and the
cordiality of families ; 't is we who soften that savage rudeness
which considers everything as due to force, and which would
involve man with man in eternal war. We cultivate in you
that humanity which makes you feel for "the misfortunes of
others, and our tears forewarn you of your own danger. Nay,
you cannot be ignorant that we have need of courage not less
than you : More feeble in ourselves, we have perhaps more
trials to encounter. Nature assails us with sorrow, law and
custom press us with constraint, and sensibility and virtue
alarm us by their continual conflict. Sometimes also the name
of citizen demands from us the tribute of fortitude. When
you offer your blood to the state, think that it is ours. In
giving it our sons and our husbands we give it more than our
selves. You can only die on the field of battle, but we have
the misfortune to survive those whom we love the most. Alas !

J775] THE NEW WORLD.

47

while your ambitious vanity is unceasingly laboring to cover
the earth with statues, with monuments, and with inscriptions
to eternize, if possible, your names, and give yourselves an
existence when this body is no more, why must we be con
demned to live and to die unknown ? Would that the grave
and eternal forgetfulness should be our lot. Be not our tyrants
in all : Permit our names to be sometime pronounced beyond
the narrow circle in which we live : Permit friendship, or at
least love, to inscribe its emblems on the tomb where our
ashes repose ; and deny us not the public esteem which, after
the esteem of one's self, is the sweetest reward of well
doing.' "
Thus the Pennsylvania Magazine, in the time
that Paine edited it, was a seed-bag from which
this sower scattered the seeds of great reforms
ripening with the progress of civilization. Through
the more popular press he sowed also. Events
selected his seeds of American independence, of
republican equality, freedom from royal, ecclesias
tical, and hereditary privilege, for a swifter and
more imposing harvest ; but the whole circle of
human ideas and principles was recognized by this
lone wayfaring man. / The first to urge extension
of the principles of /independence to the enslaved
negro ; the first to arraign monarchy, and to point'
out the danger of its survival in presidency; the
, first to propose articles of a more thorough nationr
ality to the new-born States ; the first to advocate
international arbitration ; the first to expose the\
absurdity and criminality of duelling ; the first to
suggest more rational ideas of marriage and di
vorce ; the first to advocate national and inter
national copyright ; the first to plead for the
animals ; the first to demand justice for woman ^

48 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. t177S
what brilliants would our modern reformers have
contributed to a coronet for that man's brow, had
he not presently worshipped the God of his fathers
after the way that theologians called heresy !
" Be not righteous overmuch," saith cynical Solo
mon ; " neither make thyself over-wise : why
shouldest thou destroy thyself ? "

CHAPTER V.
LIBERTY AND EQUALITY.
With regard to Paine's earliest publication there
has been needless confusion. In his third Crisis
he says to Lord Howe : " I have likewise an aver
sion to monarchy, as being too debasing to the
dignity of man ; but I never troubled others with
my notions till very lately, nor ever published a
syllable in England in my life." It has been
alleged that this is inconsistent with his having
written in 1 772 " The Case of the Officers of Ex
cise." But this, though printed (by William Lee
of Lewes) was not published until 1793. It was a
document submitted to Parliament, but never sold.
The song on Wolfe, and other poetical pieces,
though known to the Headstrong Club in Lewes,
were first printed in Philadelphia.1
1 Mr. W. H. Burr maintains that Paine wrote in the English Crisis
^775) under the name of " Casca." As Casca's articles bear intrinsic evi
dence of being written in London — such as his treating as facts General
Gage's fictions about Lexington — the theory supposes Paine to have visited
England in that year. But besides the facts that Rush had an interview with
Paine near the middle of March, and Franklin in October, the accounts of
Aitkin, preserved in Philadelphia, show payments to Paine in May, July,
and August, 1775. As Mr. Burr's further theory, that Paine wrote the let
ters of Junius, rests largely on the identification with "Casca," it might
be left to fall with disproof of the latter. It is but fair, however, to the
labors of a courageous writer, and to the many worthy people who have
adopted his views, to point out the impossibilities of their case. An able
4 49

50 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l775
In America Wolfe again rises before Paine's im
agination. In the Pennsylvania Journal, January
4th, appears a brief " Dialogue between General
Wolfe and General Gage in a Wood near Boston."
Wolfe, from the Elysian Fields, approaches Gage
with rebuke for the errand on which he has come
to America, and reminds him that he is a citizen
as well as a soldier. "If you have any regard for
the glory of the British name, and if you prefer
the society of Grecian, Roman, and British heroes
in the world of spirits to the company of Jeffries,
Kirk, and other royal executioners, I conjure you
immediately to resign your commission."
Although this " Dialogue" was the first writing
summary of the facts discoverable concerning the personality of Junius, in
Macaulay's " Warren Hastings,'' says : "As to the position, pursuits, and con
nexions of Junius, the following are the most important facts which can be
considered as clearly proved : first, that he was acquainted with the technical
forms of the Secretary of State's office ; secondly, that he was intimately
acquainted with the business of the War Office ; thirdly, that he, during the
year 1770, attended debates in the House of Lords, and took notes of
speeches, particularly of the speeches of Lord Chatham ; fourthly, that he
bitterly resented the appointment of Mr. Chamier to the place of Deputy
Secretary of War ; fifthly, that he was bound by some strong tie to the first
'Lord Holland."
^^Now during the period of Junius' letters (Jan. 21, 1769, to Jan. 21, 1772)
Paine was occupied with his laborious duties as exciseman at Lewes, and
with the tobacco mill from which he vainly tried to extort a living for him
self and wife, and her mother. Before that period there was no time at
which Paine could have commanded the leisure or opportunities necessary to
master the political and official details known to Junius, even had he been
interested in them. He declares that he had no interest in politics, which
he regarded as a species of " jockeyship." How any one can read a page of
Junius and then one of Paine, and suppose them from the same pen appears
to me inconceivable. Junius is wrapped up in the affairs of Lord This and
Duke That, and a hundred details. I can as easily imagine Paine agitated
with the movements of a battle of chessmen. But apart from this, the
reader need only refer to the facts of his life before coming to America
to acquit him of untruth in saying that he had published nothing in England,
and that the cause of America made him an author.

1775] LIBERTY AND EQUALITY. 51
of Paine published, it was not the first written for
publication. The cause that first moved his heart
and pen was that of the negro slave. Dr. Rush's
date of his meeting with Paine, 1773, — a year
before his arrival, — is one of a number of errors
in his letter, among these being his report that
Paine told him the antislavery essay was the first
thing he had ever published. Paine no doubt told
him it was the first thing he ever wrote and offered
for publication ; but it was not published until
March 8th. Misled by Rush's words, Paine's edi
tors and our historians of the antislavery movement
have failed to discover this early manifesto of
abolitionism. It is a most remarkable article.
//Every argument and appeal, moral, religious, mili
tary, economic, familiar in our subsequent anti-
slavery struggle, is here found stated with eloquence
and clearness. 'Having pointed out the horrors of
the slave trade and of slavery, he combats the
argument that the practice was permitted to the
Jews. Were such a plea allowed it would justify
adoption of other Jewish practices utterly unlawful
"under clearer light." The Jews indeed had no
permission to enslave those who never injured
them, but all such arguments are unsuitable " since
the time of reformation came under Gospel light.
All distinctions of nations, and privileges of one
above others, are ceased. Christians are taught to
account all men their neighbours, and love their
neighbours as themselves ; and do to all men as
they would be done by ; to do good to all men ;
and man-stealing is ranked with enormous crimes."
Bradford might naturally hesitate some weeks be-

52 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. LI775
fore printing these pointed reproofs. " How just,
how suitable to our crime is the punishment with
which Providence threatens us ? We have enslaved
multitudes, and shed much innocent blood, and now
are threatened with the same." In the conclusion,
a practical scheme is proposed for liberating all
except the infirm who need protection, and set
tling them on frontier lands, where they would be
friendly protectors instead of internal foes ready
to help any invader who may offer them freedom.
This wonderful article is signed " Justice and
Humanity." Thomas Paine's venture in this direc
tion was naturally welcomed by Dr. Rush, who
some years before had written a little pamphlet
against the slave trade, and deploring slavery,
though he had not proposed or devised any plan
for immediate emancipation. Paine's paper is as
thorough as Garrison himself could have made it.
And, indeed, it is remarkable that Garrison, at a
time when he shared the common prejudices against
Paine, printed at the head of his Liberator a motto
closely resembling Paine's. The motto of Paine
was : " The world is my country, my religion is to
do good " ; that of the Liberator : " Our country is
the world, our countrymen are all mankind." Gar
rison did characteristic justice to Paine wharf he had
outgrown early prejudices against him.1 On April
1 2th, thirty-five days after Paine's plea for emanci
pation, the first American Antislavery Society was
formed, in Philadelphia.
1 It will be seen by the " Life of William Lloyd Garrison," i., p. 219, and
iii., p. 145, that Mr. Garrison did not know of Paine's motto (" Rights of
Man," i., chap. v.). His review of Paine's works appeared November 21,
1845. The Liberator first appeared January 1, 1831.

1775] LIBERTY AND EQUALITY. 53
Although the dialogue between Wolfe and Gage
(January 4th) shows that Paine shared the feeling
of America, the earlier numbers of his Pennsylvania
Magazine prove his strong hope for reconciliation.
That hope died in the first collision ; after Lexing
ton he knew well that separation was inevitable.
A single sentence in the magazine intimates the
change. The April number, which appeared soon
after the " Lexington massacre," contains a sum
mary of Chatham's speech, in which he said the
crown would lose its lustre if " robbed of so prin
cipal a jewel as America." Paine adds this foot
note : " The principal jewel of the crown actually
dropt out at the coronation." There was probably
no earlier printed suggestion of independence by
any American.1
There are three stages in the evolution of the
Declaration of I ndependence. The colonies reached
first the resolution of resistance, secondly of sepa
ration, and thirdly of republicanism.
In the matter of resistance the distribution of
honors has been rather literary than historical. In
considering the beginnings of the Revolution our
minds fly at once to the Tea-party in Boston har
bor, then to Lexington, where seven Massachusetts
men fell dead, and seven years of war followed.
But two years before the tea was thrown overboard,
1 The London Chronicle, of October 25, 1774, printed Major Cartwright's
"American Independence the Interest and Glory of Great Britain," and it
was reprinted in the Pennsylvania Journal. Although it has little relation
to the form in which the question presently suggested itself, the article is
interesting as an indication that separation was then more talked of in
England than in America. Twelve years before the Revolution a pamphlet
in favor of separation was written by Josiah Tucker of Bristol, England.
Then as now colonists were more loyal than the English at home.

54 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l775
and four years before the Lexington massacre,
North Carolinians had encountered British troops,
had left two hundred patriots fallen, and seen their
leaders hanged for treason. Those earliest martyrs
are almost forgotten because, in the first place,
North Carolina produced no historians, poets, mag
azines, to rehearse their story from generation to
generation. In the second place, the rebellion
which Governor Tryon crushed at Alamance,
though against the same oppressions, occurred in
/1771, before the colonies had made common cause.
— Governmental anachronisms have a tendency
to take refuge in colonies. Had Great Britain
conceded to Americans the constitutional rights
of Englishmen there could have been no revolu
tion. Before the time of George III. British
governors had repeatedly revived in America pre
rogatives extinct in England, but the colonists had
generally been successful in their appeals to the
home government. Even in 1774 the old states
men in America had not realized that a king had
come who meant to begin in America his mad
scheme of governing as well as reigning. When,
in September, 1774, the first Continental Congress
assembled, its members generally expected to set
tle the troubles with the "mother country" by
petitions to Parliament. There is poetic irony in
the fact that the first armed resistance to royal
authority in America was by the North Carolina
" Regulators." On the frontiers, before official
courts were established, some kind of law and order
had to be maintained, and they were protected
by a volunteer police called "Regulators." In

1775] LIBERTY AND EQUALITY. 55
the forests of Virginia, two hundred years ago, Peter
Lynch was  appqinled  judge byjiis neighbors be-
cause of his wisdom and iustice, and his decisions
werg^ejaiatGed-. bv-Ji R Pffiil^o^giL^^ge~Lynch's
honorable name is now degraded into a precedent
for the cowardly ruffians who hunt down unarmed
negroes, Italians, and Chinamen, and murder them
without trial, or after their acquittal. But such was
not the case with our frontier courts and " Regula
tors," which were civilized organizations, though
unauthorized. For several years before the Revo
lution lawful and civilized government in some of
the colonies depended on unauthorized administra
tions. The authorized powers were the " lynch
ers," as they would now be called, with traditional
misrepresentation of Peter Lynch. The North
Carolina Regulators of 1771 were defending the
English constitution against a king and a governor
acting as lawlessly as our vile lynchers and " White
Caps." It was remarked, by Paine among others
that after the royal authority was abolished, though
for a long time new governments were not estab
lished, " order and harmony were preserved as
inviolate as in any country in Europe." '
In the dialogue between Wolfe and Gage, Paine
writes as an Englishman ; he lays no hand on the
constitution, nor considers the sovereign involved
in ministerial iniquities. Apart from his Quaker
sentiments he felt dismay at a conflict which inter
rupted his lucrative school, and the literary oppor
tunities afforded by his magazine. "For my own
part," he wrote -to Franklin, " I thought it very
1 " The Rights of Man," part ii., chapter i.

56 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. ['775
hard to have the country set on fire about my ears
almost the moment I got into it." And indeed
there was a general disgust among the patriots
during the year 1775, while as yet no great aim or
idea illumined the smoke of battle. They were
vehemently protesting that they had no wish for
separation from England, just as in the beginning
of our civil war leading Unionists declared that
they would not interfere with slavery. In March,
1775, Franklin maintained the assurance he had
given Lord Chatham in the previous year, that he
had never heard in America an expression in favor
of independence, " from any person drunk or sober."
Paine says that on his arrival he found an obstinate
attachment to Britain ; "it was at that time a kind
of treason to speak against it." " Independence
was a doctrine scarce and rare even towards the
conclusion of the year 1775." In May, George
Washington, on his way to Congress, met the Rev.
Jonathan Boucher, in the middle of the Potomac ;
while their boats paused, the clergyman warned his
friend that the path on which he was entering might
lead to separation from England. " If you ever
hear of my joining in any such measures," said
Washington, " you have my leave to set me down
for everything wicked."1 Although Paine, as we
shall see, had no reverence for the crown, and
already foresaw American independence, he ab
horred the method of war. In the first number of
his magazine he writes : "The speeches of the dif
ferent governors pathetically lament the present
1 Notes and Queries (Eng.), series 3 and 5. See also in Lippincolfs Maga
zine, May, 1889, my paper embodying the correspondence of Washington
and Boucher.

1775] LIBERTY AND EQUALITY. 57
distracted state of affairs. Yet they breathe a
spirit of mildness as well as tenderness, and give
encouragement to hope that some happy method
of accommodation may yet arise."
But on April 19th came the " massacre at Lex
ington," as it was commonly called. How great a
matter is kindled by a small fire ! A man whose
name remains unknown, forgetful of Captain
Parker's order to his minute-men not to fire until
fired on, drew his trigger on the English force ad
vancing to Concord ; the gun missed fire, but the
little flash was answered by a volley ; seven men
lay dead. In the blood of those patriots at
Lexington the Declaration of Independence was
really written. From town-meetings throughout
the country burning resolutions were hurled on.
General Gage in Boston, who had warned Major
Pitcairn, commander of the expedition, not to
assume the offensive. From one county, Meck
lenburg, North Carolina, were sent to Congress
twenty resolutions passed by its committee, May
31st, declaring " all laws and commissions confirmed
by or derived from the authority of the King and
Parliament are anulled and vacated," and that,
"whatever person shall hereafter receive a commis
sion from the crown, or , attempt to exercise any
such commission heretofore received, shall be
deemed an enemy to his country." 1
1 These resolutions further organized a provisional government to be in
force until "the legislative body of Great Britain resign its unjust and
arbitrary pretensions with respect to America." In 1819 a number of wit
nesses stated that so early as May 20th Mecklenburg passed an absolute
Declaration of Independence, and it is possible that, on receipt of the
tidings from Lexington, some popular meeting at Charlottetown gave vent to
its indignation in expressions, or even resolutions, which were tempered by

58 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1775
Many years after the independence of America
had been achieved, William Cobbett, on his return
to England after a long sojourn in the United
States, wrote as follows :
" As my Lord Grenville introduced the name of Burke,
suffer me, my Lord, to introduce that of a man who put this
Burke to shame, who drove him off the public stage to seek
shelter in the pension list, and who is now named fifty million
times where the name of the pensioned Burke is mentioned
once. The cause of the American colonies was the cause of
the English Constitution, which says that no man shall be
taxed without his own consent. ... A little thing some
times produces a great effect ; an insult offered to a man of
great talent and unconquerable perseverance has in many in
stances produced, in the long run, most tremendous effects ;
and it appears to me very clear that some beastly insults,
| offered to Mr. Paine while he was in the Excise in England,
was the real cause of the Revolution in America ; for, though
[the nature of the cause of America was such as I have before
{described it ; though the principles were firm in the minds of
jthe people of that country ; still, it was Mr. Paine, and Mr.
'Paine alone, who brought those principles into action."
In this passage Cobbett was more epigrammatic
than exact. Paine, though not fairly treated, as
we have seen, in his final dismissal from the excise,
was not insulted. But there is more truth in what
Cobbett suggests as to Paine's part than he fully
realized. Paine's unique service in the work of
independence may now be more clearly defined. It
the County Committee eleven days later. The resolutions embodying the
supposititious "Declaration," written out (1800) from memory by the
alleged secretary of the meeting (Dr. Joseph McKnitt Alexander), are
believed by Dr. Welling to be " an honest effort to reproduce, according
to the best of his recollection, the facts and declarations contained in the
genuine manuscripts of May 31, after that manifesto had been forgotten."—
(North American Review, April, 1874.) But the testimony is very strong in
favor of two sets of resolutions.

1775] LIBERTY AND EQUALITY. 59
was that he raised the Revolution into an evolution.
After the "Lexington massacre" separation was
talked of by many, but had it then occurred America
might have been another kingdom. The members
of Congress were of the rich conservative " gentry/^
and royalists. Had he not been a patriot, Peyton/
Randolph, our first president, would probably have
borne a title like his father, and Washington would
certainly have been knighted. Paine was in the posi
tion of the abolitionists when the secession war be
gan. They also held peace principles, and would
have scorned a war for the old slave-holding union,
as Paine would have scorned a separation from Eng
land preserving its political institutions. The war/
having begun, and separation become probable,
Paine hastened to connect jtj^thjiumanity and with
-TegubTicanism. As the abolitionists resolved that
the secession war should sweep slavery out of the
country, Paine made a brave effort that the Revolu
tion should clear away both slavery and monarchy.
It was to be in every respect a new departure for
humanity. So he anticipated the Declaration of
Independence by more than eight months with one
of his own, which was discovered by Moreau in the
file of the Pennsylvania Journal, October 18th.1
" A SERIOUS THOUGHT.
" When I reflect on the horrid cruelties exercised by Britain
in the East Indies — How thousands perished by artificial fam
ine — How religion and every manly principle of honor and
honesty were sacrificed to luxury and pride — When I read
1 Mr. Moreau mentions it as Paine's in his MS. notes in a copy of
Cheetham's book, now owned by the Pennsylvania Historical Society. No
one familiar with Paine's style at the time can doubt its authorship.

60 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l775
of the wretched natives being blown away, for no other crime
than because, sickened with the miserable scene, they refused
to fight — When I reflect on these and a thousand instances
of similar barbarity, I firmly believe that the Almighty, in
compassion to mankind, will curtail the power of Britam.
" And when I reflect on the use she hath made of the dis
covery of this new world — that the. little paltry dignity of
earthly kings hath been set up in preference to the great cause
of the King of kings — That instead of Christian examples to
the Indians, she hath basely tampered with their passions,
imposed on their ignorance, and made them the tools of
treachery and murder — And when to these and many other
melancholy reflections I add this sad remark, that ever since
the discovery of America she hath employed herself in the
most horrid of all traffics, that of human flesh, unknown to
the most savage nations, hath yearly (without provocation
and in cold blood) ravaged the hapless shores of Africa,
robbing it of its unoffending inhabitants to cultivate her
stolen dominions in the West — When I reflect on these, I hesi
tate not for a moment to believe that the Almighty will finally
separate America from Britain. Call it Independancy or what
you will, if it is the cause of God and humanity it will go on.
"And when the Almighty shall have blest us, and made
us a people dependent only upon him, then may our first grati
tude be shown by an act of continental legislation, which shall
put a stop to the importation of Negroes for sale, soften the
hard fate of those already here, and in time procure their
freedom. " HUMANUS."

CHAPTER VI.
"COMMON SENSE."
In furrows ploughed deep by lawless despotism,
watered with blood of patriots, the Thetford Quaker
sowed his seed — true English seed. Even while
he did so he was suspected of being a British spy,
and might have been roughly handled in Philadel
phia had it not been for Franklin. Possibly this
suspicion may .have arisen from his having, in the
antislavery letter, asked the Americans " to con
sider with what consistency or decency they com
plain so loudly of attempts to enslave them, while
they hold so many thousands in slavery." Per
fectly indifferent to this, Paine devoted the autumn
of 1775 to his pamphlet "Common Sense," which
with the new year "burst from the press with an
effect which has rarely been produced by types and
paper in any age or country." So says Dr. Benja
min Rush, and his assertion, often quoted, has as
often been confirmed.
Of the paramount influence of Paine's " Common
Sense " there can indeed be no question.1 It reached
Washington soon after tidings that Norfolk, Vir
ginia, had been burned (Jan. 1st) by Lord Dunmore,
1 ' ' This day was published, and is now selling by Robert Bell, in Third
Street, [Phil.] price two shillings, ' Common Sense,' addressed to the inhabi
tants of North America." — Pennsylvania Journal, Jan. 10, 1776.
61

,62 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [J776
as Falmouth (now Portland), Maine, had been, Oct.
17, 1775, by ships under Admiral Graves. The
General wrote to Joseph Reed, from Cambridge,
Jan. 31st : " A few more of such flaming arguments
as were exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk, added
to the sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning
contained in the pamphlet ' Common Sense,' will
not leave numbers at a loss to decide upon the pro
priety of separation." x
Henry Wisner, a New York delegate in Congress,
sent the pamphlet to John McKesson, Secretary of
the Provincial Congress sitting in New York City,
with the following note : " Sir, I have only to ask
the favour of you to read this pamphlet, consulting
Mr. Scott and such of the Committee of Safety as
you think proper, particularly Orange and Ulster,
and let me know their and your opinion of the gen
eral spirit of it. I would have wrote a letter on the
subject, but the bearer is waiting." In pursuance
of this General Scott suggested a private meeting,
and McKesson read the pamphlet aloud. New
York, the last State to agree to separation, was
alarmed by the pamphlet, and these leaders at first
thought of answering it, but found themselves with
out the necessary arguments. Henry Wisner, how
ever, required arguments rather than orders, and
despite the instructions of his State gave New York
the honor of having one name among those who,
on July 4th, voted for independence.2 Joel Barlow,
' "The Writings of George Washington." Collected and edited by
Worthington Chauncey Ford, vol. iii., p. 396.
5 Mag. Am. Hist., July, 1880, p. 62, and Dec, 1888, p. 479. The
Declaration passed on July 4th was not signed until Aug. 2d, the postpone
ment being for the purpose of removing the restrictions placed by New York

1776] " COMMON SENSE." 63
a student in Yale College at the beginning of the
Revolution, has borne testimony to the great effect
of Paine's pamphlet, as may be seen in his biography
by Mr. Todd. An original copy of Paine's excise
pamphlet (1792) in my possession contains a note
in pencil, apparently contemporary,. suggesting that
the introduction was written by Barlow. In this
introduction — probably by Barlow, certainly by a
competent observer of events in America — it is
said :
" On this celebrated publication [' Common Sense '], which
has received the testimony of praise from the wise and learned
of different nations, we need only remark (for the merit of
every work should be judged by its effect) that it gave spirit
and resolution to the Americans, who were then wavering and
undetermined, to assert, their rights, and inspired a decisive
energy into their counsels : we may therefore venture to say,
without fear of contradiction, that the great American cause
owed as much to the pen of Paine as to the sword of Wash
ington." :
Edmund Randolph, our first Attorney-General,
who had been on Washington's staff in the begin
ning of the war, and conducted much of his corre
spondence, ascribed independence primarily to
George III., but next to " Thomas Paine, an Eng
lishman by birth, and possessing an imagination
which happily combined political topics, poured
forth in a style hitherto unknown on this side of
and Maryland on their delegates. Wisner, the only New York delegate who
had voted for the Declaration, did not return until after the recess. In
Trumbull's picture at the Capitol Thomas Stone, a signer for Maryland, is
left out, and Robert Livingston of New York is included, though he did not
sign it.
1 And yet — such was the power of theological intimidation — even heretical
Barlow could find no place for Paine in his Columbiad (1807).

64 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l776
the Atlantic, from the ease with which it insinuated
itself into the hearts of the people who were un
learned, or of the learned." x This is from a devout
churchman, writing after Paine's death. Paine's
malignant biographer, Cheetham (1809), is con
strained to say of " Common Sense ": " Speaking
a language which the colonists had felt but not
thought, its popularity, terrible in its consequences
to the parent country, was unexampled in the history
^of the press."2
Let it not be supposed that Washington, Frank
lin, Jefferson, Randolph, and the rest, were carried
away by a meteor. Deep answers only unto deep.
Paine's ideas went far because they came far. He
was the authentic commoner, representing English
freedom in the new world. There was no dreg in
the poverty of his people that he had not tasted,
no humiliation in their dependence, no outlook of
their hopelessness, he had not known, and with the
addition of intellectual hungers which made his
old-world despair conscious. The squalor and ab-
jectness of Thetford, its corporation held in the
hollow of Grafton's hand, its commoners nomina
ted by him, the innumerable villages equally help
less, the unspeakable corruptions of the government,
the repeated and always baffled efforts of the out
raged people for some redress, — these had been
brought home to Paine in many ways, had finally
driven him to America, where he arrived on the
1 Randolph's " History " (MS.), a possession of the Virginia HistoricaP
Society, has been confided to my editorial care for publication.
s See also the historians, Ramsay (Rev., i., p. 336, London, 1793), Gordon
(Rev., ii., p. 78, New York, 1794), Bryant and Gay (U. S., iii., p. 471, New
York, 1879).

I776] " COMMON SENSE." 6$
hour for which none had been so exactly and thor
oughly trained. He had thrown off the old world,
and that America had virtually done the same
constituted its attraction for him. In the opening
essay in his magazine, written within a month of
his arrival in the country (Nov. 30, 1774), Paine
speaks of America as a " nation," and his pregnant
sentences prove how mature the principles of inde
pendence had become in his mind long before the
outbreak of hostilities.
" America has now outgrown the state of infancy. Her
strength and commerce make large advances to manhood ; and
science in all its branches has not only blossomed, but even
ripened upon the soil. The cottages as it were of yesterday
have grown to villages, and the villages to cities ; and while
proud antiquity, like a skeleton in rags, parades the streets
of other nations, their genius, as if sickened and disgusted with
the phantom, comes hither for recovery. . . . America
yet inherits a large portion of her first-imported virtue. De
generacy is here almost a useless word. Those who are con
versant with Europe would be tempted to believe that even
the air of the Atlantic disagrees with the constitution of foreign
vices ; if they survive the voyage they either expire on their_
arrival, or linger away in an incurable consumption. There is
a happy something in the climate of America which disarms
them of all their power both of infection and attraction." — —
In presently raising the standard of republican
independence, Paine speaks of separation from
England as a foregone conclusion. " I have always
considered the independency of this continent as
an event which sooner or later must arrive." Great
Britain having forced a collision, the very least that
America can demand is separation.
" The object contended for ought always to bear some just
proportion to the expence. The removal of North, or the
5

66 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l77<>
whole detestable junto, is a matter unworthy the millions we
have expended. A temporary stoppage of trade was an incon
venience which would have sufficiently ballanced the repeal of
all the acts complained of, had such repeals been obtained ;
but if the whole Continent must take up arms, if every man
must be a soldier, 't is scarcely worth our while to fight against
a contemptible ministry only. Dearly, dearly do we pay for
'the repeal of the acts, if that is all we fight for ; for, in a just
estimation, 't is as great a folly to pay a Bunker-hill price for
law as for land. . . It would be policy in the king, at
. this time, to repeal the acts for the sake of reinstating himself
in the government of the provinces, in order that he may
accomplish by craft and subtlety, in the long run, what he
cannot do by force and violence in the short one. Recon
ciliation and ruin are nearly related."
Starting with the lowest demand, separation,
Paine shows the justice and necessity of it lying
fundamentally in the nature of monarchy as repre
sented by Great Britain, and the potential re
publicanism of colonies composed of people from
all countries. The keynote of this is struck- in
the introduction. The author withholds his name
" because the object of attention is the Doctrine
itself, not the Man " ; and he affirms, " the cause
of America is in a great measure the cause of all
mankind." No other pamphlet published during the Revolu
tion is comparable with " Common Sense " for
interest to the reader of to-day, or for value as an
historical document. Therein as in a mirror is be
held the almost incredible England, against which
the colonies contended. And therein is reflected the,
nioral, eyen_rdjgica^,.,enthusiasm.which raisedrthe
struggle above the paltriness of a rebellion against
taxation to a great human~nmovementr==a~W'ar for

I776] " COMMON SENSE." 6j
an idea. The art with which every sentence is'
feathered for its aim is consummate.
The work was for a time generally attributed to
Franklin. It is said the Doctor was reproached by
a loyal lady for using in it such an epithet as " the
royal brute of Britain." He assured her that he
had not written the pamphlet, and would never so
dishonor the brute creation.
In his letter to Cheetham (1809) already referred
to, Dr. Rush claims to have suggested the work to
Paine, who read the sheets to him and also to Dr.
Franklin. This letter, however, gives so many
indications of an enfeebled memory, that it cannot
be accepted against Paine's own assertion, made in
the year following the publication of " Common
Sense," when Dr. Rush and Dr. Franklin might
have denied it.
" In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such
materials as were in his hands towards completing a history of
the present transactions, and seemed desirous of having the
first volume out the next spring. I had then formed the out
lines of ' Common Sense,' and finished nearly the first part ; and
as I supposed the doctor's design in getting out a history was
to open the new year with a new system, I expected to surprise
him with a production on that subject much earlier than he
thought of ; and without informing him of what I was doing,
got it ready for the press as fast as I conveniently could, and
sent him the first pamphlet that was printed off."
On the other hand, Paine's memory was at fault
when he wrote (December 3, T802) : "In my publi
cations, I follow the rule I began with in ' Common
Sense,' that is, to consult nobody, nor to let any
body see what I write till it appears publicly."
This was certainly his rule, but in the case of

68 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. Cr776
" Common Sense " he himself mentions (Penn.
Jour., April 10, 1776) having shown parts of the
MS. to a "very few." Dr. Rush is correct in his
statement that Paine had difficulty in finding "a
printer who had boldness enough to publish it," and
that he (Rush) mentioned the pamphlet to the Scotch
bookseller, Robert Bell. For Bell says, in a con
temporary leaflet : " When the work was at a stand
for want of a courageous Typographer, I was then
recommended by a gentleman nearly in the follow
ing words : ' There is Bell, he is a Republican
printer, give it to him, and I will answer for his
courage to print it' " Dr. Rush probably required
some knowledge of the contents of the pamphlet
before he made this recommendation.
That Dr. Rush is mistaken in saying the manu
script was submitted to Franklin, and a sentence
modified by him, is proved by the fact that on
February 19th, more than a month after the
pamphlet appeared, Franklin introduced Paine
to Gen. Charles Lee with a letter containing
the words, "He is the reputed and, I think, the
real author of ' Common sense.' " Franklin could
not have thus hesitated had there been in the
work anything of his own, or anything he had
seen. Beyond such disclosures to Dr. Rush, and
one or two others, as were necessary to secure pub
lication, Paine kept the secret of his authorship as
long as he could. His recent arrival in the country
might have impaired the force of his pamphlet.
The authorship of " Common Sense " was guessed
by the " Tory " President of the University of
Philadelphia, the Rev. William Smith, D.D., who

x776] " COMMON SENSE." 69
knew pretty well the previous intellectual resources
of that city. Writing under the name of " Cato "
he spoke of " the foul pages of interested writers,
and strangers intermeddling in our affairs." Tot
which " The Forester " (Paine) answers : "A
freeman, Cato, is a stranger nowhere, — a slave,
everywhere." x
The publication of " Common Sense " had been
followed by a number of applauding pamphlets,
some of them crude or extravagant, from Bell's
press. " Cato " was anxious to affiliate these
" additional doses " on the author of " Common
Sense," who replies :
1" Perhaps there never was a pamphlet, since the use of
letters were known, about which so little pains were taken,
and of which so great a number went off in so short a time.
I am certain that I am within compass when I say one hun
dred and twenty thousand. The book was turned upon the
world like an orphan to shift for itself ; no plan was formed
to support it, neither hath the author ever published a syllable
on the subject from that time till after the appearance of
Cato's fourth letter." I
This letter of " The Forester " is dated April 8th
(printed on the 10th). " Common Sense," published
January 10th, had, therefore, in less than three
months, gained this sale. In the end probably half
a million copies were sold. In reply to "Cato's"
sneer about " interested writers," Paine did not
announce the fact that he had' donated the copy
right to the States for the cause of independence.
It was sold at two shillings, and the author thus
1 " The writer of ' Common Sense ' and ' The Forester ' is the same person.
His name is Paine, a gentleman about two years ago from England, — a man
who, General Lee says, has genius in his eyes." — John Adams to his wife.

70 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776
gave away a fortune in that pamphlet alone. It
never brought him a penny ; he must even have
paid for copies himself, as the publisher figured up
a debt against him, on account of " Common Sense,"
for ^29 \2s. id. Notwithstanding this experience
and the popularity he had acquired, Paine also gave
to the States the copyright of his Crisis (thirteen
numbers), was taunted by Tories as a " garreteer,"
ate his crust contentedly, peace finding him a
penniless patriot, who might easily have had fifty
thousand pounds in his pocket.
The controversy between " Cato " and " The
Forester " was the most important that preceded
the Declaration of Independence. The president
of the University represented " Toryism " in dis
tress. The "massacre at Lexington " disabled him
from justifying the government, which, however, he
was not prepared to denounce. He was compelled
to assume the tone of an American, while at the
same time addressing his appeal " To the People of
Pennsylvania," trying to detach its non-resident
Quakers and its mercantile interest from sympathy
with the general cause. Having a bad case, in view
of Lexington, he naturally resorted to abuse of the
plaintiff's attorney. He soon found that when it
came to Quaker sentiment and dialect, his unknown
antagonist was at home.
" Remember, thou hast thrown me the glove, Cato, and
either thee or I must tire. I fear not the field of fair debate,
but thou hast stepped aside and made it personal. Thou hast
tauntingly called me by name ; and if I cease to hunt thee
from every lane and lurking hole of mischief, and bring thee
not a trembling culprit before the public bar, then brand me
with reproach by naming me in the list of your confederates."

1776] " COMMON SENSE." Jl
" The Forester " declares his respect for the hon
est and undisguised opponents of independence.
" To be nobly wrong is more manly than to be
meanly right." But " Cato " wears the mask of a
friend, and shall be proved a foe.
The so-called " Tories" of the American Revo
lution have never had justice done them. In an
other work I have told the story of John Randolph,
King's Attorney in Virginia, and there were many
other martyrs of loyalty in those days.1 Four
months after the affair at Lexington, Thomas
Jefferson wrote to John Randolph, in London :
" Looking with fondness towards a reconciliation
with Great Britain, I cannot help hoping you may
be able to contribute towards expediting the good
work." This was written on August 25, 1775 ; and
if this was the feeling of Jefferson only ten months
before the Declaration, how many, of more mode
rate temper, surrounded " Cato " and " The Fores
ter " in loyal and peace-loving Philadelphia ? But
" Cato " was believed ungenuine. The Rev. Dr.
William Smith, who wrote under that name, a
native of Aberdeen with an Oxonian D.D., had
been a glowing Whig patriot until June, 1775.
But his wife was a daughter of the loyalist,
William Moore. This lady of fashion was distin
guished by her contempt for the independents, and
her husband, now near fifty, was led into a false
position.2 He held the highest literary position in
1 "Omitted Chapters of History, Disclosed in the Life and Papers of
Edmund Randolph," p. 20.
° R. H. Lee, in a letter to his brother (July 5, 1778) says : " We had a
magnificent celebration of the anniversary of independence. The Whigs of
the city dressed up a woman of the town- with the monstrous head-dress of
the Tory ladies, and escorted her through the town with a great concourse

72 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. Q1776
Philadelphia, and perhaps felt some jealousy of
Paine's fame. He picked out all the mistakes he
could find in "Common Sense," and tried in every
way to belittle his antagonist. Himself a Scotch
man, his wife an Englishwoman, he sneered at
Paine for being a foreigner ; having modified his
principles to those of the loyalist's daughter, he
denounced Paine as an " interested writer." He
was out of his element in the controversy he began
with personalities. He spoke of the trouble as a
lovers' quarrel. Paine answers :
" It was not in the power of France or Spain, or all the
other powers in Europe, to have given such a wound, or
raised us to such mortal hatred as Britain hath done. We
see the same kind of undescribed anger at her conduct, as we
would at the sight of an animal devouring its young."
The strongest point of " Cato " was based on the
proposed embassy for negotiation, and he demanded
reverence for " Ambassadors coming to negotiate a
peace." To this " The Forester " replied :
of people. Her head was elegantly and expensively dressed, I suppose
about three feet high and proportionate width, with a. profusion of curls,
etc. The figure was droll, and occasioned much mirth. It has lessened
some heads already, and will probably bring the rest within the bounds of
reason, for they are monstrous indeed. The Tory wife of Dr. Smith has
christened this figure Continella, or the Duchess of Independence, and
prayed for a pin from her head by way of relic. The Tory women are very
much mortified, notwithstanding this." — " Omitted Chapters of History,"
p. 40.
" Cato's " brilliant wife had to retire before " Continella " in the follow
ing year. The charter of the College of Philadelphia was taken away, and
its president retired to an obscure living at Chestertown, Maryland. He
had, however, some of the dexterity of the Vicar of Bray ; when the cause
he had reviled was nearly won he founded a "Washington " college in
Maryland. He was chosen by that diocese for a bishop (1783), but the
General Convention refused to recommend him for consecration. In 1789
he managed to regain his place as college president in Philadelphia.

I776] " COMMON SENSE." 73
" Cato discovers a gross ignorance of the British Constitu
tion in supposing that these men can be empowered to act as
Ambassadors. To prevent his future errors, I will set him
right. The present war differs from every other, in this
instance, viz., that it is not carried on under the prerogative
of the crown, as other wars have always been, but under the
authority of the whole legislative power united ; and as the
barriers which stand in the way of a negotiation are not
proclamations, but acts of Parliament, it evidently follows that
were even the King of England here in person, he could not
ratify the terms or conditions of a reconciliation ; because, in
the single character of King, he could not stipulate for the
repeal of any acts of Parliament, neither can the Parliament
stipulate for him. There is no body of men more jealous of
their privileges than the Commons : Because they sell them."
Paine wrote three letters in reply to " Cato," the
last of which contained a memorable warning to the
people on the eve of the Declaration of Indepen
dence : " Forget not the hapless African." That
was forgotten, but the summing up made Dr.
William Smith an object of detestation. He never
ventured into political controversy again, and when
he returned from exile to Philadelphia, a penitent
patriot, he found his old antagonist, Thomas Paine,
honored by a degree from the University of Penn
sylvania into which the college had been absorbed.
On May 8th a fourth letter, signed " The Fores
ter," appeared in the same paper {Pennsylvania
Journal), which I at first suspected of not being
from Paine's pen.1 This was because of a sentence
1 A theft of Paine's usual signature led to his first public identification of
himself (Feb. 13, 1779). "As my signature, 'Common Sense,' has been
counterfeited, either by Mr. [Silas] Deane, or some of his adherents in Mr.
Bradford's paper of Feb. 3, I shall subscribe this with my name, Thomas
Paine." He, however, in Almon's Remembrancer (vol. viii.) is indexed by
name in connection with a letter of the previous year signed ' ' Common
Sense. "

74 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776
beginning: "The clergy of the English Church,
of which I profess myself a member," etc. There
is no need to question the truth of this, for, as
we have seen, Paine had been confirmed, and no
doubt previously baptized ; nor is there reason to
disbelieve the statement of Oldys that he wished
to enter holy orders. There was a good deal of
rationalism in the American church at that time,
and that Paine, with his religious fervor and ten
dency to . inquire, should have maintained his place
in that scholarly church is natural. His quakerism
was a philosophy, but he could by no means have
found any home in its rigid and dogmatic societies
in Philadelphia. The casual sentence above quoted
was probably inserted for candor, as the letter con
taining it opens with a censure on the attitude of
the Quakers towards the proposal for independence.
The occasion was an election of four burgesses to
represent Philadelphia in the State Assembly, a
body in which Quakers (loyalists) preponderated.
Had the independents been elected they must have
taken the oath of allegiance to the crown, with
which the State was at war. Indeed Paine de
clares that the " Tories " succeeded in the election
because so many patriots were absent for defence
of their country. Under these circumstances Paine
urges the necessity of a popular convention. The
House of Assembly is disqualified from " sitting in
its own case."
The extracts given from this letter are of his
toric interest as reflecting the conflict of opinions
in Pennsylvania amid which the Declaration was
passed two months later.

*776] " COMMON SENSE." 75
" Whoever will take the trouble of attending to the prog
ress and changeability of times and things, and the conduct
of mankind thereon, will find that extraordinary circumstances
do sometimes arise before us, of a species, either so purely
natural or so perfectly original, that none but the man of
nature can understand them. When precedents fail to assist
us, we must return to the first principles of things for informa
tion, and think, as if we were the first men that thought. And
this is the true reason, that in the present state of affairs, the -
wise are become foolish, and the foolish wise. I am led to
this reflection by not being able to account for the conduct
of the Quakers on any other ; for although they do not seem
to perceive it themselves, yet it is amazing to hear with what
unanswerable ignorance many of that body, wise in other
matters, will discourse on the present one. Did they hold
places or commissions under the king, were they governors
of provinces, or had they any interest apparently distinct
from us, the mystery would cease ; but as they have not, their
folly is best attributed to that superabundance of worldly
knowledge which in original matters is too cunning to be wise.
Back to the first plain path of nature, friends, and begin anew,
for in this business your first footsteps were wrong. You
have now travelled to the summit of inconsistency, and that,
with such accelerated rapidity as to acquire autumnal ripeness
by the first of May. Now your rotting time comes on." ^-^
"The Forester" reminds the Quakers of their
predecessors who, in 1704, defended the rights of
the people against the proprietor. He warns them
that the people, though unable to vote, represent a
patriotic power tenfold the strength of Toryism, by
which they will not submit to be ruled.
" He that is wise will reflect, that the safest asylum, espe
cially in times of general convulsion, when no settled form of
government prevails, is the love of the people. All property is
safe under their protection. Even in countries where the
lowest and most licentious of them have risen into outrage,
they have never departed from the path of natural honor.

76 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l77<>
Volunteers unto death in defence of the person or fortune of
those -who had served or defended them, division of property
never entered the mind of the populace. It is incompatible
with that spirit which impels them into action. An avaricious
mob was never heard of; nay, even a miser, pausing in the
midst of them, and catching their spirit, would from that
instant cease to be covetous."
The Quakers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey
had held a congress in Philadelphia and issued
(January 20th) " The Ancient Testimony and Princi
ples of the People called Quakers renewed, with re
spect to the King and Government ; and touching
the Commotions now prevailing in these and other
Parts of America ; addressed to the People in Gen
eral." Under this lamb-like tract, and its bleat of
texts, was quite discoverable the "Tory" wolf;
but it was widely circulated and became a danger.
The Quakers of Rhode Island actually made efforts
to smuggle provisions into Boston during the siege.
Paine presently reviewed this testimony in a pam
phlet, one extract from which will show that he could
preach a better Quaker sermon than any of them :
" O ye partial ministers of your own acknowledged princi
ples ! If the bearing arms be sinful, the first going to war
must be more so, by all the difference between wilful attack
and unavoidable defence. Wherefore, if ye really preach
from conscience, and mean not to make a political hobby
horse of your religion, convince the world thereof by pro
claiming your doctrine to our enemies, for they likewise bear
arms. Give us proof of your sincerity by publishing it at St.
James's, to the commanders in chief at Boston, to the admirals
and captains who are piratically ravaging our coasts, and to all
the murdering miscreants who are acting in authority under
Him whom ye profess to serve. Had ye the honest soul of
Barclay ye would preach repentance to your king ; ye would

" COMMON SENSE." "J "J
tell the Royal Wretch his sins, and warn him of eternal ruin ;
ye would not spend your partial invectives against the injured
and insulted only, but, like faithful ministers, cry aloud and
spare none."
1 Paine was not then aware of the extent of the intrigues of leading
Quakers with the enemy. The State archives of England and France con
tain remarkable evidences on this subject. Paul Wentworth, in a report to
the English government (1776 or 1777,) mentions the loyalty of Pemberton
and the Quakers. Wentworth says that since the publication of ' ' Common
Sense " it had become hard to discover the real opinions of leading men.
"Mr. Payne," he says, "should not be forgot. He is an Englishman, was
schoolmaster in Philadelphia ; must be driven to work ; naturally indolent ;
led by His passions." These " passions," chiefly for liberty and humanity,
seem to have so driven the indolent man to work that, according to Went
worth, his pamphlet ' ' worked up [the people] to such a high temper as fitted
them for the impression of the Declaration, etc." The Quakers, however,
held out long, though more covertly. M. Gerard de Rayneval, in a letter
from Philadelphia, Sept. 18, 1778, reports to his government : " During the
occupation of Philadelphia by the English, proofs were obtained of the services
rendered them by the Quakers ; some of these were caught acting as spies,
etc." La Luzerne writes (May 4, 1781) : " All the Quakers in Philadelphia
who have taken up arms, or voluntarily paid war taxes, have been excom
municated ; these, increasing in number, declare themselves loyal." See
for further information on this matter, ' ' New Materials for the History of
the American Revolution," etc. By John Durand. New York, 1889.

CHAPTER VII.
UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE.
As in North Carolina had occurred the first armed
resistance to British oppressions (1771), and its
Mecklenburg County been the first to organize a
government independent of the Crown, so was that
colony the first to instruct its delegates in Congress
to vote for national independence. She was fol
lowed in succession by South Carolina,1 Virginia,2
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
Hampshire, Georgia, New Jersey, Delaware, and
Pennsylvania. Maryland passed patriotic resolu
tions, but not sufficiently decisive for its delegates
1 Colonel Gadsden, having left the Continental Congress to take command
in South Carolina, appeared in the provincial Congress at Charleston February
10, 1776. " Col. Gadsden (having brought the first copy of Paine's pamphlet
' Common Sense, etc. , ') boldly declared himself . . . for the absolute
Independence of America. This last sentiment came like an explosion of
thunder on the members" (Rev. John Drayton's Memoirs, etc., p. 172).
The sentiment was abhorred, and a member ' ' called the author of ' Common
Sense'  " ; but on March 21st the pamphlet was reinforced by tidings
of an Act of Parliament (Dec. 21, 1775) for seizure of American ships, and
on March 23d South Carolina instructed its delegates at Philadelphia to
agree to whatever that Congress should "judge necessary, etc."
2 A thousand copies of ' ' Common Sense " were at once ordered from
Virginia, and many more followed. On April 1st Washington writes to
Joseph Reed : "By private letters which I have lately received from
Virginia, I find ' Common Sense ' is working a wonderful change there in the
minds of many men." On June 29th union with England was " totally
dissolved " by Virginia. 78

1776] UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE. 79
to act. New York alone forbade its delegates to
vote for independence.
Meanwhile, on June 7th, Richard Henry Lee, in
behalf of the Virginians, had submitted resolutions
of independence ; but as six States hesitated, Con
gress adjourned the decision until July 1st, appoint
ing, however, (June nth) a committee to consider
the proper form of the probable Declaration —
Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman,
and Robert R. Livingston. But this interval, from
June 7th to July 1st, was perilous for independence.
News came of the approach of Lord Howe bearing
from England the " olive branch." The powerful
colonies New York and Pennsylvania were especially
anxious to await the proposals for peace. At this
juncture Paine issued one of his most effective
pamphlets, "A Dialogue between the Ghost of
General Montgomery, Just Arrived from the Ely-
sian Fields, and an American Delegate, in a Wood
near Philadelphia." Montgomery, the first heroic
figure fallen in the war, reproaches the hesitating
delegate for willingness to accept pardon from a
royal criminal for defending " the rights of humani
ty." He points out that France only awaits their
declaration of independence to come to their aid,
and that America " teems with patriots, heroes, and
legislators who are impatient to burst forth into
light and importance." The most effective part of
the pamphlet, however, was a reply to the com
mercial apprehensions of New York and Pennsyl
vania. "Your dependance upon the Crown is no
advantage, but rather an injury, to the people of
Great Britain, as it increases the power and influ-

So THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776
ence of the King. The people are benefited only
by your trade, and this they may have after you
are independant of the Crown." There is a shrewd
prescience of what actually happened shown in this
opportune work. Of course the gallant ghost re
marks that " monarchy and aristocracy have in all
ages been the vehicles of slavery." The allusion
to the arming of negroes and Indians against
America, and other passages, resemble clauses in
one of the paragraphs eliminated from the original
Declaration of Independence.
At this time Paine saw much of Jefferson, and
there can be little doubt that the anti-slavery clause
struck out of the Declaration was written by Paine,
or by some one who had Paine's anti-slavery essay
before him. In the following passages it will be
observed that the antitheses are nearly the same —
" infidel and Christian," " heathen and Christian."

PARAGRAPH STRUCK OUT OF
THE DECLARATION. THOMAS PAINE.
" He has waged cruel war " — these inoffensive people
against human nature itself, are brought into slavery, by
violating its most sacred rights stealing them, tempting kings
of life and liberty in the per- to sell subjects, which they
sons of a distant people who can have no right to do, and
never offended him, captivat- hiring one tribe to war against
ing and carrying them into another, in order to catch
slavery in another hemisphere, prisoners. By such wicked
or to incur miserable death in and inhuman ways the Eng-
their transportation thither, lish, etc. ... an hight of
This piratical warfare, the outrage that seems left by
opprobrium of INFIDEL Heathen nations to be prac-
powers, is the warfare of the tised by pretended Chris
CHRISTIAN king of Great tians."

1776] UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE. 8 1

" — that barbarous and hell
ish power which has stirred
up the Indians and Negroes
to destroy us ; the cruelty
hath a double guilt — it is
dealing brutally by us and
treacherously by them."

Britain. Determined to keep
open a market where MEN
should be bought and sold,
he has prostituted his negative
for suppressing every legisla
tive attempt to prohibit or
restrain this execrable com
merce. And that this assem
blage of horrors might want
no fact of distinguished die,
he is now exciting those very
people to rise in arms among
us, and to purchase that liberty
of which he has deprived them
by murdering the people on
whom he has obtruded them,
thus paying off former crimes
committed against the LIB
ERTIES of one people with
crimes which he urges them
to commit against the LIVES
of another." Thus did Paine try to lay at the corner the stone
which the builders rejected, and which afterwards
ground their descendants to powder. Jefferson
withdrew the clause on the objection of Georgia
and South Carolina, which wanted slaves, and of
Northerners interested in supplying them. That,
however, was not known till all the parties were
dead. Paine had no reason to suppose that the
Declaration of human freedom and equality, passed
July 4th, could fail eventually to include the African
slaves. The Declaration embodied every principle
he had been asserting, and indeed Cobbett is cor
rect in saying that whoever may have written the
Declaration Paine was its author. The world being
Vol. 1.— 6

82 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [J776
his country, and America having founded its inde
pendence on such universal interests, Paine could
not hesitate to become a soldier for mankind.1 His
Quaker principles, always humanized, were not such
as would applaud a resistance in which he was not
repared to participate. While the signers of the
eclaration of Independence were affixing their
ames — a procedure which reached from August
>d into November — Paine resigned his Pennsylva
nia Magazine, and marched with his musket to the
ront. He enlisted in a Pennsylvania division of
;he Flying Camp of ten thousand men, who were
to be sent wherever needed. He was under Gen
eral Roberdeau, and assigned at first to service at
Amboy, afterwards at Bergen. The Flying Camp
was enlisted for a brief period, and when that had
expired Paine travelled to Fort Lee, on the Hud
son, and renewed his enlistment. Fort Lee was
under the command of General Nathaniel Greene
who, on or about September 19th, appointed Paine
1 Professor John Fiske (whose ' ' American Revolution " suffers from igno
rance of Paine's papers) appreciates the effect of Paine's ' ' Common Sense "
but not its cause. He praises the pamphlet highly, but proves that he has
only glanced at it by his exception : ' ' The pamphlet is full of scurrilous
abuse of the English people ; and resorts to such stupid arguments as the
denial of the English origin of th.e Americans " (i., -p. 174). Starting with
the principle that the cause of America is "the cause of all mankind,"
Paine abuses no people, but only their oppressors. As to Paine's argument,
it might have appeared less "stupid" to Professor Fiske had he realized
that in Paine's mind negroes were the equals of whites. However, Paine
does not particularly mention negroes ; his argument was meant to carry its
point, and it might have been imprudent for him, in that connection, to
have classed the slaves with the Germans, who formed a majority in Pennsyl
vania, and with the Dutch of New York. In replying to the ' ' Mother-Coun
try " argument it appears to me far from stupid to point out that Europe is our
parent country, and that if English descent made men Englishmen, the
descendants of William the Conqueror and half the peers of England were
Frenchmen, and, if the logic held, should be governed by France.

1776] UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE. 83
a Volunteer Aide-de-camp. General Greene in a
gossipy letter to his wife (November 2d) says:
"Common Sense (Thomas Paine) and Colonel
Snarl, or Cornwell, are perpetually wrangling about
mathematical problems." On November 20th came
the surprise of Fort Lee ; the boiling kettles and
baking ovens of a dinner to be devoured by the
British were abandoned, with three hundred tents,
for a retreat made the more miserable by hunger
and cold. By November 2 2d the whole army had
retreated to Newark, where Paine began writing •
his famous first Crisis}
He could only write at night ; during the day
there was constant work for every soldier of the
little force surrounding Washington. " I am wearied
almost to death with the retrogade motion of
things," wrote Washington to his brother (Novem
ber 9th), " and I solemnly protest that a pecuniary
reward of twenty thousand pounds a year would
not induce me to undergo what I do ; and after
all, perhaps to lose my character, as it is impossible,
under such a variety of distressing circumstances,
to conduct matters agreeably to public expectation."
On November 27th he writes from Newark to
1 See Almon's Remembrancer, 1777, p. 28, for Paine's graphic journal of
this retreat, quoted from the Pennsylvania Journal. In reply to those who
censured the retreat as pusillanimous, he states that ' ' our army was at one
time less than a thousand effective men and never more than 4,000," the
pursuers being "8,000 exclusive of their artillery and light horse"; he
declares that posterity will call the retreat ' ' glorious — and the names of
Washington and Fabius will run paralell to eternity. " In the Pennsylvania
Packet (March 20, 1779) Paine says : "I had begun the first number of the
Crisis while on the retreat, at Newark, with a design of publishing it in
the Jersies, as it was General Washington's intention to have made a stand
at Newark, could he have been timely reenforced ; instead of which nearly
half the army left him at that place, or soon after, their time being out."

84 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776
General Lee : "It has been more owing to the
badness of the weather that the enemy's progress
has been checked, than to any resistance we could
make." Even while he wrote the enemy drew near,
and the next day (November 28th) entered one end
of Newark as Washington left the other. At Bruns
wick he was joined by General Williamson's militia,
and on the Delaware by the Philadelphia militia,
and could muster five thousand against Howe's
whole army. " I tremble for Philadelphia," writes
Washington to Lund Washington (December
10th). " Nothing in my opinion, but General Lee's
speedy arrival, who has been long expected, though
still at a distance (with about three thousand men),
can save it." On December 13th Lee was a pris
oner, and on the 17th Washington writes to the
same relative r:

Your imagination can scarce extend to a situation more
distressing than mine. Our only dependence now is upon the
speedy enlistment of a new army. If this fails, I think the
game will be pretty well up, as fr,om disaffection and want of
spirit and fortitude, the inhabitants, instead of resistance, are
offering submission and taking protection from Gen. Howe in
Jersey." ,^Jphe day before, he had written to the President
of Congress that the situation was critical, and the
distresses of his soldiers " extremely great, many of
'em being entirely naked and most so thinly clad
as to be unfit for service." On December 18th he
writes to his brother :
" You can form no idea of the perplexity of my situation.
No man, I believe, ever had a greater choice of difficulties,
and less means to extricate himself from them. However,

1776] UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE. 85
under a full persuasion of the justice of our cause, I cannot
entertain an Idea that it will finally sink, tho' it may remain
for some time under a cloud."
Under that cloud, by Washington's side, was
silently at work the force that lifted it. Marching
by day, listening to the consultations of Washing
ton and his generals, Paine wrote by the camp
fires ; the winter storms, the Delaware's waves, were
mingled with his ink ; the half-naked soldiers in
their troubled sleep dreaming of their distant
homes, the skulking deserter creeping off in the
dusk, the pallid face of the heavy-hearted command
er, made the awful shadows beneath which was
written that leaflet which went to the Philadelphia
printer along with Washington's last foreboding
letters to his relatives in Virginia. It was printed
on December 19th,1 and many copies reached the
camp above Trenton Falls on the eve of that
almost desperate attack on which Washington had
resolved. On the 23d December he wrote to Colo
nel Joseph Reed :
" Christmas-day, at night, one hour before day, is the time
fixed upon for our attempt on Trenton. For Heaven's sake
keep this to yourself, as the discovery of it may prove fatal to
us ; our numbers, sorry I am to say, being less than I had any
conception of ; but necessity, dire necessity will, nay must,
justify any attempt."
America has known some utterances of the lips
equivalent to decisive victories in the field, — as
some of Patrick Henry's, and the address of Presi
dent Lincoln at Gettysburg. But of utterances by
1 The pamphlet was dated December 23rd, but it had appeared on the
19th in the Pennsylvania Journal.

86 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1776
the pen none have achieved such vast results as
Paine's " Common Sense " and his first Crisis.
Before the battle of Trenton the half-clad, dis
heartened soldiers of Washington were called
together in groups to listen to that thrilling ex
hortation. The opening words alone were a victory.
" These are the times that try men's souls. The summer
soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from
the service of his country ; but he that stands it now, deserves
the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell,
is not easily conquered ; yet we have this consolation with us,
that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph :
what we obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly ; 't is dearness
only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to
put a proper price upon its goods ; and it would be strange
indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be
highly rated."
Not a chord of faith, or love, or hope was left
untouched. The very faults of the composition,
which the dilettanti have picked out, were effective
to men who had seen Paine on the march, and
knew these things were written in sleepless inter
vals of unwearied labors. He speaks of what Joan
of Arc did in " the fourteenth century," and ex
claims : " Would that heaven might inspire some
Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save
her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravish
ment ! " Joan was born in 1410, but Paine had no
cyclopaedia in his knapsack. The literary musket
reaches its mark. The pamphlet was never sur
passed for true eloquence — that is, for the power
that carries its point. With skilful illustration of
lofty principles by significant details, all summed
with simplicity and sympathy, three of the most

I776] UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE. %"J
miserable weeks ever endured by men were raised
into epical dignity. The wives, daughters, mothers,
sisters, seemed stretching out appealing hands
against the mythically monstrous Hessians. The
great commander, previously pointed to as " a mind
that can even flourish upon care," presently saw his
dispirited soldiers beaming with hope, and bound
ing to the onset, — their watchword : These are the
times that try mens souls ! Trenton was won, the
Hessians captured, and a New Year broke for
America on the morrow of that Christmas Day,
1776.1 Paine's Trenton musket had hardly cooled, or
the pen of his first Crisis dried, before he began
to write another. It appeared about four weeks
after the battle and is addressed to Lord Howe.
The Thetford mechanic has some pride in con
fronting this English lord who had offered the
Americans mercy. " Your lordship, I find, has
now commenced author, and published a Procla
mation ; I have published a Crisis." The rumors
of his being a hireling scribe, or gaining wealth by
his publications, made it necessary for Paine to
speak of himself at the conclusion :
1 Paine's enemy, Cheetham, durst not, in the face of Washington's expres
sion of his "lively sense of the importance of your [Paine's] works,"
challenge well known facts, and must needs partly confess them : ' ' The
number was read in the camp, to every corporal's guard, and in the army
and out of it had more than the intended effect. The convention of New
York, reduced by dispersion, occasioned by alarm, to nine members, was
rallied and reanimated. Militiamen who, already tired of the war, were
straggling from the army, returned. Hope succeeded to despair, cheerful
ness to gloom, and firmness to irresolution. To the confidence which it in
spired may be attributed much of the brilliant little affair which in the same
month followed at Trenton." Even Oldys is somewhat impressed by Paine's
courage : ' ' The Congress fled. All were dismayed. Not so our author/'

88 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. {.1-117
" What I write is pure nature, and my pen and my soul have
ever gone together. My writings I have always given away,
receiving only the expense of printing and paper, and some
times not even that. I never counted either fame or interest,
and my manner of life, to those who know it, will justify what
I say. My study is to be useful, and if your lordship loves
mankind as well as I do, you would, seeing you cannot con
quer us, cast about and lend your hand towards accomplishing
a peace. Our independence, with God's blessing, we will
maintain against all the world ; but as we wish to avoid evil
ourselves, we wish not to inflict it on others. I am never
over-inquisitive into the secrets of the cabinet, but I have
some notion that, if you neglect the present opportunity, it
will not be in our power to make a separate peace with you
afterwards ; for whatever treaties or alliances we form we
shall most faithfully abide by ; wherefore you may be deceived
if you think you can make it with us at any time."
Thus the humble author of the Crisis offers the
noble author of the Proclamation " mercy," on
condition of laying down his arms, and going
home ; but it must be at once !
If Howe, as is most likely, considered this mere
impudence, he presently had reason to take it more
seriously. For there were increasing indications
that Paine was in the confidence of those who con
trolled affairs. On January 21st he was appointed
by the Council of Safety in Philadelphia secretary
to the commission sent by Congress to treat with
the Indians at Easton, Pennsylvania. The com
missioners, with a thousand dollars' worth of pres
ents, met the Indian chiefs in the German Reformed
Church (built 1776), and, as they reported to Con
gress, "after shaking hands, drinking rum, while
the organ played, we proceeded to business."1
1 Condit's " History of Easton," pp. 60, 118.

1777] UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE. 89
The report was, no doubt, written by Paine, who
for his services was paid ,£300 by the Pennsylvania
Assembly (one of its advances for Congress, after
wards refunded). In a public letter, written in
1807, Paine relates an anecdote concerning this
meeting with the Indians.
" The chief of the tribes, who went by the name of King
Last-night, because his tribe had sold their lands, had seen
some English men-of-war in some of the waters of Canada,
and was impressed with the power of those great canoes ; but
he saw that the English made no progress against us by land.
This was enough for an Indian to form an opinion by. He
could speak some English, and in conversation with mef
alluding to the great canoes, he gave me his idea of the power
of a king of England, by the following metaphor. ' The
king of England,' said he, ' is like a fish. When he is in the
water he can wag his tail ; when he comes on land he lays
down on his side.' Now if the English government had but
half the sense this Indian had, they would not have sent
Duckworth to Constantinople, and Douglas to Norfolk, to lay-
down on their side."
On April 17th, when Congress transformed the
" Committee of Secret Correspondence " into the
"Committee of Foreign Affairs," Paine was elected
its secretary. His friend, Dr. Franklin, had reached
France in December, 1776, where Arthur Lee and
Silas Deane were already at work. Lord Howe
might, indeed, have done worse than take Paine's
advice concerning the " opportunity," which did
not return. General Howe did, indeed, presently
occupy a fine abode in Philadelphia, but only kept
it warm, to be afterwards the executive mansion of
President Washington.

CHAPTER VIII.
.SOLDIER AND SECRETARY.
After their disaster at Trenton, the English
forces suspended hostilities for a long time. Paine,
maintaining his place on General Greene's staff,
complied with the wish of all the generals by wield
ing his pen during the truce of arms. He sat
himself down in Philadelphia, " Second Street,
opposite the Quaker meeting," — as he writes the
address. The Quakers regarded him as Antichrist
pursuing them into close quarters. Untaught by
castigation, the leaders of the Society, and chiefly
one John Pemberton, disguised allies of the Howes,
had put forth, November 20, 1776, a second and
more dangerous "testimony." In it they counsel
Friends to refuse obedience to whatever " instruc
tions or ordinances " may be published, not war
ranted by " that happy constitution under which
they and others long enjoyed tranquillity and
peace." In his second Crisis (January 13, 1777)
Paine refers to this document, and a memorial,
from " a meeting of a reputable number of the
inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia," called
attention of the Board of Safety to its treasonable
character. The Board, however, not having acted,
Paine devoted his next three months to a treatment
90

1777] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. 91
of that and all other moral and political problems
which had been developed by the course of the
Revolution, and must be practically dealt with. In
reading this third Crisis, one feels in every sen
tence its writer's increased sense of responsibility.
Events had given him the seat of a lawgiver. His
first pamphlet had dictated the Declaration of
Independence, his second had largely won its first
victory, his third had demonstrated the impossi
bility of subjugation, and offered England peace on
the only possible terms. The American heart had
responded without a dissonant note ; he held it in
his hand ; he knew that what he was writing in
that room "opposite the Quaker meeting" were
Acts of Congress. So it proved. The third Crisis
was dated April 19, 1777, the second anniversary
of the first collision (Lexington). It was as effective
in dealing with the internal enemies of the country
as the first had been in checking its avowed foes.
It was written in a city still largely, if not prepon
derantly, " tory," and he deals with them in all their
varieties, not arraigning the Friends as a Society. /
Having carefully shown that independence, fromj
being a natural right, had become a political and
moral necessity, and the war one " on which a
world is staked," he says that "Tories" endeavor-,
ing to' insure their property with the enemy
should be made to fear still more losing it on
the other side. Paine proposes an " oath or affl
firmation " renouncing allegiance to the King
pledging support to the United States. At th4
same time let a tax of ten, fifteen, or twenty pej
cent, be levied on all property. Each who takes

92

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [*777

the oath may exempt his property by holding
himself ready to do what service he can for the
cause; they who refuse the oath will be paying
a tax on their insurance with the enemy. "It would
not only be good policy but strict justice to raise
fifty or one hundred thousand pounds, or more, if it
is necessary, out of the estates and property of the
King of England's votaries, resident in Phila
delphia, to be distributed as a reward to those
inhabitants of the city and State who should turn
out and repulse the enemy should they attempt to
march this way."
These words were written at a moment when
a vigorous opposition, in and out of Congress, was
offered to Washington's Proclamation (Morris-
town, January 25, 1777,) demanding that an oath
of allegiance to the United States should be re
quired of all who had taken such an oath to the
King, non-jurors to remove within the enemy's
lines, or be treated as enemies. Paine's proposal
was partly followed on June 13th, when Pennsyl
vania exacted an oath of allegiance to the State
from all over eighteen years of age.
Paine was really the Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
His election had not been without opposition, and,
according to John Adams, there was a suggestion
that some of his earlier writings had been unfavor
able to this country. What the reference was I
cannot understand unless it was to his anti-slavery
essay, in which he asked Americans with what con
sistency they could protest against being enslaved
while they were enslaving others. That essay, I
have long believed, caused a secret, silent, hostility

1777] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. 93
to the author by which he suffered much without
suspecting it. But he was an indefatigable secre
tary. An example of the care with which foreign
representatives were kept informed appears in a
letter to William Bingham, agent of Congress at
Martinique. "Philadelphia, July 16th, 1777. — Sir, — A very sudden op
portunity offers of sending you the News-papers, from which
you will collect the situation of our Affairs. The Enemy finding
their attempt of marching thro' the Jersies to this City im
practicable, have retreated to Staten Island seemingly discon
tented and dispirited and quite at a loss what step next to
pursue. Our Army is now well recruited and formidable.
Our Militia in the several States ready at a day's notice to turn
out and support the Army when occasion requires ; and tho'
we cannot, in the course of a Campaign, expect everything in
the several Parts of the Continent, to go just as we wish it ;
yet the general face of our Affairs assures us of final success.
"In the Papers of June 18th & 25 and July 2d you will find
Genl. Washington and Arnold's Letters of the Enemy's move
ment in, and retreat from the Jersies. We are under some
apprehensions for Ticonderoga, as we find the Enemy are un
expectedly come into that Quarter. The Congress have sev
eral times had it in contemplation to remove the Garrison
from that Place — as by Experience we find that Men shut up
in Forts are not of so much use as in the field, especially in the
highlands where every hill is a natural fortification.
" I am Sir
" Your Obt. Humble Servt.
" Thomas Paine.
" Secretry. to the Committee for Foreign Affairs." l
After the occupation of Philadelphia by the
British (September 26, 1777), Paine had many
adventures, as we shall presently see. He seems
to have been with Washington at Valley Forge
1 MS., for which I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz, Philadelphia.

94 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. ['777
when the Pennsylvania Assembly and President
(Thomas Wharton, Jr.,) confided to him the deli
cate and arduous task assigned by the following
from Timothy Matlack, Secretary of the Assembly :
"Lancaster, Oct. 10, 1777. Sir, — The Hon'ble house of
As'y have proposed and Council have adopted a plan of
obtaining more regular and constant intelligence of the pro
ceeding of Gen. Washington's army than has hitherto been
had. Everyone agrees that you are the proper person for this
purpose, and I am directed by his Exc'y, the pr't, to write to
you hereon (the Prs't being engaged in writing to the Gen'l,
and the Express in waiting).
" The Assembly have agreed to make you a reasonable
compensation for your services in this business, if you think
proper to engage in it, which I hope you will ; as it is a duty
of importance that there are few, however well disposed, who
are capable of doing in a manner that will answer all the
intentions of it — perhaps a correspondence of this kind may
be the fairest opportunity of giving to Council some important
hints that may occur to you on interesting subjects.
" Proper expresses will be engaged in this business. If the
expresses which pass from headquarters to Congress can be
made use of so much the better ; — of this you must be judge.
"I expect Mr. Rittenhouse will send you a copy of the
testimony of the late Y. M. by this opp'y, if time will admit it
to be copied — 't is a poor thing. — Yours, &c, T. M." '
What with this service, and his correspondence
with foreign agents, Paine had his hands pretty full.
But at the same time he wrote important letters to
leading members of Congress, then in session at
York, Pennsylvania.
The subjoined letter sheds fresh light on a some
what obscure point in our revolutionary history, —
the obscurity being due to the evasions of Ameri*
1 Pa. Arch., 1779, p. 659. Paine at once set to work : p. 693, 694.

1777] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY,

95

can historians on an episode of which we have little
reason to be proud. An article of Burgoyne's
capitulation (October 1 7th) was as follows :
" A free passage to be granted to the army under General
Burgoyne to Great Britain, upon condition of not serving
again in North America during the present contest : and the
port of Boston to be assigned for entry of transports to receive
the troops whenever General Howe shall so order."
A letter was written by Paine to Hon. Richard
Henry Lee, dated at " Headquarters, fourteen
miles from Philadelphia," October 30th, 1777.
"I wrote you last Tuesday 21st Inst., including a Copy of
the King's speech, since which nothing material has happened
at Camp. Genl. McDougal was sent last Wednesday night 2 2d.
to attack a Party of the Enemy who lay over the Schuylkill at
Grey's Ferry where they have a Bridge. Genls. Greene &
Sullivan went down to make a diversion below German Town
at the same Time. I was with this last Party, but as the Enemy
withdrew their Detachment We had only our Labor for our
Pains. " No Particulars of the Northern Affair have yet come to head
Qrs., the want of which has caused much Speculation. A
copy, said to be the Articles of Capitulation was reed. 3 or 4
days ago, but they rather appear to be some proposals made by
Burgoyne, than the Capitulation itself. By those Articles it
appears to me that Burgoyne has capitulated upon Terms, which
we have a right to doubt the full performance of, Vizt., ' That
the Offrs. and Men shall be Transported to England and not
serve in or against North America during the present War ' —
or words to this effect.
"I remark, that this Capitulation, if true, has the air of a
National treaty ; it is binding, not only on Burgoyne as a
General, but on England as a Nation ; because the Troops are
to be subject to the conditions of the Treaty after they return
to England and are out of his Command. It regards England
and America as Separate Sovereign States, and puts them on an

96 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777
equal footing by staking the faith and honor of the former
for the performance of a Contract entered into with the latter.
" What in the Capitulation is stiled the ' Present War ' Eng
land affects to call a ' Rebellion,' and while she holds this Idea
and denies any knowledge of America as a Separate Sovereign
Power, she will not conceive herself bound by any Capitulation
or Treaty entered into by her Generals which is to bind her as
a Nation, arid more especially in those Cases where both Pride
and present Advantage tempt her to a Violation. She will deny
Burgoyne's Right and Authority for making such a Treaty, and
will, very possibly, show her insult by first censuring him for
entering into it, and then immediately sending the Troops back.
" I think we ought to be exceedingly cautious how we trust her
with the power of abusing our Credulity. We have no author
ity for believing she will perform that part of the Contract
which subjects her not to send the Troops to America during
the War. The insolent Answer given to the Commissrs. by Ld.
Stormont, ' that the King's Ambassadors reed, no Letters from
Rebels but when they came to crave Mercy,' sufficiently instructs
us not to entrust them with the power of insulting Treaties of
Capitulation. " Query, Whether it wd. not be proper to detain the Troops at
Boston & direct the Commissioners at Paris to present the
Treaty of Capitulation to the English Court thro' the hands of
Ld. Stormont, to know whether it be the intention of that
Court to abide strictly by the Conditions and Obligations
thereof, and if no assurance be obtained to keep the Troops
until they can be exchanged here.
"Tho' we have no immediate knowledge of any alliance
formed by our Commissioners with France or Spain, yet we
have no assurance there is not, and our immediate release of
those prisoners, by sending them to England, may operate to
the injury of such Allied Powers, and be perhaps directly con
trary to some contract subsisting between us and them prior to
the Capitulation. I think we ought to know this first. — Query,
ought we not (knowing the infidelity they have already acted)
to suspect they will evade the Treaty by putting back into New
York under pretence of distress. — I would not trust them an
inch farther than I could see them in the present state of things.

1777] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. 97
" The Army was to have marched yesterday about 2 or 3 Miles
but the weather has been so exceedingly bad for three days
past as to prevent any kind of movement, the waters are so
much out and the rivulets so high there is no passing from one
part of ye Camp to another.
" I wish the Northern Army was down here. I am apt to
think that nothing materially offensive will take place on our
part at present. Some Means must be taken to fill up the
Army this winter. I look upon the recruiting service at an end
and that some other plan must be adopted. Suppose the
Service be by draft — and that those who are not drawn should
•contribute a Dollar or two Dollars a Man to him on whom
the lot falls. — something of this kind would proportion the
Burthen, and those who are drawn would have something
either to encourage them to go, or to provide a substitute with —
After closing this Letter I shall go again to Fort Mifflin ; all
was safe there on the 27th, but from some preparations of the
Enemy they expect another attack somewhere.
" The enclosed return of provision and Stores is taken from
an account signed by Burgoyne and sent to Ld. George
Germain. I have not time to Copy the whole. Burgoyne
closes his Letter as follows, ' By a written account found in
the Commissary's House at Ticonderoga Six thousand odd
hundred Persons were fed from the Magazine the day before
the evacuation.'
" I am Dear Sir, Yr. Affectionate Hble. Servt. " T. Paine.
" Respectful Compts. to Friends.
" If the Congress has the Capitulation and Particulars of ye
Surrender, they do an exceeding wrong thing by not publishing
ym. because they subject the whole Affair to Suspicion." '
Had this proposal of Paine, with regard to Bur-
goyne's capitulation, been followed at once, a blot
1 I am indebted for this letter to Dr. John S. H. Fogg of Boston. It bears
the superscription : " Honbl. Richd. Henry Lee Esrjp, (in Congress) York
Town. Forwarded by yr humble Servti' T. Matlack, Nov. 1, 1777." En
dorsed in handwriting of Lee : ' ' Oct : 1 777. Mr. Paine, Author of ' Common
Sense.' "
Vol. I.— 7

98 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1777
on the history of our Revolution might have been
prevented. The time required to march the
prisoners to Boston and prepare the transports
would have given England opportunity to ratify
the articles of capitulation. Washington, with
characteristic inability to see injustice in anything
advantageous to America, desired Congress to
delay in every possible way the return of the
prisoners to England, " since the most virtuous
adhesion to the articles would not prevent their
replacing in garrison an equal number of soldiers
who might be sent against us." The troops were
therefore delayed on one pretext and another until
Burgoyne declared that " the publick faith is
broke." Congress seized on this remark to resolve
that the embarkation should be suspended until an
" explicit ratification of the Convention of Saratoga
shall be properly ratified by the Court of Great
Britain." This resolution, passed January 8, 1778,
was not communicated to Burgoyne until February
4th. If any one should have suffered because of a
remark made in a moment of irritation it should
have been Burgoyne himself ; but he was presently
allowed to proceed to England, while his troops
were retained, — a confession that Burgoyne's casual
complaint was a mere pretext for further delay. It
may be added that the English government
behaved to its surrendered soldiers worse than
Congress. The question of ratifying the Saratoga
Convention was involved in a partisan conflict in
Parliament, the suffering prisoners in America were
forgotten, and they were not released until the
peace, — five years after they had marched "with

1777] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. 99
the honours of war," under a pledge of departure
conceded by Gen. Gates in reply to a declaration
that unless conceded they would "to a man pro
ceed to any act of desperation sooner than submit."
Concerning this ugly business there is a signifi
cant silence in Paine's public writings. He would
not have failed to discuss the matter in his Crisis
had he felt that anything honorable to the Ameri
can name or cause could be made out of it.1
In his letter to Hon. R. H. Lee (October 30,
1777) Paine mentions that he is about leaving the
head-quarters near Philadelphia for Fort Mifflin.
Mr. Asa Bird Gardener, of New York, who has
closely studied Paine's military career, writes me
some account of it.
" Major-Gen. Greene was charged with the defence of the
Delaware, and part of Brig.-Gen. Varnum's brigade was placed
in garrison at Fort Mercer, Red Bank, and at Fort Mifflin,
Mud Island. A bloody and unsuccessful assault was made by
Count Donop and 1,200 Hessians on Fort Mercer, defended by
the 1st and 2d Reg'ts. R. I. Continental Inf'y. The entire
British fleet was then brought up opposite Fort Mifflin, and the
most furious cannonade, and most desperate but finally un
successful defence of the place was made. The entire works
were demolished, and most of the garrison killed and wounded.
Major-Gen. Greene being anxious for the garrison and desirous
of knowing its ability to resist sent Mr. Paine to ascertain.
He accordingly went to Fort Mercer, and from thence, on
Nov. 9 (1777) went with Col. Christopher Greene, command
ing Fort Mercer, in an open boat to Fort Mifflin, during the
cannonade, and were there when the enemy opened with two-
gun batteries and a mortar battery. This very gallant act
1 Professor Fiske (" Am. Revolution,"!:, p. 341) has a ferocious attack on
Congress for breaking faith in this matter, but no doubt he has by this time
read, in Ford's " Writings of Washington," (vol. vi.) the letters which bring
his attack on the great commander's own haloed head.

IOO THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778
shows what a fearless man Mr. Paine was, and entitles him to
the same credit for service in the Revolution as any Conti
nental could claim."
The succession of mistakes, surprises, panics,
which occasioned the defeats before Philadelphia
and ended in the occupation of that city by the
British general, seriously affected the reputation of
Washington. Though Paine believed that Wash
ington's generalship had been at fault (as Washing
ton himself probably did1), he could utter nothing
that might injure the great cause. He mistrusted
the singleness of purpose of Washington's oppo
nents, and knew that the commander-in-chief was
as devoted as himself to the American cause, and
would never surrender it whatever should befall.
While, therefore, the intrigues were going on at
Yorktown, Pennsylvania, whither Congress had
retreated, and Washington with his ill-fed and ill-
clad army were suffering at Valley Forge, Paine
was writing his fifth Crisis, which had the most
happy effect. It was dated at Lancaster, March
21, 1778. Before that time (February 19th) Gen
eral Gates had made his peace with Washington,
and the intrigue was breaking up, but gloom and dis
satisfaction remained. The contrast between the
luxurious " Tories" surrounding Howe in Philadel
phia, and Washington's wretched five thousand at
Valley Forge, was demoralizing the country. The
first part of this Crisis, addressed " to General Sir
William Howe," pointed wrangling patriots to the
common enemy ; the second, addressed " to the
1 See his letter to the President of Congress. Ford's " Writings of Wash
ington," vol. vi., p. 82.

1778] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY.

IOI

inhabitants of America," sounded a note of courage,
and gave good reasons for it. Never was aid more
artistic than that Paine's pen now gave Washing
ton. The allusions to him are incidental, there is
no accent of advocacy. While mentioning " the un
abated fortitude of a Washington," he lays a laurel
on the brow of Gates, on that of Herkimer, and
even on the defeated. While belittling all that
Howe had gained, telling him that in reaching
Philadelphia, he " mistook a trap for a conquest,"
he reunites Washington and Gates, in the public
mind, by showing the manoeuvres of the one near
Philadelphia part of the other's victory at Sara
toga. It is easy for modern eulogists of Washing
ton to see this, but when Paine said it, — apparently
aiming only to humiliate Howe, — the sentence was
a sunbeam parting a black cloud. Coming from a
member of Greene's staff, from an author whose
daring at Fort Mifflin had made him doubly a
hero ; from the military correspondent of the Penn
sylvania Council, and the Secretary of the Con
gressional Committee of Foreign Affairs, — Paine's
optimistic view of the situation had immense effect.
He hints his official knowledge that Britain's " re
duced strength and exhausted coffers in a three
years' war with America hath given a powerful
superiority to France and Spain," and advises
Americans to leave wrangling to the enemy. " We
never had so small an army to fight against, nor so
fair an opportunity of final success as now."
This fifth Crisis was written mainly at Lancas
ter, Pa., at the house of William Henry, Jr., where
he several times found shelter while dividing his

102 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778
time between Washington's head-quarters and
York.1 Every number of the Crisis was thus written
with full information from both the military and
political leaders. This Crisis was finished and
printed at York, and there Paine begins No. VI.
The " stone house on the banks of the Cadorus," at
York, is still pointed out by a trustworthy tradition
as that to which he bore the chest of congressional
papers with which he had fled to Trenton, when
Howe entered Philadelphia.2 It is a pleasant
abode in a picturesque country, and no doubt
Paine would have been glad to remain there in
repose. But whoever slept on his watch during
the Revolution Paine did not. The fifth Crisis
printed, he goes to forward the crisis he will publish
next. In April he is again at Lancaster, and on
the nth writes thence to his friend Henry Lau
rens, President of Congress.3
" Lancaster, April nth, 1778. Sir, — I take the liberty of
mentioning an affair to you which I think deserves the at
tention of Congress. The persons who came from Philadel
phia some time ago with, or in company with, a flag from the
Enemy, and were taken up and committed to Lancaster Jail
for attempting to put off counterfeit Contl. money, were yes
terday brought to Tryal and are likely to escape by means of
an artful and partial Construction of an Act of this State for
punishing such offences. The Act makes it felony to counter
feit the money emitted by Congress, or to circulate such coun
terfeits knowing them to be so. The offenders' Council
1 This I learn by a note from Mr. Henry's descendant, John W. Jordan.
At this time Paine laid before Henry his scheme for steam-navigation.
2 The house is marked " B. by J. B. Cookis in the year 1761." It is
probable that Congress deemed it prudent to keep important documents a
little way from the edifice in the centre of the town where it met, a building
which no longer stands.
8 I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz, of Philadelphia, for this and several
other letters of Paine to Laurens.

I778] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. 103
explained the word ' emitted ' to have only a retrospect
meaning by supplying the Idea of ' which have been ' ' emitted
by Congress.' Therefore say they the Act cannot be ap
plied to any money emitted after the date of the Act. I
believe the words ' emitted by Congress ' means only, and
should be understood, to distinguish Continental Money from
other Money, and not one Time from another Time. It has,
as I conceive, no referrence to any Particular Time, but only to
the particular authority which distinguishes Money so emitted
from Money emitted by the State. It is meant only as a dis-
cription of the Money, and not of the Time of striking it, but
includes the Idea of all Time as inseparable from the Continu
ance of the authority of Congress. But be this as it may ; the
offence is Continental and the consequences of the same ex
tent. I can have no Idea of any particular State pardoning
an offence against all, or even their letting an offender slip
legally who is accountable to all and every State alike for his
crime. The place where he commits it is the least circum
stance of it. It is a mere accident and has nothing or very
little to do with the crime itself. I write this hoping the In
formation will point out the necessity of the Congress support
ing their emissions by claiming every offender in this line
where the present deficiency of the Law or the Partial Inter
pretation of it operates to the Injustice and Injury of the
whole Continent.
" I beg leave to trouble you with another hint. Congress I
learn has something to propose thro' the Commissrs. on the
Cartel respecting the admission and stability of the Continental
Currency. As Forgery is a Sin against all men alike, and rep
robated by all civil nations, Query, would it not be right to
require of General Howe the Persons of Smithers and others
in Philadelphia suspected of this crime ; and if He, or any
other Commander, continues to conceal or protect them in
such practices, that, in such case, the Congress will consider
the crime as the Act of the Commander-in-Chief. Howe
affects not to know the Congress — he ought to be made to
know them ; and the apprehension of Personal Consequences
may have some effect on his Conduct. I am, Dear Sir,
" Your obt. and humble Servt,
" T. Paine.

104 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l77&
" Since writing the foregoing the Prisoners have had their
Tryal, the one is acquitted and the other convicted only of
a Fraud ; for as the law now stands, or rather as it is explained,
the counterfeiting — or circulating counterfeits — is only a fraud.
I do not believe it was the intention of the Act to make it so,
and I think it misapplied Lenity in the Court to suffer such an
Explanation, because it has a tendency to invite and encourage
a Species of Treason, the most prejudicial to us of any or all
the other kinds. I am aware how very difficult it is to make a
law so very perfect at first as not to be subject to false or per
plexed conclusions. There never was but one Act (said a
Member of the House of Commons) which a man might not
creep out of, i. e. the Act which obliges a man to be buried in
woollen. T. P."
The active author and secretary had remained in
Philadelphia two days after Howe had crossed the
Schuylkill, namely, until September 21st. The
events of that time, and of the winter, are re
lated in a letter to Franklin, in Paris, which is
of too much historical importance for any part of
it to be omitted. It is dated Yorktown, May
16, 1778.
" Your favor of Oct. 7th did not come to me till March. I
was at Camp when Capt. Folger, arrived with the Blank Packet
The private Letters were, I believe, all safe. Mr. Laurens for
warded yours to York Town where I afterwards reed. it.
" The last winter has been rather barren of military events,
but for your amusement I send you a little history how I have
passed away part of the time.
"The nth of Sepr. last I was preparing Dispatches for you
when the report of cannon at Brandywine interrupted my
proceeding. The event of that day you have doubtless been
informed of, which, excepting the Enemy keeping the ground,
may be deemed a drawn battle. Genl. Washington collected
his Army at Chester, and the Enemy's not moving towards him
next day must be attributed to the disability they sustained and
the burthen of their wounded. On the 16th of the same month,

I778] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. 105
the two Armies were drawn up in order of battle near the White
horse on the Lancaster road, when a most violent and incessant
storm of rain prevented an action. Our Army sustained a
heavy loss in their Ammunition, the Cartouch Boxes, especially
as they were not of the most seasoned leather, being no proof
agst. the almost incredible fury of the weather, which obliged
Genl. Washn. to draw his Army up into the country till those
injuries could be repaired, and a new supply of ammunition
procured. The Enemy in the mean time kept on the West
Side of Schuylkill. On Fryday the 1 9th about one in the morn
ing the first alarm of their crossing was given, and the confusion,
as you may suppose, was very great. It was a beautiful still
moonlight morning and the streets as full of men women and
children as on a market day. On the eveng. before I was fully
persuaded that unless something was done the City would be
lost ; and under that anxiety I went to Col. Bayard, speaker
of the house of Assembly, and represented, as I very particu
larly knew it, the situation we were in, and the probability of
saving the City if proper efforts were made for that purpose.
I reasoned thus — Genl. Washn. was about 30 Miles up the
Schuylkill with an Army properly collected waiting for Ammu
nition, besides which, a reinforcement of 1500 men were march
ing from the North River to join him ; and if only an appearance
of defence be made in the City by throwing up works at the
heads of streets, it will make the Enemy very suspicious how
they throw themselves between the City and Genl. Washington,
and between two Rivers, which must have been the case ; for
notwithstanding the knowledge which military gentlemen are
supposed to have, I observe they move exceedingly cautiously
on new ground, are exceedingly suspicious of Villages and
Towns, and more perplexed at seemingly little things which
they cannot clearly understand than at great ones which they
are fully acquainted with. And I think it very probable that
Genl. Howe would have mistaken our necessity for a deep laid
scheme and not have ventured himself in the middle of it.
But admitting that he had, he must either have brought his
whole Army down, or a part of it. If the whole, Gen. W.
would have followed him, perhaps the same day, in two or
three days at most, and our assistance in the City would have
been material. If only a part of it, we should have been a

106 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [*778
match for them, and Gen. W. superior to those which remained
above. The chief thing was, whether the cityzens would turn
out to defend the City. My proposal to Cols. Bayard and
Bradford was to call them together the next morning, make
them fully acquainted with the situation and the means and pros
pect of preserving themselves, and that the City had better
voluntarily assess itself 50,000 for its defence than suffer an
Enemy to come into it. Cols. Bayard and Bradford were in
my opinion, and as Genl. Mifflin was then in town, I next went
to him, acquainted him with our design, and mentioned like
wise that if two or three thousand men could be mustered up
whether we might depend on him to command them, for with
out some one to lead, nothing could be done. He declined that
part, not being then very well, but promised what assistance
he could. — A few hours after this the alarm happened. I went
directly to Genl. Mifflin but he had sett off, and nothing was
done. I cannot help being of opinion that the City might
have been saved, but perhaps it is better otherwise.
" I staid in the City till Sunday [Sep. 21st], having sent my
Chest and everything belonging to the foreign Committee to
Trenton in a Shallop. The Enemy did not cross the river till
the Wednesday following. Hearing on the Sunday that Genl.
Washn. had moved to Swederford I set off for that place but
learning on the road that it was a mistake and that he was
six or seven miles above that place, I crossed over to South-
field and the next Morning to Trenton, to see after my Chest.
On the Wednesday Morning I intended returning to Philadel
phia, but was informed at Bristol of the Enemy's crossing the
Schuylkill. At this place I met Col. Kirkbride of Pennsburg
Manor, who invited me home with him. On Fryday the 26th
a Party of the Enemy about 1500 took possession of the City,
and the same day an account arrived that Col. Brown had
taken 300 of the Enemy at the old french lines at Ticonderoga
and destroyed all their Water Craft, being about 200 boats of
different kinds.
"On the 29th Sept. I sett off for Camp without well knowing
where to find it, every day occasioning some movement. I kept
pretty high up the country, and being unwilling to ask questions,
not knowing what company I might be in, I was three days
before I fell in with it. The Army had moved about three

I778] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. IOJ
miles lower down that morning. The next day they made a
movement about the same distance, to the 2 1 Mile Stone on the
Skippach Road — Head Quarters at John Wince's. On the 3d
Octr. in the morning they began to fortify the Camp, as a de
ception ; and about 9 at Night marched for German Town.
The Number of Continental Troops was between 8 and 9000,
besides Militia, the rest remaining as Guards for the security of
Camp. Genl. Greene, whose Quarters I was at, desired me to
remain there till Morning. I set off for German Town about 5
next morning. The Skirmishing with the Pickets began soon
after. I met no person for several miles riding, which I con
cluded to be a good sign ; after this 1 met a man on horseback
who told me he was going to hasten on a supply of ammuni
tion, that the Enemy were broken and retreating fast, which
was true. I saw several country people with arms in their
hands running cross a field towards German Town, within about
five or six miles, at which I met several of the wounded on
waggons, horseback, and on foot. I passed Genl. Nash on a
litter made of poles, but did not know him. I felt unwilling to
ask questions lest the information should not be agreeable, and
kept on. About two miles after this I passed a promiscuous
crowd of wounded and otherwise who were halted at a house
to refresh. Col: Biddle D.Q.N.G. was among them, who called
after me, that if I went farther on that road I should be taken,
for that the firing which I heard ahead was the Enemy's. I
never could, and cannot now learn, and I believe no man can
inform truly the cause of that day's miscarriage.
" The retreat was as extraordinary. Nobody hurried them
selves. Every one marched his own pace. The Enemy kept
a civil distance behind, sending every now and then a Shot
after us, and receiving the same from us. That part of the
Army which I was with collected and formed on the Hill on
the side of the road near White Marsh Church ; the Enemy
came within three quarters of a mile and halted. The orders
on Retreat were to assemble that night on the back of Perki-
ominy Creek, about 7 miles above Camp, which had orders to
move. The Army had marched the preceding night 14 miles
and having full 20 to march back were exceedingly fatigued.
They appeared to me to be only sensible of a disappointment,
not a defeat, and to be more displeased at their retreating from

108 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l778
German Town, than anxious to get to their rendezvous. I was
so lucky that night to get to a little house about 4 miles wide of
Perkiominy, towards which place in the morning I heard a
considerable firing, which distressed me exceedingly, knowing
that our army was much harassed and not collected. However,
I soon relieved myself by going to see. They were discharging
their pieces, wch. tho' necessary, prevented several Parties going
till next day. I breakfasted next morning at Genl. W. Quarters,
who was at the same loss with every other to account for the
accidents of the day. I remember his expressing his Surprise,
by saying, that at the time he supposed every thing secure, and
was about giving orders for the Army to proceed down to
Philadelphia ; that he most unexpectedly saw a Part (I think
of the Artillery) hastily retreating. This partial Retreat was, I
believe, misunderstood, and soon followed by others. The fog
was frequently very thick, the Troops young and unused to
breaking and rallying, and our men rendered suspicious to each
other, many of them being in Red. A new Army once dis
ordered is difficult to manage, the attempt dangerous. To this
may be added a prudence in not putting matters to too hazard
ous a tryal the first time. Men must be taught regular fighting
by practice and degrees, and tho' the expedition failed, it had
this good effect — that they seemed to feel themselves more
important after it than before, as it was the first general attack
they had ever made.
" I have not related the affair at Mr Chew's house German
Town, as I was not there, but have seen it since. It certainly
afforded the Enemy time to rally — yet the matter was difficult.
To have pressed on and left 500 Men in ye rear, might by a
change of circumstances been ruinous. To attack them was loss
of time, as the house is a strong stone building, proof against any
12 pounder. Genl. Washington sent a flag, thinking it would
procure their surrender and expedite his march to Philadelphia ;
it was refused, and circumstances changed almost directly after.
" I staid in Camp two days after the Germantown action, and
lest any ill impression should get among the Garrisons at Mud
Island and Red Bank, and the Vessels and Gallies stationed
there, I crossed over to the Jersies at Trenton and went down
to those places. I laid the first night on board the Champion
Continental Galley, who was stationed off the mouth of

I778] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. IC9
Schuylkill. The Enemy threw up a two Gun Battery on the
point of the river's mouth opposite the Pest House. The
next morning was a thick fog, and as soon as it cleared away,
and we became visible to each other, they opened on the Gal
ley, who returned the fire. The Commodore made a signal to
bring the Galley under the Jersey shore, as she was not a
match for the Battery, nor the Battery a sufficient Object for
the Galley. One Shot went thro' the fore sail, wch. was all.
At noon I went with Col. [Christopher] Greene, who com
manded at Red Bank, over to fort Mifflin (Mud Island). The
Enemy opened that day 2 two-gun Batteries, and a Mortar
Battery, on the fort. They threw about 30 Shells into it that
afternoon, without doing any damage ; the ground being damp
and spongy, not above five or six burst ; not a man was killed
or wounded. I came away in the evening, laid on board the
Galley, and the next day came to Col. Kirkbride's [Borden-
town N. J.] ; staid a few days, and came again to Camp. An
Expedition was on foot the evening I got there in which I
went as Aid de Camp to Genl. Greene, having a Volunteer
Commission for that purpose. The Occasion was — a Party of
the Enemy, about 1500, lay over the Schuylkill at Grey's
ferry. Genl. McDougall with his Division was sent to attack
them ; and Sullivan & Greene with their Divisions were to
favor the enterprise by a feint on the City, down the German-
town road. They set off about nine at night, and halted at
day break, between German Town and the City, the advanced
Party at the three Miles Run. As I knew the ground I went
with two light horse to discover the Enemy's Picket, but the
dress of the light horse being white made them, I thought, too
visible, as it was then twilight ; on which I left them with my
horse, and went on foot, till I distinctly saw the Picket at Mr.
Dickerson's place, — which is the nearest I have been to Phila
delphia since Sepr., except once at Coopers ferry, as I went to
the forts. Genl. Sullivan was at Dr. Redman's house, and
McDougall's beginning the attack was to be the Signal for
moving down to the City. But the Enemy either on the
approach of McDougall, or on information of it, called in
their Party, and the Expedition was frustrated.
" A Cannonade, by far the most furious I ever heard, began
down the river, soon after daylight, the first Gun of which we

HO THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778
supposed to be the Signal ; but was soon undeceived, there be
ing no small Arms. After waiting two- hours beyond the time,
we marched back, the cannon was then less frequent ; but on
the road between German town and White marsh we were
stuned with a report as loud as a peal from a hundred Cannon
at once ; and turning round I saw a thick smoke rising like a
pillar, and spreading from the top like a tree. This was the
blowing up of the Augusta. I did not hear the explosion of
the Berlin.
" After this I returned to Col. Kirkbride's where I staid
about a fortnight, and set off again to Camp. The day after I
got there Genls. Greene, Wayne, and Cadwallader, with a Party
of light horse, were ordered on a reconnoitering Party towards
the forts. We were out four days and nights without meeting
with any thing material. An East Indiaman, whom the Enemy
had cut down so as to draw but little water, came up, without
guns, while we were on foot on Carpenter's Island, going to
Province Island. Her Guns were brought up in the evening
in a flat, she got in the rear of the Fort, where few or no Guns
could bear upon her, and the next morning, played on it in
cessantly. The night following the fort was evacuated. The
obstruction the Enemy met with from those forts, and the
Chevaux de frise was extraordinary, and had it not been that
the Western Channel, deepened by the current, being some
what obstructed by the Chevaux de frise in the main river,
which enabled them to bring up the light Indiaman Battery, it
is a doubt whether they would have succeeded at last. By
that assistance they reduced the fort, and got sufficient com
mand of the river to move some of the late sunk Chevaux de
frise. Soon after this the fort on Red Bank, (which had
bravely repulsed the Enemy a little time before) was avacu-
ated, the Gallies ordered up to Bristol, and the Capts. of such
other armed Vessels as thought they could not pass on the
Eastward side of Wind mill Island, very precipitately set them
on fire. As I judged from this event that the Enemy would
winter in Philadelphia, I began to think of preparing for York
Town, which however I was willing to delay, hoping that the
ice would afford opportunity for new Manoeuvres. But the
season passed very barrenly away. I staid at Col. Kirk
bride's till the latter end of Janay. Commodore Haslewood,

I778] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. Ill
who commanded the remains of the fleet at Trenton, ac
quainted me with a scheme of his for burning the Enemy's
Shipping, which was by sending a charged boat across the
river from Cooper's ferry, by means of a Rocket fixt in its
stern. Considering the width of the river, the tide, and the
variety of accidents that might change its direction, I thought
the project trifling and insufficient ; and proposed to him,
that if he would get a boat properly choyed, and take a Bat-
teau in tow, sufficient to bring three or four persons off, that
I would make one with him and two other persons who might
be relied on to go down on that business. One of the Com
pany, Capn. Blewer of Philadelphia, seconded the proposal,
but the Commodore, and, what I was more surprized at, Col.
Bradford, declined it. The burning of part of the Delaware
fleet, the precipitate retreat of the rest, the little service
rendered by them and the great expence they were at, make
the only national blot in the proceedings of the last Campaign.
I felt a strong anxiety for them to recover their credit, wch.,
among others, was one motive for my proposal. After this
I came to camp, and from thence to York Town, and pub
lished the Crisis No. 5, To Genl. Howe. I have began No. 6,
which I intend to address to Ld. North.
" I was not at Camp when Genl. Howe marched out on the
20th of Deer, towards White marsh. It was a most contempt
ible affair, the threatenings and seeming fury he sate out with,
and haste and Terror the Army retreated with, make it laugh
able. I have seen several persons from Philadelphia who
assure me that their coming back was a mere uproar, and
plainly indicated their apprehensions of a pursuit. Genl.
Howe, in his Letter to Ld. Go. Germain, dated Dec. 13th,
represented Genl. Washington's Camp as a strongly fortified
place. There was not, Sir, a work thrown up in it till Genl.
Howe marched out, and then only here and there a breast
work. It was a temporary Station. Besides which, our men
begin to think Works in the field of little use.
" Genl. Washington keeps his Station at the Valley
forge. I was there when the Army first began to build
huts ; they appeared to me like a family of Beavers ; every
one busy ; some carrying Logs, others Mud, and the rest
fastening them together. The whole was raised in a few

112 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1778
days, and is a curious collection of buildings in the true rustic
order. " As to Politics, I think we are now safely landed. The
apprehension which Britain must be under from her neigh
bours must effectually prevent her sending reinforcements,
could she procure them. She dare not, I think, in the present
situation of affairs trust her troops so far from home.
" No Commissrs. are yet arrived. I think fighting is nearly
over, for Britain, mad, wicked, and foolish, has done her
utmost. The only part. for her now to act is frugality, and
the only way for her to get out of debt is to lessen her Gov
ernment expenses. Two Millions a year is a sufficient allow
ance, and as much as she ought to expend exclusive of the
interest of her Debt. The Affairs of England are approaching
either to ruin or redemption. If the latter, she may bless the
resistance of America.
" For my own part, I thought it very hard to have the
Country set on fire about my Ears almost the moment I got
into it ; and among other pleasures I feel in having uniformly
done my duty, I feel that of not having discredited your
friendship and patronage.
" I live in hopes of seeing and advising with you respecting
the History of the American Revolution, as soon as a turn of
Affairs make it safe for me to take a passage to Europe.
Please to accept my thanks for the Pamphlets, which Mr.
Temple Franklin informs me he has sent. They are not yet
come to hand. Mr. & Mrs. Bache are at Mainheim, near
Lancaster ; I heard they were well a few days ago. I laid
two nights at Mr. Duffield's, in the winter. Miss Nancy
Clifton was there, who said the Enemy had destroyed or sold
a great quantity of your furniture. Mr. Duffield has since
been taken by them and carried into the City, but is now at
his own house. I just now hear they have burnt Col. Kirk-
bride's, Mr. Borden's, and some other houses at Borden Town.
Governor Johnstone (House of Commons) has wrote to Mr.
Robt. Morriss informing him of Commissioners coming from
England. The letter is printed in the Newspapers without
signature, and is dated Febry. 5 th, by which you will know it.'
1 The arrival of the Commissioners caused Paine to address his Crisis VI.
to them instead of to Lord North, as he tells Franklin is his intention.
The above letter was no doubt written in the old stone house at York.

I778] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. 113
" Please, Sir, to accept this, rough and incorrect as it is, as
I have [not] time to copy it fair, which was my design when I
began it ; besides which, paper is most exceedingly scarce.
"I am, Dear Sir, your Obliged and Affectionate humble
Servt., "T. Paine.
" The Honble. Benj. Franklin, Esqr."
Paine's prophecy at the close of his fifth Crisis
(March, 1778), that England, reduced by her war
with America, was in peril from France, was
speedily confirmed. The treaty between France
and America (February 6th) was followed by a
war-cloud in Europe, which made the Americans
sanguine that their own struggle was approaching
an end. It was generally expected that Philadel
phia would be evacuated. On this subject Paine
wrote the following letter to Washington :
"York Town, June 5th, 1778. — Sir, — As a general opinion
prevails that the Enemy will quit Philadelphia, I take the
Liberty of transmitting you my reasons why it is probable
they will not. In your difficult and distinguished Situation
every hint may be useful.
" I put the immediate cause of their evacuation, to be a
declaration of War in Europe made by them or against them :
in which case, their Army would be wanted for other Service,
and likewise because their present situation would be too un
safe, being subject to be blocked up by France and attacked
by you and her jointly.
" Britain will avoid a War with France if she can ; which
according to my arrangement of Politics she may easily do —
She must see the necessity of acknowledging, sometime or
¦other, the Independance of America ; if she is wise enough to
make that acknowledgment now, she of consequence admits
the Right of France to the quiet enjoyment of her Treaty,
and therefore no War can take place upon the Ground of
having concluded a Treaty with revolted British Subjects.

114 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l778
" This being admitted, their apprehension of being doubly
attacked, or of being wanted elsewhere, cease of consequence ;
and they will then endeavor to hold all they can, that they
may have something to restore, in lieu of something else which
they will demand ; as I know of no Instance where conquered
Plans were surrendered up prior to, but only in consequence
of a Treaty of Peace.
" You will observe, Sir, that my reasoning is founded on the
supposition of their being reasonable Beings, which if they
are not, then they are not within the compass of my System.
I am, Sir, with every wish for your happiness, Your Affection
ate and Obt. humble Servant, " Thos. Paine.
" His Excellency, Genl. Washington, Valley Forge."
Shortly after this letter to Washington tidings
came that a French fleet, under Count d'Estaing,
had appeared on the coast, and was about to block
ade the Delaware. The British apparently in panic,
really by order from England, left Philadelphia,
June 1 8th. This seeming flight was a great en
couragement. Congress was soon comfortably
seated in Philadelphia, where Paine had the pleas
ure of addressing his next Crisis to the British
Peace Commissioners.
In Philadelphia Congress was still surrounded by
a hostile population ; Paine had still to plead that
there should be no peace without republican inde
pendence. Even so late as November 24, 1778, the
French Minister (Gerard) writes to his government:
" Scarcely one quarter of the ordinary inhabitants
of Philadelphia now here favour the cause (of inde
pendence). Commercial and family ties, together
with an aversion to popular government, seem to
account for this. The same feeling exists in New
York and Boston, which is not the case in the rural

I778] SOLDIER AND SECRETARY. 1 15
districts." While Franklin was offered in Paris the
bribe of a peerage, and the like for several revolu
tionary leaders, similar efforts were made in America
to subdue the " rebellion " by craft. For that pur
pose had come the Earl of Carlisle, Sir George
Johnstone, and William Eden. Pa'ine omits the
name of Johnstone, America's friend. Referring
to the invitation of the Peace Commissioners, that
America should join them against France, he says :
" Unless you were capable of such conduct your
selves, you would never have supposed such a
character in us." He reminds the commissioners,
who had threatened that America must be laid
waste so as to be useless to France, that increased
wants of America must make her a more valuable
purchaser in France. Paine includes Sir H. Clinton
with the commissioners, and suspects the truth that
he had brought orders, received from England,
overruling an intention of the peace envoys to burn
Philadelphia if their terms were rejected. He says
he has written a Crisis for the English people
because there was a convenient conveyance ; " for
the Commissioners — poor Commissioners ! — having
proclaimed that ' yet forty days and Nineveh shall
be overthrown] have waited out the date, and, dis
contented with their God, are returning to their
gourd. And all the harm I wish them is that it
may not wither about their ears, and that they
may not make their exit in the belly of a whale."

CHAPTER IX.
FRENCH AID, AND THE PAINE-DEANE
CONTROVERSY.
In Bell's addenda to "Common Sense," which
contained Paine's Address to the Quakers (also
letters by others), appeared a little poem which
I believe his, and the expression of his creed.
"THE AMERICAN PATRIOT'S PRAYER.
" Parent of all, omnipotent
In heaven, and earth below,
Through all creation's bounds unspent,
Whose streams of goodness flow,
" Teach me to know from whence I rose,
And unto what designed ;
No private aims let me propose,
Since link'd with human kind.
" But chief to hear my country's voice,
May all my thoughts incline ;
'T is reason's law, 't is virtue's choice,
'T is nature's call and thine.
" Me from fair freedom's sacred cause
Let nothing e'er divide ;
Grandeur, nor gold, nor vain applause,
Nor friendship false misguide.
116

I778] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. W]
" Let me not faction's partial hate
Pursue to this Land's woe ;
Nor grasp the thunder of the state
To wound a private foe.
" If, for the right to wish the wrong
My country shall combine,
Single to serve th' erroneous throng,
Spight of themselves, be mine." >
Every sacrifice contemplated in this self-dedica
tion had to be made. Paine had held back nothing
from the cause. He gave America the copyrights
of his eighteen pamphlets. While they were sell
ing by thousands, at two or three shillings each,
he had to apologize to a friend for not sending his
boots, on the ground that he must borrow the
money to pay for them ! He had given up the
magazine so suited to his literary and scientific
tastes, had dismissed his lucrative school in Phila
delphia, taken a musket on his Quaker shoulders,
shared the privations of the retreat to the Dela
ware, braved bullets at Trenton and bombs at Fort
Mifflin. But now he was to give up more. He
was " Single to serve th' erroneous throng,
Spight of themselves,"
and thereby lose applause and friendship. An ex-
Congressman, sent to procure aid in France, having,
as Paine believed, attempted a fraud on the scanty
funds of this country, he published his reasons for
so believing. In doing so he alarmed the French
Ambassador in America, and incurred the hostility
of a large party in Congress ; the result being his

1 1 8 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. \M1&
resignation of the secretaryship of its Foreign
Affairs Committee.
It has been traditionally asserted that, in this
controversy, Paine violated his oath of office.
Such is not the fact. His official oath, which was
prepared for Paine himself — the first secretary of
a new committee, — was framed so as to leave him
large freedom as a public writer.
" That the said secretary, previous to his entering on his
office, take an oath, to be administered by the president, well
and faithfully to execute the trust reposed in him, according
to his best skill and judgment ; and to disclose no matter, the
knowledge of which shall be acquired in consequence of his
office, that he shall be directed to keep secret."
Not only was there no such direction of secrecy
in this case, but Congress did not know the facts
revealed by Paine. Compelled by a complaint of
the French Minister to disown Paine's publication,
Congress refused to vote that it was " an abuse of
office," or to discharge him. The facts should be
judged on their merits, and without prejudice. I
have searched and sifted many manuscripts in
European and American archives to get at the
truth of this strange chapter in our revolutionary
history, concerning which there is even yet an
unsettled controversy. x The reader who desires
1 " Beaumarchais et son Temps," par M. De Lomenie, Paris, 1856.
" Histoire de la Participation de la France a l'Etablissement des Etats
Unis d'Amerique," par M. Doniol, Paris. " Beaumarchais and ' The Lost
Million,' " by Charles J. Stille (privately printed in Philadelphia). " New
Materials for the History of the American Revolution," by John Durand,
New York, 1889. Magazine of American History, vol. ii., p. 663. "Life
and Times of Benjamin Franklin," by James Parton, New York, 1864.
"Papers in Relation to the Case of Silas Deane," Philadelphia, printed
for the Seventy-six Society, 1855.

I778] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. 119
to explore the subject will find an ample literature
concerning it, but with confusing omissions, partly
due to a neglect of Paine's papers.
The suggestion of French aid to America was
first made in May, 1 775, by Dubourg, and a scheme
was submitted by Beaumarchais to the King. This
was first brought to light in November, 1878, in the
Magazine of American History, where it is said : " It
is without date, but must have been written after
the arrival of the American Commissioners in Paris."
This is an error. A letter of December 7, 1775,
from Beaumarchais proves that the undated one
had been answered. Moreover, on June 10, 1776,
a month before Deane had reached Paris, and six
months before Franklin's arrival, the million for
America had been paid to Beaumarchais and re
ceipted. It was Deane's ruin that he appeared as
if taking credit for, and bringing within the scope
of his negotiations, money paid before his arrival.
It was the ruin of Beaumarchais that he deceived
Deane about that million.
In 1763 France had suffered by her struggle with
England humiliations and territorial losses far
heavier than those suffered by her last war with
Germany. With the revolt of the English colonies
in America the hour of French revenge struck.
Louis XVI. did not care much about it, but his
minister Vergennes did. Inspired by him, Beau
marchais, adventurer and playwright, consulted
Arthur Lee, secret agent of Congress in London,
and it was arranged that Beaumarchais should
write a series of letters to the King, to be previously
revised by Vergennes. The letters are such as

120 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l77*
might be expected from the pen that wrote " The
Marriage of Figaro." He paints before the King
the scene of France driven out of America and
India ; he describes America as advancing to en
gage the conqueror of France with a force which a
little help would make sufficient to render England
helpless beside her European foes — France and
Spain. Learning through Vergennes that the King
was mindful of his treaty with England, Beau
marchais made a proposal that the aid should be
rendered as if by a commercial house, without
knowledge of the government. This, the most im
portant document of the case, suppressed until
1878, was unknown to any of the writers who have
discussed this question, except Durand and Stille,
the latter alone having recognized its bearing on
the question of Beaumarchais' good faith. Beau
marchais tells the King that his " succor " is not to
end the war in America, but " to continue and feed
it to the great damage of the English " ; that " to
sacrifice a million to put England to the expense
of a hundred millions, is exactly the same as if you
advance a million to gain ninety-nine." Half of
the million (livres) is to be sent to America in gold,
and half in powder. So far from this aid being
gratuitous, the powder is to be taken from French
magazines at " four to six sols per pound," and
sent to America " on the basis of twenty sols per
pound." " The constant view of the affair in which
the mass of Congress ought to be kept is the cer
tainty that your Majesty is not willing to enter in
any way into the affair, but that a company is very
generously about to turn over a certain sum to the

I778] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. 121
prudent management of a faithful agent to give
successive aid to the Americans by the shortest
and the surest means of return in tobacco."
How much of this scheme actually reached the
King, and was approved by him, is doubtful. He
still hesitated, and another appeal was made (Feb
ruary 29,1 776) embodying one from Arthur Lee, who
says : "We offer to France, in return for her secret
assistance, a secret treaty of commerce, by which
she will secure for a certain number of years after
peace is declared all the advantages with which we
have enriched England for the past century, with,
additionally, a guarantee of her possessions accord
ing to our forces." Nothing is said by Arthur Lee
about other payments. The Queen had now be
come interested in the gallant Americans, and the
King was brought over to the scheme in April. On
May 2, 1776, Vergennes submits to the King the
order for a million livres which he is to sign ; also
a letter, to be written by the hand of the Minister's
son, aged' fifteen, to Beaumarchais, who, he says,
will employ M. Montandoin (the name was really
Montieu) to transmit to , the Americans " such
funds as your Majesty chooses to appropriate for
their benefit." There are various indications that
the pecuniary advantages, in the way of " sols " and
tobacco, were not set before the King, and that he
yielded to considerations of state policy.
After receiving the million (June ioth) Beau
marchais wrote to Arthur Lee in London (June
12, 1776): "The difficulties I have found in my
negotiations with the Minister have determined me
to form a company which will enable the munitions

jh >n ^-l

122 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l778
and powder to be transmitted sooner to your friend
on condition of his returning tobacco to Cape
Francis." To Arthur Lee, whom he had met at the table
of Lord Mayor John Wilkes, Beaumarchais had
emphasized the " generous " side of his scheme.
Tobacco was indeed to be sent, chiefly to give a
commercial color to the transaction for the King's
concealment, but there appeared no reason to do
more with Lee, who had no power of contract,
than impress him with the magnanimity and friend
ship of the French government. This Lee was to
report to the Secret Committee of Congress, which
would thus be prepared to agree to any arrange
ment of Beaumarchais' agent, without any suspi
cion that it might be called on to pay twenty sols a
pound for powder that had cost from four to six.
Lee did report it, sending a special messenger
(Story) to announce to Congress the glad tidings
of French aid, and much too gushingly its quasi-
gratuitous character.
A month later Silas Deane, belated since March
5th by wind and wave, reached Paris, and about
July 17, 1776, by advice of Vergennes, had his first
interview with Beaumarchais. Had Beaumarchais
known that an agent, empowered by Congress to
purchase munitions, was on his way to France, he
would have had nothing to do with Lee ; now
he could only repudiate him, and persuade Deane
to disregard him. Arthur Lee informed Deane
that Beaumarchais had told him that he had re
ceived two hundred thousand pounds sterling of
the French administration for the use of Congress,
but Deane believed Beaumarchais, who " constantly

I778] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. 123
and positively denied having said any such thing."
It had been better for Deane if he had believed
Lee.1 It turned out in the end that Beaumarchais
had received the sum Lee named, and the French
government — more anxious for treaty concessions
from America than for Beaumarchais' pocket —
assured the American Commissioners that the mil
lion was a royal gift.
This claim to generosity, however, or rather the
source of it, was a secret of the negotiation. In
October, 1777, the commissioners wrote to Con
gress a letter which, being intercepted, reached
that body only in duplicate, March, 1778, saying
they had received assurances " that no repayment
will ever be required from us for what has already
been given us either in money or military stores."
One of these commissioners was Silas Deane him
self (the others Franklin and Lee). But mean
while Beaumarchais had claimed of Congress, by
an agent (De Francy) sent to America, payment
of his bill, which included the million which his
government declared had been a gift. This com
plication caused Congress to recall Deane for
explanations. Deane arrived in America in July, 1778. There
were suspicious circumstances around him. He
had left his papers in Paris ; he had borrowed
1 M. Doniol and Mr. Durand are entirely mistaken in supposing that Lee
was "substantially a traitor." That he wrote to Lord Shelburne that " if
England wanted to prevent closer ties between France and the United States
she must not delay, " proves indeed the reverse. He wanted recognition of
the independence of his country, and peace, and was as willing to get it
from England as from France. He was no doubt well aware that French
subsidies were meant, as Beaumarchais reminded the King, to continue the
war in America, not to end it. Arthur Lee had his faults, but lack of
patriotism was not among them.
•

124 THE LIFE 0F THOMAS PAINE. [1778
money of Beaumarchais for personal expenses, and
the despatch he had signed in October, saying the
million was a gift, had been intercepted, other
papers in the same package having duly arrived.
Thus appearances were against Deane. The fol
lowing statement, in Paine's handwriting, was no
doubt prepared for submission to Congress, and
probably was read during one of its secret discus
sions of the matter. It is headed " Explanatory
Circumstances." " 1 st. The lost dispatches are dated Oct. 6th and Oct. 7th.
They were sent by a private hand — that is, they were not sent
by the post. Capt. Folger had the charge of them. They were
all under one cover containing five separate Packets ; three of
the Packets were on commercial matters only — one of these was
to Mr. R[obert] Morris, Chairman of the Commercial Commit
tee, one to Mr. Hancock (private concerns), another to Barnaby
Deane, S. Deane's brother. Of the other two Packets, one of
them was to the Secret Committee, then stiled the Committee
for foreign Affairs, the other was to Richard H. Lee — these two
last Packets had nothing in them but blank white French Paper.
" 2d. In Sept'r preceding the date of the dispatches Mr. B[eau-
marchais] sent Mr. Francis [De Francy] to Congress to press
payment to the amount mentioned in the official Letter of Oct. 6.
Mr. F[rancy] brought a letter signed only by S. Deane — the Capt.
of the vessel (Landais) brought another letter from Deane ; both
of these letters were to enforce Mr. B[eaumarchais'] demand.
Mr. F[rancy] arrived with his letters and demand. The official
despatches (if I may so say) arrived blank. Congress therefore
had no authoritative information to act by. About this time
Mr. D[eane] was recalled and arrived in America in Count
D'Estaing's fleet. He gave out that he had left his accounts in
France. " With the Treaty of Alliance come over the Duplicates of
the lost Despatches. They come into my office not having
been seen by Congress ; and as they contain an injunction not
to be conceded by [to ?] Congress, I kept them secret in the office

I778] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. 125
because at that time the foreign Committee were dispersed and
new members not appointed.
" On the 5th of Dec. 1778, Mr. D[eane] published an inflama-
tory piece against Congress. As I saw it had an exceeding ill
effect out of doors I made some remarks upon it — with a view
of preventing people running mad. This piece was replied to
by a piece under the Signature of Plain Truth — in which it was
stated, that Mr. D[eane] though a stranger in France and to
the Language, and without money, had by himself procured
30,000 stand of Arms, 30,000 suits of Cloathing, and more than
200 pieces of Brass Cannon. I replied that these supplies
were in a train of Execution before he was sent to France.
That Mr. Deane's private letters and his official despatches
jointly with the other two Commissioners contradicted each
other. " At this time I found Deane had made a large party in Con
gress — and that a motion had been made but not decided upon
for dismissing me from the foreign office, with a kind of
censure." Deane was heard by Congress twice (August 9
and 21, 1778) but made a bad impression, and a
third hearing was refused. In wrath he appealed
in the press "to the free and virtuous Citizens of
America," (December 5, 1778) against the injustice
of Congress. This Paine answered in the Penn
sylvania Packet of December 1 5, 1 779. His motives
are told in the following letter addressed to the
Hon. Henry Laurens :
" Philadelphia, Dec. 15th, 1778. — Dear Sir. — In this morn
ing's paper is a piece addressed to Mr. Deane, in which your
name is mentioned. My intention in relating the circumstances
with wch. it is connected is to prevent the Enemy drawing any
unjust conclusions from an accidental division in the House on
matters no ways political. You will please to observe that I
have been exceedingly careful to preserve the honor of Con
gress in the minds of the people who have been so exceedingly

126 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [i779
fretted by Mr. Deane's address — and this will appear the more
necessary when I inform you that a proposal has been made for
calling a Town Meeting to demand justice for Mr. Deane. I
have been applied to smoothly and roughly not to publish this
piece. Mr. Deane has likewise been with the Printer. I am,
&c." To Paine, who had given his all to the American
cause, nothing could appear more natural than
that France and her King should do the same with
pure disinterestedness. Here were Lafayette and
other Frenchmen at Washington's side. However,
the one thing he was certain of was that Deane had
no claim to be credited with the French subsidies.
Had Henry Laurens been President of Congress it
would have been easy to act on that body through
him ; but he had resigned, and the new president,
John Jay, was a prominent member of the Deane
party. So Paine resolved to defeat what he con
sidered a fraud on the country at whatever cost.
In the course of the controversy he wrote (January
2, 1779):
" If Mr. Deane or any other gentleman will procure an order
from Congress to inspect an account in my office, or any of Mr.
Deane's friends in Congress will take the trouble of coming
themselves, I will give him or them my attendance, and shew
them in handwriting which Mr. Deane is well acquainted
with, that the supplies he so pompously plumes himself upon
were promised and engaged, and that as a present, before he
ever arrived in France ; and the part that fell to Mr. Deane was
only to see it done, and how he has performed that service the
public are acquainted with."
Although Paine here gave the purport of the com
missioners' letter, showing plainly that Deane had
nothing to do with obtaining the supplies, he is not

1779] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. 1 27
so certain that they were gratuitous, and adds, in
the same letter (January 2d) : " The supplies here
alluded to are those which were sent from France
in the Amphitrite, Seine, and Mercury, about two
years ago. They had at first the appearance of a
present, but whether so or on credit the service was
a great and a friendly one." To transfer the debt
to the French government would secure such a long
credit that the American cause would not suffer.
Perhaps no official notice might have been taken of
this, but in another letter (January 5th) Paine wrote :
"Those who are now her [America's] allies, pre
faced that alliance by an early and generous friend
ship ; yet that we might not attribute too much to
human or auxiliary aid, so unfortunate were these
supplies that only one ship out of three arrived ;
the Mercury and Seine fell into the hands of the
enemy." It was this last paragraph that constituted
Paine's indiscretion. Unless we can suppose him
for once capable of a rdle so Machiavellian as the
forcing of France's hand, by revealing the connec
tion between the King and the subsidies of Beau
marchais, we can only praise him for a too-impulsive
and self-forgetting patriotism. It was of course
necessary for the French Minister (Gerard) to
complain, and for Congress to soothe him by
voting the fiction that his most Christian Majesty
" did not preface his alliance with any supplies
whatever sent to America." But in order to do
this, Paine had somehow to be dealt with. A
serio-comical performance took place in Congress.
The members knew perfectly well that Paine had

128 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1779
documents to prove every word he had printed ;
but as they did not yet know these documents
officially, and were required by their ally's minister
to deny Paine's statement, they were in great fear
that Paine, if summoned, might reveal them. As
the articles were only signed " Common Sense," it
was necessary that the Secretary should acknowl
edge himself their author, and Congress, in dread
of discovering its own secrets, contrived that he
should be allowed to utter at the bar only one
word. Congress received M. Gerard's complaint on
January 5th, and on the 6th, to which action thereon
had been adjourned, the following memorial from
Paine. " Honorable Sirs. — Understanding that exceptions have
been taken at some parts of my conduct, which exceptions as
I am unacquainted with I cannot reply to : I therefore humbly
beg leave to submit every part of my conduct public and pri
vate, so far as relate to public measures, to the judgment of
this Honble. House, to be by them approved or censured as
they shall judge proper — at the same time reserving to myself
that conscious satisfaction of having ever intended well and to
the best of my abilities executed those intentions.
"The Honble. Congress in April, 1777, were pleased, not
only unsolicited on my part, but wholly unknown to me, to
appoint me unanimously Secretary to the Committee for foreign
affairs, which mode of appointment I conceive to be the most
honorable that can take place. The salary they were pleased
to affix to it was 70 dollars per month. It has remained at the
same rate ever since, and is not at this time equal to the most
moderate expences I can live at ; yet I have never complained,
and always conceiving it my duty to bear a share of the incon
veniences of the country, have ever cheerfully submitted to them.
This being my situation, I am at this time conscious of no error,
unless the cheapness of my services, and the generosity with

1779] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. 129
which I have endeavored to do good in other respects, can be
imputed to me as a crime, by such individuals as may have
acted otherwise.
" As my appointment was honorable, therefore whenever it
shall appear to Congress that I have not fulfilled their expecta
tions, I shall, tho' with concern at any misapprehension that
might lead to such an opinion, surrender up the books and
papers intrusted to my care.
" Were my appointment an office of profit it might become
me to resign it, but as it is otherwise I conceive that such a
step in me might imply a dissatisfaction on account of the
smallness of the pay. Therefore I think it my duty to wait
the orders of this Honble. House, at the same time begging
leave to assure them that whatever may be their determination
respecting me, my disposition to serve in so honorable a
cause, and in any character in which I can best do it, will
suffer no alteration. I am, with profound respect, your Honors'
dutiful and obt. hble. Servant,
"Thomas Paine."
On the same day Paine was summoned before
Congress (sitting always with closed doors), and
asked by its president (Jay) if he wrote the articles.
He replied "Yes," and was instantly ordered to
withdraw. On the following day Paine, having
discovered that Deane's party were resolved that
he should have no opportunity to reveal any fact
in Congress, submitted a second memorial.
" Honorable Sirs. — From the manner in which I was called
before the House yesterday, I have reason to suspect an unfav
orable disposition in them towards some parts in my late publi
cations. What the parts are against which they object, or what
those objections are, are wholly unknown to me. If any gentle
man has presented any Memorial to this House which contains
any charge against me, or any-ways alludes in a censurable
manner to my character or interest, so as to become the ground
of any such charge, I request, as a servant under your authority,

130 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [*779
an attested copy of that charge, and in my present character
as a freeman of this country, I demand it. I attended at the
bar of this House yesterday as their servant, tho' the warrant
did not express my official station, which I conceive it ought to
have done, otherwise it could not have been compulsive unless
backed by a magistrate. My hopes were that I should be
made acquainted with the charge, and admitted to my defence,
which I am all times ready to make either in writing or person
ally. " I cannot in duty to my character as a freeman submit to
be censured unheard. I have evidence which I presume will
justify me. And I entreat this House to consider how great
their reproach will be should it be told that they passed a
sentence upon me without hearing me, and that a copy of the
charge against me was refused to me ; and likewise how much
that reproach will be aggravated should I afterwards prove the
censure of this House to be a libel, grounded upon a mistake
which they refused fully to inquire into.
" I make my application to the heart of every gentleman
in this House, that, before he decides on a point that may
affect my reputation, he will duly consider his own. Did I
court popular praise I should not send this letter. My wish is
that by thus stating my situation to the House, they may not
commit an act they cannot justify.
" I have obtained fame, honor, and credit in this country.
I am proud of these honors. And as they cannot be taken
from me by any unjust censure grounded on a concealed
charge, therefore it will become my duty afterwards to do
justice to myself. I have no favor to ask more than to be
candidly and honorably dealt by ; and such being my right I
ought to have no doubt but this House will proceed accord
ingly. Should Congress be disposed to hear me, I have to
request that they will give me sufficient time to prepare."
It was, of course, a foregone conclusion that the
story of what had occurred in France must not be
told. M. Gerard had identified himself with the
interests of Beaumarchais, as well as with those of
his government, and was using the privileges of the

1779] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. 131
alliance to cover that speculator's demand. Paine,
therefore, pleaded in vain. Indeed, the foregoing
memorial seems to have been suppressed, as it is
not referred to in the journal of the House for that
day (January 7th). On the day following his resig
nation was presented in the following letter :
" Honorable Sirs. — Finding by the Journals of this House,
of yesterday, that I am not to be heard, and having in my letter
of the same day, prior to that resolution, declared that I could
not 'in duty to my character as a freeman submit to be
censured unheard,' therefore, consistent with that declaration,
and to maintain that Right, I think it my duty to resign the
office of Secretary to the Committee for foreign Affairs, and I
do hereby resign the same. The Papers and documents in my
charge I shall faithfully deliver up to the Committee, either on
honor or oath, as they or this House shall direct.
" Considering myself now no longer a servant of Congress, I
conceive it convenient that I should declare what have been
the motives of my conduct. On the appearance of Mr. Deane's
Address to the Public of the 5 of Dec, in which he said ' The
ears of the Representatives were shut against him,' the honor
and justice of this House were impeached and its reputation
sunk to the lowest ebb in the opinion of the People. The
expressions of suspicion and degradation which have been
uttered in my hearing and are too indecent to be related in this
letter, first induced me to set the Public right ; but so grounded
were they, almost without exception, in their ill opinion of this
House, that instead of succeeding as I wished in my first
address, I fell under the same reproach and was frequently told
that I was defending Congress in their bad designs. This
obliged me to go farther into the matters, and I have now reason
to believe that my endeavours have been and will be effectual.
" My wish and my intentions in all my late publications were
to preserve the public from error and imposition, to support as
far as laid in my power the just authority of the Representatives
of the People, and to cordiallize and cement the Union that has
so happily taken place between this country and France.

132 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1779
" I have betrayed no Trust because I have constantly
employed that Trust to the public good. I have revealed no
secrets because I have told nothing that was, or I conceive
ought to be a secret. I have convicted Mr. Deane of error,
and in so doing I hope I have done my duty.
" It is to the interest of the Alliance that the People should
know that before America had any agent in Europe the ' public-
spirited gentlemen ' in that quarter of the world were her warm
friends. And I hope this Honorable House will receive it from
me as a farther testimony of my affection to that Alliance, and
of my attention to the duty of my office, that I mention, that
the duplicates of the Dispatches of Oct. 6 and 7, 1777, from the
Commissioners, the originals of which are in the Enemy's posses
sion, seem to require on that account a reconsideration.
" His Excellency, the Minister of France, is well acquainted
with the liberality of my sentiments, and I have had the pleas
ure of receiving repeated testimonies of his esteem for me. I
am concerned that he should in any instance misconceive me.
I beg likewise to have it understood that my appeal to this
Honorable House for a hearing yesterday was as a matter of
Right in the character of a Freeman, which Right I ought to
yield up to no Power whatever. I return my utmost thanks to
the Honorable Members of this House who endeavored to sup
port me in that Right, so sacred to themselves and to their con
stituents ; and I have the pleasure of saying and reflecting that
as I came into office an honest man, I go out of it with the same
character." This letter also was suppressed, and the same
fate was secured by Mr. Jay for several other letters
written by Paine to Congress. On March 30, 1779,
he quotes a letter of the commissioners of Novem
ber 30, 1777, saying that the supplies from France
were " the effects of private benevolence." On
April 2 1st he reminds Congress that "they began
their hard treatment of me while I was defending
their injured and insulted honor, and which I can
not account for on any other ground than supposing

1779] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. 133
that a private unwarrantable connection was formed
between Mr. Deane and certain Members of this
Honorable House." On April 23d he again ad
dresses the " Honorable Sirs " :
" On inquiring yesterday of Mr. Thomson, your Secretary, I
find that no answer is given to any of my letters. I am unable
to account for the seeming inattention of Congress in collecting
information at this particular time, from whatever quarter it
may come ; and this wonder is the more increased when I
recollect that a private offer was made to me, about three
months ago, amounting in money to jQloo a year ; yet however
polite the proposal might be, or however friendly it might be
designed, I thought it my duty to decline it ; as it was accom
panied with a condition which I conceived had a tendency to
prevent the information I have since given, and shall yet give to
the Country on Public Affairs.
" I have repeatedly wrote to Congress respecting Mr. Deane's
dark incendiary conduct, and offered every information in my
power. The opportunities I have had of knowing the state of
foreign affairs is greater than that of many gentlemen of this
House, and I want no other knowledge to declare that I look
on Mr. Deane to be, what Mr. Carmichael calls him, a rascal."
The offer of money came from M. Gerard.
This clever diplomatist perceived in all Paine's
letters his genuine love of France, and esteem for
the King who had so generously allied himself with
the Americans in their struggle for independence.
Since M. Gerard's arrival Paine had been on
friendly terms with him. I have explored the State
Archives of France for M. Gerard's versions of these
affairs, and find them more diplomatic than exact.
Immediately on the appearance of Paine's first at
tack on Deane, the Minister appears to have visited
Paine. He reports to Vergennes, January 10th,

134 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l779
that he had been at much pains to convince Paine
of his error in saying that the supplies furnished by
Beaumarchais had been " promised as a gift" ; but
he had not retracted, and he (Gerard) then thought
it necessary to refer what he wrote to Congress.
" Congress, however, did not wait for this to show
me its indignation." The journals of Congress do
not, however, reveal any reference to the matter
previous to M. Gerard's memorial of January 5th.
In his next letter M. Gerard asserts that Congress
had dismissed Paine, whereas Paine resigned, and
a motion for his dismission was lost. This letter
is dated January 17th.
" When I had denounced to Congress the assertions of
M. Payne, I did not conceal from myself the bad effects that
might result to a head puffed up by the success of his political
writings, and the importance he affected. I foresaw the loss
of his office, and feared that, separated from the support which
has restrained him, he would seek only to avenge himself with
his characteristic impetuosity and impudence. All means of
restraining him would be impossible, considering the enthusiasm
here for the license of the press, and in the absence of any
laws to repress audacity even against foreign powers. The
only remedy, my lord, I could imagine to prevent these incon
veniences, and even to profit by the circumstances, was to have
Payne offered a salary in the King's name, in place of that he
had lost. He called to thank me, and I stipulated that he
should publish nothing on political affairs, nor about Congress,
without advising with me, and should employ his pen mainly in
impressing on the people favorable sentiments towards France
and the Alliance, of the kind fittest to foster hatred and defi
ance towards England. He appeared to accept the task with
pleasure. I promised him a thousand dollars per annum, to
begin from the time of his dismission by Congress. He has
akeidy begun his functions in declaring in the Gazette that the
Affair of the military effects has no reference to the Court and

1779] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. 135
is not a political matter. You know too well the prodigious
effects produced by the writings of this famous personage
among the people of the States to cause me any fear of your
disapproval of my resolution." ,
M. Gerard adds that he has also employed Dr.
Cooper, an intimate friend of Dr. Franklin. On
May 29th he informs Vergennes that the Paine
arrangement did not work.
" A piece in a Gazette of the third by M. Payne, under his
usual title of Common Sense proves his loss of it. In it he
declares that he is the only honest man thus far employed in
American affairs, and demands that the nation shall give him
the title and authority of Censor-general, especially to purify
and reform Congress. This bit of folly shows what he is
capable of. He gives me marks of friendship, but that does
not contribute to the success of my exhortations."
In another despatch of the same date M. Gerard
writes :
" I have had the honor to acquaint you with the project I
had formed to engage Sir Payne [le Sr. Payne] to insert in the
public papers paragraphs relative to the Alliance, calculated to
encourage the high idea formed by the people of the king, and
its confidence in his friendship ; but this writer having tar
nished his reputation and being sold to the opposition, I have
found another."
He goes on to say that he has purchased two
eminent gentlemen, who write under the names
" Honest Politician " and " Americanus."
M. Gerard, in his statements concerning his rela
tions with Paine, depended on the unfamiliarity of
Vergennes with the Philadelphia journals. In
these Paine had promptly made known the over
tures made to him.

136 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l779
" Had I been disposed to make money I undoubtedly had
many opportunities for it. The single pamphlet 'Common
Sense ' would at that time of day have produced a tolerable
fortune, had I only taken the same profits from the publication
which all writers have ever done ; because the sale was the
most rapid and extensive of anything that was ever published
in this country, or perhaps in any other. Instead of which I
reduced the price so low, that instead of getting, I stand £$g,
n, o out of pocket on Mr. Bradford's books, exclusive of my
time and trouble ; and I have acted the same disinterested
part by every publication I have made.
" At the time the dispute arose respecting Mr. Deane's
affairs, I had a conference with Mr. Gerard at his own request,
and some matters on that subject were freely talked over,
which it is here necessary to mention. This was on the 2d of
January. On the evening of the same day, or the next, Mr.
Gerard through the medium of another gentleman made me a
very genteel and profitable offer. My answer to the offer was
precisely in these words : ' Any service I can render to either
of the countries in alliance, or to both, I ever have done and
shall readily do, and Mr. Gerard's esteem will be the only com
pensation I shall desire.'"
Paine never received a cent of M. Gerard's
money, but he became convinced that the French
government might be compromised by his allusion
to its early generosity to America, and on January
26th wrote that the letter to which he had alluded
had not mentioned " the King of France by any name
or title nor yet the nation of France." This was
all that the French Minister could get out of Paine,
and it was willingly given. The more complaisant
" Honest Politician " and " Americanus," however,
duly fulfilled the tasks for which they had been em
ployed by the French Ambassador. This will be
seen by reference to their letters in the Pennsyl
vania Gazette of June 23d. In June and July Paine

1779] THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY. 1 37
entered on a controversy with " Americanus " on
the terms upon which America should insist, in any
treaty of peace. He intimates his suspicion that
" Americanus " is a hireling.
It should be mentioned that the English archives
prove that in Paris Deane and Gerard had long
been intimate, and often closeted with Vergennes.
(See the reports of Wentworth and others in Stev
ens' Fac-Similes.) Deane and Gdrard came over
together, on one of d'Estaing's ships. According
to the English information Gerard was pecuniarily
interested in the supplies sent to America, and if
so had private reasons for resisting Paine's theory
of their gratuitous character.

CHAPTER X.
A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.
The Paine-Deane incident had a number of curi
ous sequels, some of which are related in a char
acteristic letter of Gouverneur Morris to John
Randolph, which has not, I believe, hitherto been
printed. Gouverneur Morris had much to do with
the whole affair ; he was a member of Congress
during the controversy, and he was the Minister in
France who, fifteen years later, brought to light
the receipt for the King's million livres charged by
Beaumarchais against this country.
" Washington, Jany. 20, 1812.
" It would give me pleasure to communicate the information
you ask, but I can only speak from memory respecting mat
ters, some of which were transacted long ago and did not
command my special attention. But it is probable that the
material facts can be established by documents in the Secre
tary of State's office.
" It will, I believe, appear from the correspondence between
Mr. Arthur Lee and the Secret and Commercial Committee,
that early in our dispute with Great Britain the French Court
made through him a tender of military supplies, and employed
as their agent for that purpose M. Beaumarchais, who, having
little property and but slender standing in society, might (if
needful) be disavowed, imprisoned, and punished for presum
ing to use the King's name on such an occasion. In the course
of our Revolutionary War, large supplies were sent by M.
138 -

1779] A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. 139
Beaumarchais under the name of Roderique Hortalez and Co.,
a supposed mercantile name. But the operations were im
peded by complaints of the British Ambassador, Lord Stor
mont, which obliged the French Court to make frequent
denials, protestations, seizure of goods and detention of ships.
Every step of this kind bound them more strongly to prevent
a disclosure of facts.
" After the Congress returned to Philadelphia, M. de Francy,
agent of M. Beaumarchais, applied to Congress for payment. This
application was supported on the ground of justice by many
who were not in the secret, for the Congress had then so much
good sense as not to trust itself with its own secrets. There
happened unluckily at that time a feud between Mr. Lee and
Mr. Deane. The latter favored (in appearance at least) M.
Beaumarchais' claim. Paine, who was clerk to the Secret and
Commercial Committee, took part in the dispute, wrote pieces
for the Gazettes, and at length, to overwhelm Deane and those
who defended him with confusion, published a declaration of
the facts confidentially communicated to the Committee by Mr.
Lee, and signed this declaration as American Secretary for For
eign Affairs.1 The French Minister, M. Gerard, immediately
made a formal complaint of that publication, and an equally
formal denial of what it contained. The Congress was therefore
obliged to believe, or at least to act as if they believed, that
Paine had told a scandalous falsehood. He was in consequence
dismissed, which indeed he deserved for his impudence if for
nothing else.3
" Beaumarchais and his agent had already received from the
Committee tobacco and perhaps other articles of produce on
account of his demand ; what and how much will of course be
found from investigating the files of the Treasury. But he
wanted and finally obtained a larger and more effectual pay
ment. Bills were drawn in his favor on Dr. Franklin, our Min
ister in France, at long sight, for about one hundred thousand
pounds sterling. This was done in the persuasion that the
Doctor would, when they were presented, communicate the fact
1 Error. Paine signed " Common Sense," and in one instance " Thomas
Paine." s Paine resigned. Several motions for "his dismissal were lost.

140 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l779
to Comte de Vergennes, from whom he would afterwards be
obliged to solicit the means of payment. It was hoped that the
French Court would then interfere and either lay hold of the
bills or compel M. Beaumarchais to refund the money, so that
no real deduction would on that account be afterwards made
from the loans or subsidies to us. The death of all who were
privy to it has spread an impenetrable veil over what passed on
this occasion between M. Beaumarchais and his employer, but
the bills were regularly paid, and we were thereby deprived in a
critical moment of the resources which so large a sum would
have supplied. When this happened, M. de la Luzerne, then
Minister of France at Philadelphia, expressed himself with so
much freedom and so much indignation respecting M. Beau
marchais and his claim, that there was reason to believe nothing
more would have been heard of it. In that persuasion, perhaps,
Dr. Franklin, when he came to settle our national accounts with
M. de Vergennes, was less solicitous about a considerable item
than he otherwise might have been. He acknowledged as a
free gift to the United States the receipt on a certain day of one
million livres, for which no evidence was produced. He asked
indeed for a voucher to establish the payment, but the Count
replied that it was immaterial whether we had received the
money or not, seeing that we were not called on for repayment.
With this reassuring the old gentleman seems to have been satis
fied, and the account was settled accordingly. Perhaps the
facts may have been communicated to him under the seal of
secrecy, and if so he showed firmness in that he had shared in
the plunder with Deane and Beaumarchais.
" Things remained in that state till after the late king of France
was dethroned. The Minister of the United States at Paris '
was then directed to enquire what had become of the million
livres. The correspondence will of course be found in the office
of the Secretary of State. It seems that he had the good for
tune to obtain copies of M. Beaumarchais' receipt for a million,
bearing date on the day when the gift was said to have been
made, so that no reasonable doubt could exist as to the identity
of the sum.3
1 Gouverneur Morris himself.
5 This was the receipt dated June 10, 1776, on which the King had marked
¦' Bon," and was obtained by Morris in 1794.

1779] A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. 141
" So much, my dear Sir, for what memory can command. You
will, I think, find papers containing a more accurate statement in
the New York " Evening Post," about the time when Mr. Rod
ney's opinion was made public. At least I recollect having seen
in that gazette some facts with which I had not been previously
acquainted, or which I had forgotten. A gentleman from Con
necticut, who was on the Committee of Claims last year, can I
believe give you the papers. I remember also to have been told
by a respectable young gentleman, son of the late Mr. Richard
Henry Lee, that important evidence on this subject, secured
from his uncle Arthur, was in his possession, and I believe it
may be obtained from Mr. Carroll of Annapolis, or his son-in-
law Mr. Harper of Baltimore. '
" The Hon'le Mr. John Randolph, of Roanoke."
Beaumarchais, barely escaping the guillotine,
died in poverty in Holland. He bequeathed his
claim to his daughter who (1835) was paid 800,000
francs, but the million which he had received from
the King and then charged on the United States,
was never paid. Silas Deane suffered a worse fate. .
His claims for commissions and services in France
remained unpaid, and after his return to France he
occupied himself with writing to his brother Simeon
and others the intercepted letters printed by Riv-
ington in 1782. In these letters he urges submis
sion to England. Franklin took the charitable
view that his head had been turned by his misfor
tunes. He went over to England, where he became
the friend of Benedict Arnold, and died in poverty
in 1789. In recent years his heirs were paid
$35,000 by Congress. But his character and his
performances in France, during the Revolution,
remain an enigma.
1 The documents referred to are no doubt among the Lee Papers preserved
at the University of Virginia, which I have examined.

I42 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l779
The determination with which Paine, to his cost,
withstood Deane, may seem at first glance quixotic.
His attack was animated by a belief that the sup
plies sent from France were a covert gift, and, at
any rate, that the demand for instant payment to
agents was fraudulent. Evidence having been
supplied, by the publication of Beaumarchais' notes
to Arthur Lee, under pseudonym of " Mary John
ston," that returns in tobacco were expected, this,
if not a mercantile mask, was still a matter of
credit, and very different from payments demanded
by Beaumarchais and Deane from the scanty
treasury of the struggling colonies.1 But there was
something more behind the vehemence of Paine's
letters. This he intimated, but his revelation
1 In one of Deane's intercepted letters (May 20, 1781) there is an indica
tion that he had found more truth in what Paine had said about the gratui
tous supplies than Beaumarchais had led him to believe. ' ' The first plan
of the French government evidently was to assist us just so far as might be
absolutely necessary to prevent an accommodation, and to give this assist
ance with so much secresy as to avoid any rupture with Great Britain. On
this plan succors were first permitted to be sent out to us by private indi
viduals, and only on condition of future payment, but afterward we were
thought to be such cheap and effectual instruments of mischief to the
British nation that more direct and gratuitous aids were furnished us.'- But
now M. Doniol has brought to light the Reflexions and Considerations of the
French Minister, Count de Vergennes, which led to his employment of
Beaumarchais, which contain such propositions as these: " It is essential
that France shall at present direct its care towards this end : she must
nourish the courage and perseverance of the insurgents by flattering their
hope of effectual assistance when circumstances permit." "It will be
expedient to give the insurgents secret aid in munitions and money ; utility
suggests this small sacrifice." " Should France and Spain give succors, they
should seek compensation only in the political object they have at heart,
reserving to themselves subsequent decision, after the events and according
to the situations. " "It would be neither for the king's dignity or interest
to bargain with the insurgents." It is certain that Beaumarchais was re
quired to impress these sentiments on Arthur Lee, who continued to take
them seriously, and made Paine take them so, after Beaumarchais was taking
only his own interests seriously.

1779] A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. 1 43
seems to have received no attention at the time.
He says (January 5th) : "In speaking of Mr.
Deane's contracts with foreign officers, I concealed,
out of pity to him, a circumstance that must have
sufficiently shown the necessity of recalling him,
and either his want of judgment or the danger of
trusting him with discretionary power. It is no
less than that of his throwing out a proposal, in
one of his foreign letters, for contracting with a
German prince to command the American army."
This personage, who was " to supersede General
Washington," he afterwards declares to be Prince
Ferdinand. It is known that Count de Broglie
had engaged Kalb and Deane to propose him as
generalissimo of America, but the evidence of this
other proposal has disappeared with other papers
missing from Deane's diplomatic correspondence.
I find, however, that ex-provost Stille, who has
studied the proceedings of Beaumarchais thor
oughly, has derived from another source an
impression that he (Beaumarchais) made an earlier
proposition of the same kind concerning Prince
Ferdinand. It would be unsafe to affirm that
Deane did more than report the proposals made to
him, but his silence concerning this particular
charge of his antagonist, while denying every other
categorically, is suspicious. At that early period
Washington had not loomed up in the eye of the
world. The French and Germans appear to have
thought of the Americans and their commander as
we might think of rebellious red men and their
painted chief. There is nothing in Deane's letters
from Europe to suggest that he did not share their

144 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1779
delusion, or that he appreciated the necessity of
independence. Paine, who conducted the foreign
correspondence, knew that the secrets of the Amer
ican office in Paris were open to Lord Stormont,
who stopped large supplies prepared for America,
and suspected Deane of treachery. It now appears
that one of Deane's assistants, George Lupton, was
an English "informer." (Steven's Facsimiles, vii.,
No. 696.)^. Deane had midnight meetings in the
Place Vendome with an English " Unknown " (now
known as the informer Paul Wentworth) to whom
he suggested that the troubles might be ended by
England's forming a " federal union " with America.
All of which shows Deane perilously unfit for his
mission, but one is glad to find him appearing no
worse in Wentworth's confidental portraiture (Janu
ary 4, 1 778) of the American officials :
" Dr. Franklin is taciturn, deliberate, and cautious ; Mr.
Deane is vain, desultory, and subtle ; Mr. Arthur Lee, sus
picious and indolent ; Alderman Lee, peevish and ignorant ;
Mr. Izzard, costive and dogmatical — all of these insidious, and
Edwards vibrating between hope and fear, interest and attach
ment."

CHAPTER XI.
CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF.
Whatever might be thought of Paine's course
in the Deane-Beaumarchais affair, there could be no
doubt that the country was saved from a question
able payment unjustly pressed at a time when it
must have crippled the Revolution, for which the
French subsidies were given. Congress was re
lieved, and he who relieved it was the sufferer.
From the most important congressional secretary
ship he was reduced to a clerkship in Owen Bid-
die's law office.
Paine's patriotic interest in public affairs did not
abate. In the summer of 1779 he wrote able arti
cles in favor of maintaining our right to the New
foundland fisheries in any treaty of peace that
might be made with England. Congress was
secretly considering what instructions should be
sent to its representatives in Europe, in case nego
tiations should arise, and the subject was discussed
by " Americanus " in a letter to the Pennsylvania
Gazette, June 23d. This writer argued that the
fisheries should not be mentioned in such negotia
tions ; England would stickle at the claim, and our
ally, France, should not be called on to guarantee
a right which should be left to the determination
10 145

146 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l779
of natural laws. This position Paine combated ;
he maintained that independence was not a change
of ministry, but a real thing ; it should mean pros
perity as well as political liberty. Our ally would
be aggrieved by a concession to Great Britain of
any means of making our alliance useful. " There
are but two natural sources of wealth — the Earth
and the Ocean, — and to lose the right to either is,
in our situation, to put up the other for sale." The
fisheries are needed, "first, as an Employment.
Secondly, as producing national Supply and Com
merce, and a means of national wealth. Thirdly,
as a Nursery for Seamen." Should Great Britain
be in such straits as to ask for peace, that would be
the right opportunity to settle the matter. " To
leave the Fisheries wholly out, on any pretence
whatever, is to sow the seeds of another war."
{Pennsylvania Gazette, June 30th, July 14th, 21st.)
The prospects of peace seemed now sufficiently
fair for Paine to give the attention which nobody
else did to his own dismal situation. His scruples
about making money out of the national cause were
eccentric. The manuscript diary of Rickman, just
found by Dr. Clair Grece, contains this note :
" Franklin, on returning to America from France, where he
had been conducting great commercial and other concerns of
great import and benefit to the States of America, on having his
accounts looked over by the Committee appointed to do so,
there was a deficit of ;£ 100,000. He was asked how this hap
pened. ' I was taught,' said he very gravely, ' when a boy
to read the scriptures and to attend to them, and it is there
said : muzzle not the ox that treadeth out his master's grain.*
No further inquiry was ever made or mention of the deficient
;£ 100,000, which, it is presumed, he devoted to some good and
great purpose to serve the people, — his own aim through life."

1779] CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF. 1 47
Rickman, who named a son after Franklin, puts
a more charitable construction on the irregularities
of the Doctor's accounts than Gouverneur Morris
(p. 140). The anecdote may not be exact, but it
was generally rumored, in congressional circles,
that Franklin had by no means been muzzled. Nor
does it appear to have been considered a serious
matter. The standard of political ethics being thus
lowered, it is easy to understand that Paine gave
more offence by his Diogenes-lantern than if he had
quietly taken his share of the grain he trod out.
The security of independence and the pressure of
poverty rendered it unnecessary to adhere to his
quixotic Quaker repugnance to the sale of his in
spirations, and he now desired to collect these into
marketable shape. His plans are stated in a letter
to Henry Laurens.
"Philadelphia, Sepr. 14th, 1779. — Dear Sir, — It was my
intention to have communicated to you the substance of this
letter last Sunday had I not been prevented by a return of my
fever ; perhaps finding myself unwell, and feeling, as well as
apprehending, inconveniences, have produced in me some
thoughts for myself as well as for others. I need not repeat
to you the part I have acted or the principle I have acted
upon ; and perhaps America would feel the less obligation to
me, did she know, that it was neither the place nor the people
but the Cause itself that irresistibly engaged me in its support ;
for I should have acted the same part in any other Country
could the same circumstances have arisen there which have
happened here. I have often been obliged to form this dis
tinction to myself by way of smoothing over some disagree
able ingratitudes, which, you well know, have been shewn to
me from a certain quarter.
" I find myself so curiously circumstanced that I have both
too many friends and too few, the generality of them thinking
that from the public part I have so long acted I cannot have

148 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1779
less than a mine to draw from — What they have had from me
they have got for nothing, and they consequently suppose I
must be able to afford it. I know but one kind of life I am
fit for, and that is a thinking one, and, of course, a writing
one — but I have confined myself so much of late, taken so
little exercise, and lived so very sparingly, that unless I alter
my way of life it will alter me. I think I have a right to ride
a horse of my own, but I cannot now even afford to hire one,
which is a situation I never was in before, and I begin to
know that a sedentary life cannot be supported without jolting
exercise. Having said thus much, which, in truth, is but loss
of time to tell to you who so well know how I am situated, I
take the liberty of communicating to you my design of doing
some degree of justice to myself, but even this is accompanied
with some present difficulties, but it is the easiest, and, I be
lieve, the most useful and reputable of any I can think of. I
intend this winter to collect all my Publications, beginning
with Common Sense and ending with the fisheries, and pub
lishing them in two volumes Octavo, with notes. I have no
doubt of a large subscription. The principal difficulty will
be to get Paper and I can think of no way more practicable than
to desire Artrurr Lee to send over a quantity from France in
the Confederacy if she goes there, and settling for it with his
brothers/After that work is compleated, I intend prosecuting
a history of the Revolution by means of a subscription — but
thjsundertaking will be attended with such an amazing ex
pense, and will take such a length of Time, that unless the
States individually give some assistance therein, scarcely any
man could afford to go through it. Some kind of an history
might be easily executed made up of daily events and triffling
matters which would lose their Importance in a few years.
But a proper history cannot even be began unless the secrets
of the other side of the water can be obtained, for the first part '
is so interwoven with the Politics of England, that, that which
will be the last to get at must be the first to begin with — and
this single instance is sufficient to show that no history can
take place of some time. My design, if I undertake it, is to
comprise it in three quarto volumes and to publish one each
year from the time of beginning, and to make an abridgment
afterwards in an easy agreeable language for a school book.

1779] CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF. 1 49
All the histories of ancient wars that are used for this pur
pose, promotes no Moral Reflection, but like the beggars
opera renders the villain pleasing in the hero. Another thing
that will prolong the completion of an history is the want of
Plates which only can be done in Europe, for that part of a
history which is intended to convey discription of places or
persons will ever be imperfect without them. I have now,
Sir, acquainted you with my design, and unwilling, as you
know I am, to make use of a friend while I can possibly avoid
it, I am really obliged to say that I should now be glad to
consult with two or three on some matters that regard my
situation till such time as I can bring the first of those sub
scriptions to bear, or set them on foot, which cannot well be
until I can get the paper ; for should I [be] disappointed of
that, with the subscriptions in my hand, I might be reflected
upon, and the reason, tho' a true one, would be subject to
other explanations.
" Here lies the difficulty I alluded to in the beginning of this
letter, and I would rather wish to borrow something of a
friend or two in the interim than run the risk I have men
tioned, because should I be disappointed by the Paper being
taken or not arriving in time, the reason being understood by
them beforehand will not injure me, but in the other case it
would, and in the mean Time I can be preparing for publica
tion. I have hitherto kept all my private matters a secret,
but as I know your friendship and you a great deal of my
situation, I can with more ease communicate them to you
than to another.
" P. S. If you are not engaged to-morrow evening I should
be glad to spend part of it with you — if you are, I shall wait
your opportunity." '
It was a cruel circumstance of Paine's poverty
that he was compelled to call attention not only to
that but to his services, and to appraise the value
of his own pen. He had to deal with hard men,
on whom reserve was wasted. On September 28th
1 I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia for a copy of this
letter.

150 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [i779
he reminded the Excutive Council of Pennsylvania
of his needs and his uncompensated services, which,
he declared, he could not afford to continue with
out support. The Council realized the importance
of Paine's pen to its patriotic measures, but was
afraid of offending the French Minister. Its
president, Joseph Reed, on the following day
(September 29th) wrote to that Minister intimating
that they would like to employ Paine if he (the min
ister) had no objection. On October nth Gerard
replies with a somewhat equivocal letter, in which
he declares that Paine had agreed to terms he had
offered through M. de Mirales, but had not fulfilled
them. " I willingly," he says, " leave M. Payne
to enjoy whatever advantages he promises him
self by his denial of his acceptance of the offers
of M. de Mirales and myself. I would even add,
Sir, that if you feel able to direct his pen in a way
useful to the public welfare — which will perhaps
not be difficult to your zeal, talents, and superior
lights, — I will be the first to applaud the success
of an attempt in which I have failed."1 On the
same date Paine, not having received any reply to
his previous letter, again wrote to the Council.
" Honble. Sirs. — Some few days ago I presented a letter
to this Honble. Board stating the inconveniences which I lay
under from an attention to public interest in preference to my
own, to which I have reed, no reply. It is to me a matter of
great concern to find in the government of this State, that
which appears to be a disposition in them to neglect their
friends and to throw discouragements in the way of genius
and Letters.
" At the particular request of the Gentleman who presides
1 " Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed." By his grandson. 1847.

1779] CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF. 151
at this board, I took up the defence of the Constitution, at a
time when he declared to me that unless he could be assisted
he must give it up and quit the state ; as matters then
pressed too heavy upon him, and the opposition was gaining
ground ; yet this Board has since suffered me to combat with
all the inconveniences incurred by that service, without any
attention to my interest or my situation. For the sake of not
dishonoring a cause, good in itself, I have hitherto been silent
on these matters, but I cannot help expressing to this board
the concern I feel on this occasion, and the ill effect which
such discouraging examples will have on those who might
otherwise be disposed to act as I have done.
" Having said this much, which is but a little part of which
I am sensible, I have a request to make which if complied
with will enable me to overcome the difficulties alluded to and
to withdraw from a service in which I have experienced nothing
but misfortune and neglect. I have an opportunity of import
ing a quantity of printing paper from France, and intend
collecting my several pieces, beginning with Common Sense,
into two Volumes, and publishing them by Subscription, with
notes ; but as I cannot think of beginning the Subscription
until the paper arrive, and as the undertaking, exclusive of the
paper, will be attended with more expense than I, who have
saved money both in the Service of the Continent and the
State, can bear, I should be glad to be assisted with the loan
of fifteen hundred pounds for which I will give bond payable
within a year. If this should not be complied with, I request
that the services I have rendered may be taken into considera
tion and such compensation made me therefor as they shall
appear to deserve.
" I am, Honble. Sirs, your obt. and humble servt.,
"Thomas Paine."
The constitution which Paine, in the above letter,
speaks of defending was that of 1776, which he had
assisted Dr. Franklin, James Cannon and others in
framing for Pennsylvania. It was a fairly republi
can constitution, and by its enfranchisement of the
people generally reduced the power enjoyed by the

152 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. \fll9
rich and reactionary under the colonial government.
In Stille's biography of John Dickinson the con
tinued conflicts concerning this constitution are
described. In 1805, when a constitutional conven
tion was proposed in Pennsylvania, Paine pointed
out the superiority of its constitution of 1776, which
"was conformable to the Declaration of Indepen
dence and the Declaration of Rights, which the
present constitution [framed in 1790] is not."1
The constitution of 1776, and Paine's exposure of
the services rendered to the enemy by Quakers,
cleared the Pennsylvania Assembly of the members
of that society who had been supreme. This pro
cess had gone on. The oath of allegiance to the
State, proposed by Paine in 1777, and adopted, had
been followed in 1778 (April 1st) by one imposing
renunciation of all allegiance to George III., his
heirs and successors, to be taken by all trustees,
provosts, professors, and masters. This was par
ticularly aimed at the nest of "Tories" in the
University of Philadelphia, whose head was the
famous Dr. William Smith. This provost, and all
members of the University except three trustees,
took the oath, but the influence of those who had
been opposed to independence remained the same.
In 1779 the Assembly got rid of the provost
(Smith), and this was done by the act of Novem-
1 Paine forgot the curious inconsistency in this constitution of 1776,
between the opening Declaration of Rights in securing religious freedom
and equality to all who "acknowledge the being of a God," and the oath
provided for all legislators, requiring belief in future rewards and punish
ments, and in the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments. This
deistical oath, however, was probably considered a victory of latitudiarian-
ism, for the members of the convention had taken a rigid trinitarian oath on
admission to their seats.

1779] CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF. 1 53
ber which took away the charter of the University.1
It was while this agitation was going on, and the
Philadelphia " Tories " saw the heads of their chief
tains falling beneath Paine's pen, that his own
official head had been thrown to them by his own
act. The sullen spite of the " Tories " did not fail
to manifest itself. In conjunction with Deane's
defeated friends, they managed to give Paine many
a personal humiliation. This was, indeed, easy
enough, since Paine, though willing to fight for his
cause, was a non-resistant in his own behalf. It
may have been about this time that an incident
occurred which was remembered with gusto by the
aged John Joseph Henry after the "Age of Reason"
had added horns and cloven feet to his early hero.
Mr. Mease, Clothier-General, gave a dinner party,
and a company of his guests, on their way home,
excited by wine, met Paine. One of them remark
ing, "There comes 'Common Sense,'" Matthew
Slough said, " Damn him, I shall common-sense
him," and thereupon tripped Paine into the gutter.2
But patriotic America was with Paine, and
missed his pen ; for no Crisis had appeared for
nearly a year. Consequently on November 2, 1 779,
the Pennsylvania Assembly elected him its Clerk.
'See "A Memoir of the Rev. William Smith, D.D.," by Charles J.
StilW, Philadelphia, 1869. Provost Stille, in this useful historical pamphlet,
states all that can be said in favor of Dr. Smith, but does not refer to his
controversy with Paine.
2 This incident is related in the interest of religion in Mr. Henry's
"Account of Arnold's Campaign against Quebec." The book repeats the
old charge of drunkenness against Paine, but the untrustworthiness of the
writer's memory is shown in his saying that his father grieved when Paine's
true character appeared, evidently meaning his ' ' infidelity. " His father
died in 1786, when no suspicion either of Paine's habits or orthodoxy had
been heard.

154 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780
On the same day there was introduced into that
Assembly an act for the abolition of slavery in the
State, which then contained six thousand negro
slaves. The body of this very moderate measure
was prepared by George Bryan, but the much
admired preamble has been attributed by tradition
to the pen of Paine.1 That this tradition is correct
is now easily proved by a comparison of its senti
ments and phraseology with the antislavery writ
ings of Paine presented in previous pages of this
work. The author, who alone seems to have been
thinking of the negroes and their rights during
that revolutionary epoch, thus had some reward in
writing the first proclamation of emancipation in
America. The act passed March i, 1780. The
Preamble is as follows :
" I. When we contemplate our abhorrence of that condition,
to which the arms and tyranny of Great Britain were exerted
to reduce us, when we look back on the variety of dangers to
which we have been exposed, and how miraculously our
wants in many instances have been supplied, and our deliv
erances wrought, when even hope and human fortitude have
become unequal to the conflict, we are unavoidably led to a
serious and grateful sense of the manifold blessings, which
we have undeservedly received from the hand of that Being,
from whom every good and perfect gift cometh. Impressed
/with these ideas, we conceive that is is our duty, and we re
joice that it is in our power, to extend a portion of that free
dom to others, which hath been extended to us, and release
from that state of thraldom, to which we ourselves were
tyrannically doomed, and from which we have now every pros
pect of being delivered. |' It is not for us to enquire why, in the
creation of mankind, theTnhabitants of the several parts of the
1 " Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed," ii., p. 177; North Ameri
can Review, vol. lvii., No. cxx.

1780] CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF. 1 5 5
earth were distinguished by a difference in feature or complexion.
It is sufficient to know that all are the work of the Almighty
Hand. J We find in the distribution of the human species, that
the ffiost fertile as well as the most barren parts of the earth
are inhabited by men of complexions different from ours, and
from each other ; from whence we may reasonably as well as
religiously infer, that He, who placed them in their various
situations, hath extended equally his care and protection to
all, and that it becometh not us to counteract his mercies.
// We esteem it a peculiar blessing granted to us, that we are
enabled this day to add one more step to universal civiliza
tion, by removing, as much as possible, the sorrows of those,
who have lived in undeserved bondage,) and from which, by
the assumed authority of the Kings -61 /Great Britain, no
effectual, legal relief could be obtained. (Weaned, by a long
course of experience, from those narrow prejudices and par
tialities we had imbibed, we find our hearts enlarged with
kindness and benevolence towards men of all conditions and
nations ; and we conceive ourselves at this particular period
particularly called upon by the blessings which we have re
ceived, to manifest the sincerity of our profession, and to give
a substantial proof of our gratitude. )
" II. And whereas the condition-of those persons, who have
heretofore been denominated Negro and Mulatto slaves, has
been attended with circumstances, which not only deprived
them of the common blessings that they were by nature enti
tled to, but has cast them into the deepest afflictions, by an
unnatural separation and sale of husband and wife from each
other and from their children, an injury, the greatness of
which can only be conceived by supposing that we were in the
same unhappy case. In justice, therefore, to persons so un
happily circumstanced, and who, having no prospect before
them whereon they may rest their sorrows and their hopes,
have no reasonable inducement to render their service to
society, which they otherwise might, and also in grateful com
memoration of our own happy deliverance from that state of
unconditional submission to which we were doomed by the
tyranny of Britain.
"III. Be it enacted, &c."

156 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780
The New Year, 1780, found Washington amid
much distress at Morristown. Besides the pub
lished letters which attest this I have found an
extract from one which seems to have escaped the
attention of Washington's editors.1 It was written
at Morristown, January 5th.
" It gives me extreme Pain that I should still be holding up
to Congress our wants on the score of Provision, when I am
convinced that they are doing all that they can for our relief.
Duty and necessity, however, constrain me to it. The in
closed copies of Letters from Mr. Flint, the Assistant Com
missary, and from Gen. Irvine, who commands at present our
advanced troops, contain a just Representation of our situa
tion. To add to our Difficulties I very much fear that the
late violent snow storm has so blocked up the Roads, that it
will be some days before the scanty supplies in this quarter
can be brought to camp. The troops, both officers and men,
have borne their Distress, with a patience scarcely to be con
ceived. Many of the latter have been four or five days with
out meat entirely and short of Bread, and none but very
scanty Supplies — Some for their preservation have been com
pelled to maraud and rob from the Inhabitants, and I have it
not in my power to punish or reprove the practice. If our
condition should not undergo a very speedy and considerable
change for the better, it will be difficult to point out all the
consequences that may ensue. About forty of the Cattle
mentioned by Mr. Flint got in last night."
The times that tried men's souls had come again.
The enemy, having discovered the sufferings of
the soldiers at Morristown, circulated leaflets in
viting them to share the pleasures of New York.
Nor were they entirely unsuccessful. On May 28th
was penned the gloomiest letter Washington ever
1 It is in the Ward Collection at Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., copied
by a (probably) contemporary hand.

1780] CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF. 1 57
wrote. It was addressed to Reed, President of
Pennsylvania, and the Clerk (Paine) read it to the
Assembly. " I assure you," said the Commander's
letter, " every idea you can form of our distresses
will fall short of the reality. There is such a com
bination of circumstances to exhaust the patience
of the soldiery that it begins at length to be worn
out, and we see in every line of the army the most
serious features of mutiny and sedition." There
was throughout the long letter a tone of despera
tion which moved the Assembly profoundly. At
the close there was a despairing silence, amid which
a member arose and said, " We may as well give
up first as last.'' The treasury was nearly empty,
but enough remained to pay Paine his salary, and
he headed a subscription of relief with $500^ The
money was enclosed to Mr. M'Clenaghan, with a
vigorous letter which that gentleman read to a
meeting held in a coffee-house the same evening.
Robert Morris and M'Clenaghan subscribed ^200
each, hard money. The subscription, dated June
8th, spread like wildfire, and resulted in the raising
of ,£300,000, which established a bank that supplied
the army through the campaign, and was incor
porated by Congress on December 21st.
Paine, by his timely suggestion of a subscription,
and his " mite," as he called it, proved that he
could meet a crisis as well as write one. He had
written a cheery Crisis in March, had helped to
make good its hopefulness in May, and was
1 The salary was drawn on June 7th, and amounted to $1,699. For par
ticulars concerning Paine's connection with the Assembly I am indebted to
Dr. William H. Egle, State Librarian of Pennsylvania.

158 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780
straightway busy on another. This was probably
begun on the morning when M'Clenaghan came to
him with a description of the happy effect and
result produced by his letter and subscription on
the gentlemen met at the coffee-house. This Crisis
(June 9, 1780) declares that the reported fate of
Charleston, like the misfortunes of 1 776, had re
vived the same spirit ; that such piecemeal work
was not conquering the continent ; that France was
at their side ; that an association had been formed
for supplies, and hard-money bounties. In a post
script he adds : " Charleston is gone, and I believe
for the want of a sufficient supply of provisions.
The man that does not now feel for the honor of
the best and noblest cause that ever a country
engaged in, and exert himself accordingly, is no
longer worthy of a peaceable residence among a
people determined to be free."
Meanwhile, on " Sunday Morning, June 4th,"
Paine wrote to President Reed a private letter :
" Sir, — I trouble you with a few thoughts on the present
state of affairs. Every difficulty we are now in arises from an
empty treasury and an exhausted credit. These removed and
the prospect were brighter. While the war was carried on by
emissions at the pleasure of Congress, any body of men might
conduct public business, and the poor were of equal use in
government with the rich. But when the means must be
drawn from the country the case becomes altered, and unless
the wealthier part throw in their aid, public measures must go
heavily on.
" The people of America understand rights better than
politics. They have a clear idea of their object, but are greatly
deficient in comprehending the means. In the first place,/
they do not distinguish between sinking the debt, and raising
the current expenses. They want to have the war carried on,
the Lord knows how.

1780] CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF. 1 59
" It is always dangerous to spread an alarm of danger unless
the prospect of success be held out with it, and that not only
as probable, but naturally essential. These things premised,
I beg leave to mention, that suppose you were to send for
some of the richer inhabitants of the City, and state to them
the situation of the army and the treasury, not as arising so
much from defect in the departments of government as from
a neglect in the country generally, in not contributing the
necessary support in time. If they have any spirit, any fore
sight of their own interest or danger, they will promote a
subscription either of money or articles, and appoint a com
mittee from among themselves to solicit the same in the
several Counties ; and one State setting the example, the rest,
I presume, will follow. Suppose it was likewise proposed to
them .to deposit their, plate to be coined for the pay of the
Army, crediting the government for the value, by weight.
" If measures of this kind could be promoted by the richer
of the Whigs, it would justify your calling upon the other
part to furnish their proportion without ceremony, and these
two measures carried, would make a draft or call for personal
service the more palatable and easy.
" I began to write this yesterday. This morning, it appears
clear to me that Charleston is in the hands of the enemy, and
the garrison prisoners of war. Something must be done,
and that something, to give it popularity, must begin with
men of property. Every care ought now to be taken to keep
goods from rising. The rising of goods will have a most
ruinous ill effect in every light in which it can be viewed.
" The army must be reunited, and that by the most expe
ditious possible means. Drafts should first be countenanced
by subscriptions, and if men would but reason rightly, they
would see that there are some thousands in this State who
had better subscribe thirty, forty, or fifty guineas apiece than
run the risk of having to settle with the enemy. Property is
always the object of a conqueror, wherever he can find it. A
rich man, says King James, makes a bonny traitor ; and it
cannot be supposed that Britain will not reimburse herself by
the wealth of others, could she once get the power of doing
it. We must at least recruit eight or ten thousand men in
this State,, who had better raise a man apiece, though it

l6o THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780
should cost them a thousand pounds apiece, than not have a
sufficient force, were it only for safety sake. Eight or ten
thousand men, added to what we have now got, with the force
that may arrive, would enable us to make a stroke at New
York, to recover the loss of Charleston — but the measure
must be expeditious.
" I suggest another thought. Suppose every man, working
a plantation, who has not taken the oath of allegiance, in Phila
delphia County, Bucks, Chester, Lancaster, Northampton,
and Berks, were, by the new power vested in the Council,
called immediately upon for taxes in kind at a certain value.
Horses and wagons to be appraised. This would not only
give immediate relief, but popularity to the new power. I
would remark of taxes in kind, that they are hard-money
taxes, and could they be established on the non-jurors, would
relieve us in the articles of supplies.
" But whatever is necessary or proper to be done, must be
done immediately. We must rise vigorously upon the evil, or
it will rise upon us. A show of spirit will grow into real
spirit, but the Country must not be suffered to ponder over
their loss for a day. The circumstance of the present hour
will justify any means from which good may arise. We want
rousing. " On the loss of Charleston I would remark — the expectation
of a foreign force arriving will embarrass them whether to go
or to stay ; and in either case, what will they do with their
prisoners ? If they return, they will be but as they were as
to dominion ; if they continue, they will leave New York an
attackable post. They can make no new movements for a
considerable time. They may pursue their object to the
Southward in detachments, but then in every main point they
will naturally be at a stand ; and we ought immediately to lay
hold of the vacancy.
" I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant,
"Thomas Paine."
If Paine had lost any popularity in consequence
of his indirect censure by Congress, a year before,
it had been more than regained by his action in

1780] CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF. l6l
heading the subscription, and the inspiriting effect
of his pamphlets of March and June, 1 780. The
University of the State of Pennsylvania, as it was
now styled, celebrated the Fourth of July by con
ferring on him the degree of Master of Arts.1
Among the trustees who voted to confer on him
this honor were some who had two years before
refused to take the American oath of allegiance.
In the autumn appeared Paine's Crisis Extra
ordinary. It would appear by a payment made to
him personally, that in order to make his works
cheap he had been compelled to take his publica
tions into his own hands." The sum of $360 paid
for ten dozen copies of this pamphlet was really at
the rate of five cents per copy. It is a forcible
reminder of the depreciation of the Continental
currency. At one period Paine says he paid $300
for a pair of woollen stockings.
Although the financial emergency had been tided
over by patriotic sacrifices, it had disclosed a chaos.
1 Mr. Burk, Secretary of the University of Pennsylvania, sends me some
interesting particulars. The proposal to confer the degree on Paine was
unanimously agreed to by the trustees present, who were the Hon. Joseph
Reed, President of the Province ; Mr. Moore, Vice-President ; Mr. Sproat
{Presbyterian minister), Mr. White (the Bisr&rp), Mr. Helmuth, Mr. Wei-
borg (minister of the German Calvinist Church), Mr. Farmer (Roman Catho
lic Rector of St. Mary's), Dr. Bond, Dr. Hutchkinson, Mr. Muhlenberg
(Lutheran minister). There were seven other recipients of the honor on
that day, all eminent ministers of religion ; and M.D. was conferred on
David Ramsay, a prisoner with the enemy.
a " In Council. Philadelphia, October ioth, 1780. Sir, — Pay to Thomas
Paine Esquire, or his order, the amount of three hundred and sixty dollars
Continental money in State money, at sixty to one, amount of his account
for 10 dozen of the Crisis Extraordinary. Wm. Moore, Vice President. —
To David Rittenhouse Esquire, Treasurer."
"Sir, — Please to pay the within to Mr. Willm. Harris, and you will oblige
yr. obt. Hble. Sert., Thos. Paine. — David Rittenhouse Esq.''
" Red. in full, H. Wm. Harris." [Harris printed the pamphlet].

1 62 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780
Congress, so far from being able to contend with
Virginia on a point of sovereignty, was without
power to levy taxes. " One State," writes Wash
ington (May 31st) "will comply with a requisition
of Congress ; another neglects to do it ; a third
executes it by halves ; and all differ either in the
manner, the matter, or so much in point of time,
that we are always working up hill, and ever shall
be ; and, while such a system as the present one or
rather want of one prevails, we shall ever be unable
to apply our strength or resources to any advan
tage." In the letter of May 28th, to the President
of Pennsylvania, which led to the subscription
headed by Paine, Washington pointed out that the
resources of New York and Jersey were exhausted,
that Virginia could spare nothing from the threat
ened South, and Pennsylvania was their chief
dependence. " The crisis, in every point of view,
is extraordinary." This sentence of Washington
probably gave Paine his title, Crisis Extraordi
nary. It is in every sense a masterly production.
By a careful estimate he shows that the war and
the several governments cost two millions sterling
annually. The population being 3,000,000, the
amount would average 13^. $d. per head. In
England the taxation was £2 per head. With
independence a peace establishment in America
would cost 5.?. per head ; with the loss of it Am
ericans would have to pay the £2 per head like
other English subjects. Of the needed annual two
millions, Pennsylvania's quota would be an eighth,
or ,£250,000 ; that is, a shilling per month to her
375,000 inhabitants, — which subjugation would in-

1780] CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF. 163
crease to three-and-threepence per month. He
points out that the Pennsylvanians were then pay
ing only ,£64,280 per annum, instead of their real
quota of ,£250,000, leaving a deficiency of ,£185,-
720, and consequently a distressed army. After
showing that with peace and free trade all losses
and ravages would be speedily redressed, Paine
proposes that half of Pennsylvania's quota, and
;£6o,ooo over, shall be raised by a tax of js. per
head. With this sixty thousand (interest on six
millions) a million can be annually borrowed. He
recommends a war-tax on landed property, houses,
imports, prize goods, and liquors. " It would be an
addition to the pleasures of society to know that,
when the health of the army goes round, a few
drops from every glass become theirs."
On December 30, 1780, Dunlap advertised
Paine's pamphlet " Public Good." Under a char
ter given the Virginia Company in 1609 the State
of Virginia claimed that its southern boundary
extended to the Pacific ; and that its northern
boundary, starting four hundred miles above, on
the Atlantic coast, stretched due northwest. To
this Paine replies that the charter was given to a
London company extinct for one hundred and fifty
years, during which the State had never acted
under that charter. Only the heirs of that com
pany's members could claim anything under its
extinct charter. Further, the State unwarrantably
assumed that the northwestern line was to extend
from the northern point of its Atlantic base ;
whereas there was more reason to suppose that it
was to extend from the southern point, and meet a

164 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780
due west line from the northern point, thus form
ing a triangular territory of forty-five thousand
square miles. Moreover, the charter of 1609 said
the lines should stretch " from sea to sea." Paine
shows by apt quotations that the western sea was
supposed to be a short distance from the Atlantic,
and that the northwestern boundary claimed by
Virginia would never reach the said sea, " but
would form a spiral line of infinite windings round
the globe, and after passing over the northern
parts of America and the frozen ocean, and then
into the northern parts of Asia, would, when eter
nity should end, and not before, terminate in the
north pole." \Such a territory is nondescript, and
a charter that describes nothing gives nothing. It
may be~fe'rharked here that though the Attorney-
General of Virginia, Edmund Randolph, had to
vindicate his State's claim, he used a similar argu
ment in defeating Lord Fairfax's claim to lands in
Virginia which had not been discovered when his
grant was issued.1 All this, however, was mere
fencing preliminary to the real issue. The western
lands, on the extinction of the Virginia companies,
had reverted to the Crown, and the point in which
the State was really interested was its succession to
the sovereignty of the Crown over all that terri
tory. It was an early cropping up of the question
of State sovereignty. By royal proclamation of
1 763 the province of Virginia was defined so as not
to extend beyond heads of rivers emptying in the
Atlantic. Paine contended that to the sovereignty
1 " Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and Papers of
Edmund Randolph," pp. 47, 60.

1780] CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF. 1 65
of the Crown over all territories beyond limits of
the thirteen provinces the United States had suc
ceeded. This early assertion of the federal doc
trine, enforced with great historical and legal
learning, alienated from Paine some of his best
Southern friends. The controversy did not end
until some years later. After the peace, a pro
posal in the Virginia Legislature to present Paine
with something for his services, was lost on account
of this pamphlet.1
The students of history will soon be enriched
by a " Life of Patrick Henry," by his grandson,
William Wirt Henry, and a " Life of George
Mason," by his descendant, Miss Rowland. In
these works by competent hands important con
tributions will be made (as I have reason to know)
to right knowledge of the subject dealt with by
Paine in his " Public Good." It can here only be
touched on ; but in passing I may say that Virginia
1 Of course this issue of State v. National sovereignty was adjourned to
the future battle-field, where indeed it was not settled. Congress accepted
Virginia's concession of the territory in question (March 1, 1784), without
conceding that it was a donation ; it accepted some of Virginia's conditions,
but refused others, which the State surrendered. A motion that this accept
ance did not imply endorsement of Virginia's claim was lost , but the con
trary was not affirmed. The issue was therefore settled only in Paine's
pamphlet, which remains a document of paramount historical interest.
There was, of course, a rumor that Paine's pamphlet was a piece of paid
advocacy. I remarked among the Lee MSS., at the University of Virginia,
an unsigned scrap of paper saying he had been promised twelve thousand acres
of western land. Such a promise could only have been made by the old
Indiana, or Vandalia, Company, which was trying to revive its defeated
claim for lands conveyed by the Indians in compensation for property they
had destroyed. Their agent, Samuel Wharton, may have employed Paine's
pen for some kind of work. But there is no faintest trace of advocacy in
Paine's " Public Good." He simply maintains that the territories belong
to the United States, and should be sold to pay the public debt, — a principle
as fatal to the claim of a Company as to that of a State.

1 66 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780
had good ground for resisting even the semblance
of an assertion of sovereignty by a Congress repre
senting only a military treaty between the colonies ;
and that Paine's doctrine confesses itself too ideal
istic and premature by the plea, with which his
pamphlet closes, for the summoning of a " con
tinental convention, for the purpose of forming a
continental constitution, defining and describing
the powers and authority of Congress."

CHAPTER XII.
A JOURNEY TO FRANCE.
The suggestion of Franklin to Paine, in October,
1775, that he should write a history of the events
that led up to the conflict, had never been forgot
ten by either. From Franklin he had gathered
important facts and materials concerning the time
antedating his arrival in America, and he had been
a careful chronicler of the progress of the Revo
lution. He was now eager to begin this work. At
the close of the first year of his office as Clerk of
the Assembly, which left him with means of support
for a time, he wrote to the Speaker (November 3,
1 780) setting forth his intention of collecting mate
rials for a history of the Revolution, and saying that
he could not fulfil the duties of Clerk if re-elected.1
1 Dr. Egle informs me that the following payments to Paine appear in the
Treasurer's account : 1779, November 27, £450. 1780, February 14. For
public service at a treaty held at Easton in 1777, £300. February 14. Pay
as clerk, £582. 10. o. March 18. On account as clerk, £187. 10. o.
March 27, " for his services " (probably those mentioned on p. 94), .£2,355.
7. 6. June 7, " for 60 days attendance and extra expenses," £1,699. *¦ °-
(This was all paper money, and of much less value than it seems. The last
payment was drawn on the occasion of his subscription of the $500, appar
ently hard money, in response to Washington's appeal.) In March, 1780,
a Fee Act was passed regulating the payment of officers of the State in
accordance with the price of wheat ; but this was ineffectual to preserve the
State paper from depreciation. In June, 1780, a list of lawyers and State
officers willing to take paper money of the March issue as gold and silver was
published, and in it appears " Thomas Paine, clerk to the General Assembly."
167

1 68 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l7&°
This and another letter (September 14, 1780), ad
dressed to the Hon. John Bayard, Speaker of the
late Assembly, were read, and ordered to lie on
the table. Paine's office would appear to have
ended early in November ; the next three months
were devoted to preparations for his history.
But events determined that Paine should make
more history than he was able to chronicle. Soon
after his Crisis Extraordinary (dated October 6,
1 780) had appeared, Congress issued its estimate
of eight million dollars (a million less than Paine's)
as the amount to be raised. It was plain that the
money could not be got in the country, and France
must be called on for help. Paine drew up a letter
to Vergennes, informing him that a paper dollar
was worth only a cent, that it seemed almost im
possible to continue the war, and asking that
[France should supply America with a million ster-
ing per annum, as subsidy or loan. This letter
as shown to M. Marbois, Secretary of the French
Legation, who spoke discouragingly. But the
Hon. Ralph Izard showed the letter to some mem
bers of Congress, whose consultation led to the
appointment of Col. John Laurens to visit France.
It was thought that Laurens, one of Washington's
aids, would be able to explain the military situa
tion. He was reluctant, but agreed to go if Paine
would accompany him.
It so happened that Paine had for some months
had a dream of crossing the Atlantic, with what
purpose is shown in the following confidential
letter (September 9, 1780), probably to Gen.
Nathaniel Greene.

1780] A JOURNEY TO FRANCE. 1 69
" Sir, — Last spring I mentioned to you a wish I had to take
a passage for Europe, and endeavour to go privately to Eng
land. You pointed out several difficulties in the way, respect
ing my own safety, which occasioned me to defer the matter
at that time, in order not only to weigh it more seriously, but
to submit to the government of subsequent circumstances. I
have frequently and carefully thought of it since, and were I
now to give an opinion on it as a measure to which I was not
a party, it would be this : — that as the press in that country is
free and open, could a person possessed of a knowledge of
America, and capable of fixing it in the minds of the people
of England, go suddenly from this country to that, and keep
himself concealed, he might, were he to manage his knowledge
rightly, produce a more general disposition for peace than by
any method I can suppose. I see my way so clearly before
me in this opinion, that I must be more mistaken than I ever
yet was on any political measure, if it fail of its end. I take
it for granted that the whole country, ministry, minority, and
all, are tired of the war ; but the difficulty is how to get rid of
it, or how they are to come down from the high ground they
have taken, and accommodate their feelings to a treaty for
peace. Such a change must be the effect either of necessity
or choice. I think it will take, at least, three or four more
campaigns to produce the former, and they are too wrong in
their opinions of America to act from the latter. I imagine
that next spring will begin with a new Parliament, which is so
material a crisis in the politics of that country, that it ought to
be attended to by this ; for, should it start wrong, we may
look forward to six or seven years more of war. The influence
of the press rightly managed is important ; but we can derive
no service in this line, because there is no person in England
who knows enough of America to treat the subject properly.
It was in a great measure owing to my bringing a knowledge
of England with me to America, that I was enabled to enter
deeper into politics, and with more success, than other people ;
and whoever takes the matter up in England must in like
manner be possessed of a knowledge of America. I do not
su/ppose that the acknowledgment of Independence is at this
tirjne a more unpopular doctrine in England than the declara
tion of it was in America immediately before the publication

170 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1780
of the pamphlet 'Common Sense,' and the ground appears
as open for the one now as it did for the other then.
" The manner in which I would bring such a publication
out would be under the cover of an Englishman who had
made the tour of America incog. This will afford me all the
foundation I wish for and enable me to place matters before
them in a light in which they have never yet viewed them. I
observe that Mr. Rose in his speech on Governor Pownall's
bill, printed in Bradford's last paper, says that ' to form an
opinion on the propriety of yielding independence to America
requires an accurate knowledge of the state of that country,
the temper of the people, the resources of their Government,'
&c. Now there is no other method to give this information
a national currency but this, — the channel of the press, which
I have ever considered the tongue of the world, and which
governs the sentiments of mankind more than anything else
that ever did or can exist.
" The simple point I mean to aim at is, to make the
acknowledgment of Independence a popular subject, and
that not by exposing and attacking their errors, but by
stating its advantages and apologising for their errors, by way
of accomodating the measure to their pride. The present
parties in that country will never bring one another to reason.
They are heated with all the passion of opposition, and to
rout the ministry, or to support them, makes their capital
point. Were the same channel open to the ministry in this
country which is open to us in that, they would stick at no
expense to improve the opportunity. Men who are used to
government know the weight and worth of the press, when in
hands which can use it to advantage. Perhaps with me a
little degree of literary pride is connected with principle ; for,
as I had a considerable share in promoting the declaration of
Independence in this country, I likewise wish to be a means
of promoting the acknowledgment of it in that ; and were I
not persuaded that the measure I have proposed would, be
productive of much essential service, I would not hazard my
own safety, as I have everything to apprehend should I tall
into their hands ; but, could I escape in safety, till I cot>(ld
get out a publication in England, my apprehensions would be

1781] A JOURNEY TO FRANCE. \,1
over, because the manner in which I mean to treat the subject
would procure me protection.
" Having said thus much on the matter, I take the liberty
of hinting to you a mode by which the expense may be
defrayed without any new charge. Drop a delegate in Con
gress at the next election, and apply the pay to defray what I
have proposed ; and the point then will be, whether you can
possibly put any man into Congress who could render as much
service in that station as in the one I have pointed out.
When you have perused this, I should be glad of some con
versation upon it, and will wait on you for that purpose at
any hour you may appoint. I have changed my lodgings, and
am now in Front Street opposite the Coffee House, next door
to Aitkin's bookstore. " I am, Sir, your ob't humble servant,
"Thomas Paine."
The invitation of Colonel Laurens was eagerly
accepted by Paine, who hoped that after their
business was transacted in France he might fulfil
his plan of a literary descent on England. They
sailed from Boston early in February, 1781, and
arrived at L'Orient in March.
Young Laurens came near ruining the scheme
by an imprudent advocacy, of which Vergennes
complained, while ascribing it to his inexperience.
According to Lamartine, the King "loaded Paine
with favors." The gift of six millions was " con
fided into the hands of Franklin and Paine." The
author now revealed to Laurens, and no doubt to
Franklin, his plan for going to England, but was
dissuaded from it. From Brest, May 28th, he
writes to Franklin in Paris :
"I have just a moment to spare to bid you farewell. We
go on board in an hour or two, with a fair wind and every
thing ready. I understand that you have expressed a desire

172 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1781
to withdraw from business, and I beg leave to assure you that
every wish of mine, so far as it can be attended with any
service, will be employed to make your resignation, should it
be accepted, attended with every possible mark of honor which
your long services and high character in life justly merit."1
They sailed from Brest on the French frigate
Resolve June ist, reaching Boston August 25th,
with 2,500,000 livres in silver, and in convoy a ship
laden with clothing and military stores.
The glad tidings had long before reached Wash
ington, then at New Windsor. On May 14, 1781,
the General writes to Philip Schuyler :
" I have been exceedingly distressed by the repeated accounts
I have received of the sufferings of the troops on the frontier, "
and the terrible consequences which must ensue unless they
were speedily supplied. What gave a particular poignancy
to the sting I felt on the occasion was my inability to afford
relief." On May 26th his diary notes a letter from
Laurens reporting the relief coming from France.
The information was confided by Washington only
to his diary, lest it should forestall efforts of self-
help. Of course Washington knew that the start
ing of convoys from France could not escape
English vigilance, and that their arrival was uncer
tain ; so he passed near three months in prepara
tions, reconnoitrings, discussions. By menacing
the British in New York he made them draw away
some of the forces of Cornwallls from Virginia,
where he meant to strike ; but his delay in march-
1 He confides to Franklin a letter to be forwarded to Bury St. Edmunds,
the region of his birth. Perhaps he had already been corresponding with
some one there about his projected visit. Ten years later the Bury Post
vigorously supported Paine and his " Rights of Man."

1781] A JOURNEY TO FRANCE. 173
ing south brought on him complaints from Govern
or Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and others, who
did not know the secret of that delay. Washington
meant to carry to Virginia an army well clad, with
hard money in their pockets, and this he did. The
arrival of the French supplies at Boston, August
25th, was quickly heralded, and while sixteen ox-
teams were carrying them to Philadelphia, Wash
ington was there getting, on their credit, all the
money and supplies he wanted for the campaign
that resulted in the surrender of Cornwallis.
For this great service Paine never received any
payment or acknowledgment. Th^ plan nf nhrain-
ing aid from France was conceived by him, and
mainly executed by him. It was at a great risk
that he went on this expedition ; had he been cap
tured he could have hoped for little mercy from the
British. Laurens, who had nearly upset the busi
ness, got the glory and the pay ; Paine, who had
given up his clerkship of the Assembly, run the
greater danger, and done the real work, got noth
ing. But it was a rdle he was used to. The young
Colonel hastened to resume his place in Washing
ton's family, but seems to have given little attention
to Paine's needs, while asking attention to his own.
So it would appear by the following friendly letter
of Paine, addressed to " Col. Laurens, Head Quar
ters, Virginia :
"Philadelphia, Oct. 4, 1781. — Dear Sir, — I received your
favor (by the post,) dated Sep. 9th, Head of Elk, respecting a
mislaid letter. A gentleman who saw you at that place about
the same time told me he had likewise a letter from you to me
which he had lost, and that you mentioned something to him
respecting baggage. This left me in a difficulty to judge

174 THE LIFE 0F THOMAS PAINE. [1781
whether after writing to me by post, you had not found the
letter you wrote about, and took that opportunity to inform
me about it. However, I have wrote to Gen. Heath in case
the trunk should be there, and inclosed in it a letter to
Blodget in case it should not. I have yet heard nothing from
either. I have preferred forwarding the trunk, in case it can
be done in a reasonable timej to the opening it, and if it can
not, then to open it agreeably to your directions, tho' I have
no idea of its being there.
" I went for your boots, the next day after you left town,
but they were not done, and I directed the man to bring them
to me as soon as finished, but have since seen nothing of him,
neither do wish him to bring them just now, as I must be
obliged to borrow the money to pay for them ; but I imagine
somebody else has taken them off his hands. I expect Col.
Morgan in town on Saturday, who has some money of mine
in his hands, and then I shall renew my application to the
bootmaker. " I wish you had thought of me a little before you went
away, and at least endeavored to put matters in a train that I
might not have to reexperience what has already past. The
gentleman who conveys this to you, Mr. Burke, is an assistant
judge of South Carolina, and one to whose friendship I am
much indebted. He lodged some time in the house with me.
" I enclose you the paper of this morning, by which you will
see that Gillam had not sailed (or at least I conclude so) on
the 4th of July, as Major Jackson was deputy toast master, or
Burgos-master, or something, at an entertainment on that day.
As soon as I can learn anything concerning Gillam I will in
form you of it.
" I am with every wish for your happiness and success, &c.
" Please to present my Compts. and best wishes to the Gen
eral. I have wrote to the Marquis and put all my politics into
his letter. A paper with Rivington's account of the action is
enclosed in the Marquis' letter." '
It will be seen by the following letter to Frank
lin's nephew that Paine was now on good terms
1 The original is in Mr. W. F. Havermeyer's collection.

1781] A JOURNEY TO FRANCE. 175
with the Congressmen who had opposed him in the
Deane matter. The letter (in the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania) is addressed to " Mr. Jonathan
Williams, Merchant, Nantz," per " Brig Betsey."
" Philadelphia, Nov. 26, 1781. — Dear Sir, — Since my
arrival I have received a letter from you dated Passy May 18,
and directed to me at Brest. I intended writing to you by
Mr. Baseley who is consul at L'Orient but neglected it till it
was too late. — Mem : I desired Baseley to mention to you
that Mr. Butler of S: Carolina is surprised at Capt Rob  n's
drawing on him for money ; this Mr. Butler mentioned to me,
and as a friend I communicate, it to you. — I sent you Col.
Laurens's draft on Madam Babut (I think that is her name)
at Nantz for 12 L' d'ors for the expence of the Journey but
have never learned if you received it.
"Your former friend Silas Deane has run his last length.
In france he is reprobating America, and in America (by let
ters) he is reprobating france, and advising her to abandon
her alliance, relinquish her independence, and once more
become subject to Britain. A number of letters, signed Silas
Deane, have been published in the New York papers to this
effect : they are believed, by those who formerly were his
friends, to be genuine ; Mr. Robt. Morris assured me that he
had been totally deceived in Deane, but that he now looked
upon him to be a bad man, and his reputation totally ruined.
Gouverneur Morris hopped round upon one leg, swore they
had all been duped, himself among the rest, complimented
me on my quick sight, — and by Gods says he nothing carries
a man through the world like honesty : — and my old friend
Duer ' Sometimes a sloven and sometimes a Beau,' says,
Deane is a damned artful rascal. However Duer has fairly
cleared himself. He received a letter from him a considerable
time before the appearance of these in the New York papers
— which was so contrary to what he expected to receive, and
of such a traitorous cast, that he communicated it to Mr.
Luzerne the Minister.
" Lord Cornwallis with 7247 officers and men are nabbed
nicely in the Cheasepeake, which I presume you have heard

176 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. f1?8!
already, otherwise I should send you the particulars. I think
the enemy can hardly hold out another campaign. General
Greene has performed wonders to the southward, and our
affairs in all quarters have a good appearance. The french
Ministry have hit on the right scheme, that of bringing their
force and ours to act in conjunction against the enemy.
" The Marquis de la fayette is on the point of setting out for
france, but as I am now safely on this side the water again, I
believe I shall postpone my second journey to france a little
longer. — Lest Doctr. Franklin should not have heard of
Deane I wish you would write to him, and if anything new
transpires in the meantime and the Marquis do not set off too
soon, I shall write by him.
" Remember me to Mr. & Mrs. Johnstone, Dr. Pierce, Mr.
Watson & Ceasey and Mr. Wilt. Make my best wishes to
Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Alexander, and all the good girls at St.
Germain. " I am your friend &c.
" Thomas Paine.
" P. S. Mind, I '11 write no more till I hear from you. The
French fleet is sailed from the Cheasepeake, and the British
fleet from New York — and since writing the above, a vessel is
come up the Delaware, which informs that he was chased by
two french frigates to the southward of Cheasepeake, which on
their coming up acquainted him that the french fleet was a
head in chase of a fleet which they supposed to be the
British. " N. B. The french fleet sailed the 4th of this month, and the
british much about the same time — both to the southward."

CHAPTER XIII.
THE MUZZLED OX TREADING OUT THE GRAIN.
While Washington and Lafayette were in Vir
ginia, preparing for their grapple with Cornwallis,
Philadelphia was in apprehension of an attack by
Sir Henry Clinton, for which it was not prepared.
It appeared necessary to raise for defence a body
of men, but the money was wanting. Paine (Sep
tember 20th) proposed to Robert Morris the plan
of "empowering the tenant to pay into the Treas
ury one quarter's rent, to be applied as above \i. e.,
the safety of Philadelphia], and in case it should
not be necessary to use the money when collected,
the sums so paid to be considered a part of the
customary taxes." This drastic measure would
probably have been adopted had not the cloud
cleared away. The winter was presently made
glorious summer by the sun of Yorktown.
Washington was received with enthusiasm by
Congress on November 28th. In the general
feasting and joy Paine participated, but with an
aching heart. He was an unrivalled literary lion ;
he had to appear on festive occasions ; and he was
without means. Having given his all,— copyrights,
secretaryship, clerkship, — to secure the indepen
dence of a nation, he found himself in a state of
12 177

I78 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [178
dependence. He fairly pointed the moral of Solo
mon's fable : By his wisdom he had saved the be
sieged land, yet none remembered that poor man
so far as his needs were concerned. If in his con
fidential letter to Washington, given below, Pairi(
seems egotistical, it should be borne in mind that hi:
estimate of his services falls short of their apprecia
tion by the national leaders. It should not hav<
been left to Paine to call attention to his sacrifice:
for his country's cause, and the want in which it hac
left him. He knew also that plain speaking was
necessary with Washington.
" Second Street, opposite the Quaker Meeting
house, Nov. 30th, 1781.
" Sir, — As soon as I can suppose you to be a little at leisun
from business and visits, I shall, with much pleasure, wait 01
you, to pay you my respects and congratulate you on the sue
cess you have most deservedly been blest with.
" I hope nothing in the perusal of this letter will add a can
to the many that employ your mind ; but as there is a satisfac
tion in speaking where one can be conceived and understood
I divulge to you the secret of my own situation ; because .
would wish to tell it to somebody, and as I do not want t<
make it public, I may not have a fairer opportunity.
" It is seven years, this day, since I arrived in America, an<
tho' I consider them as the most honorary time of my life
they have nevertheless been the most inconvenient and evei
distressing. From an anxiety to support, as far as laid in m;
power, the reputation of the Cause of America, as well as th<
Cause itself, I declined the customary profits which author
are entitled to, and I have always continued to do so ; yet
never thought (if I thought at all on the matter,) but that as
dealt generously and honorably by America, she would dea
the same by me. But I have experienced the contrary — am
it gives me much concern, not only on account of the incon
venience it has occasioned to me, but because it unpleasantl

1 781] THE MUZZLED OX. 1 79
lessens my opinion of the character of a country which once
appeared so fair, and it hurts my mind to see her so cold and
inattentive to matters which affect her reputation.
"Almost every body knows, not only in this country but in
Europe, that I have been of service to her, and as far as the
interest of the heart could carry a man I have shared with her
in the worst of her fortunes, yet so confined has been my
private circumstances that for one summer I was obliged to
hire myself as a common clerk to Owen Biddle of this city for
my support : but this and many others of the like nature I
have always endeavored to conceal, because to expose them
would only serve to entail on her the reproach of being
ungrateful, and might start an ill opinion of her honor and
generosity in other countries, especially as there are pens
enough abroad to spread and aggravate it.
" Unfortunately for me, I knew the situation of Silas Deane
when no other person knew it, and with an honesty, for which
I ought to have been thanked, endeavored to prevent his fraud
taking place. He has himself proved my opinion right, and
the warmest of his advocates now very candidly acknowledge
their deception.
" While it was every body's fate to suffer I chearfully suffered
with them, but tho' the object of the country is now nearly es
tablished and her circumstances rising into prosperity, I feel
myself left in a very unpleasant situation. Yet I am totally at
a loss what to attribute it to ; for wherever I go I find respect,
and every body I meet treats me with friendship ; all join in
censuring the neglect and throwing blame on each other, so
that their civility disarms me as much as their conduct dis
tresses me. But in this situation I cannot go on, and as I
have no inclination to differ with the Country or to tell the
story of her neglect, it is my design to get to Europe, either to
France or Holland. I have literary fame, and I am sure I can
not experience worse fortune than I have here. Besides a
person who understood the affairs of America, and was capable
and disposed to do her a kindness, might render her consid
erable service in Europe, where her situation is but imperfectly
understood and much misrepresented by the publications
which have appeared on that side the water, and tho' she has
not behaved to me with any proportionate return of friendship,

l8o THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [r78r
my wish for her prosperity is no ways abated, and I shall be
very happy to see her character as fair as her cause.
" Yet after all there is something peculiarly hard that the
country which ought to have been to me a home has scarcely
afforded me an asylum.
" In thus speaking to your Excellency, I know I disclose
myself to one who can sympathize with me, for I have often
cast a thought at your difficult situation to smooth over the
unpleasantness of my own.
" I have began some remarks on the Abbe Raynal's ' His
tory of the Revolution.' In several places he is mistaken, and
in others injudicious and sometimes cynical. I believe I shall
publish it in America, but my principal view is to republish it
in Europe both in French and English.
¦*' Please, Sir, to make my respectful compts. to your Lady,
and accept to yourself the best wishes of,
"Your obedt. humble servant,
" Thomas Paine.1
"His Excellency General Washington."
Paine's determination to make no money by his
early pamphlets arose partly from his religious and
Quaker sentiments. He could not have entered
into any war that did not appear to him sacred, and
in such a cause his " testimony " could not be that
of a " hireling." His " Common Sense," his first
Crisis, were inspirations, and during all the time of
danger his pen was consecrated to the cause. He
had, however, strict and definite ideas of copyright,
and was the first to call attention of the country to
its necessity, and even to international justice in
literary property. In the chaotic condition of such
matters his own sacrifices for the national benefit
had been to some extent defeated by the rapacity
of his first publisher, Bell, who pocketed much of
1 1 am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia for a copy of this
letter.

1782] THE MUZZLED OX. 181
what Paine had intended for the nation. After he
had left Bell for Bradford, the former not only pub-
blished another edition of " Common Sense," but
with "large additions," as if from Paine's pen.
When the perils of the cause seemed past Paine
still desired to continue his literary record clear of
any possible charge of payment, but he believed
that the country would appreciate this sensitive
ness, and, while everybody was claiming something
for services, would take care that he did not starve.
In this he was mistaken. In that very winter, after
he had ventured across the Atlantic and helped
to obtain the six million livres, he suffered want.
Washington appears to have been the first to con
sider his case. In the diary of Robert Morris,
Superintendent of Finance, there is an entry of
January 26, 1782, in which he mentions that Wash
ington had twice expressed to him a desire that
some provision should be made for Paine.1 Morris
sent for Paine and, in the course of a long conversa
tion, expressed a wish that the author's pen should
continue its services to the country ; adding that
though he had no position to offer him something
might turn up. In February Morris mentions
further interviews with Paine, in which his assistant,
Gouverneur Morris, united ; they expressed their
high appreciation of his services to the country,
and their desire to have the aid of his pen in pro
moting measures necessary to draw out the re
sources of the country for the completion of its
purpose. They strongly disclaimed any private or
partial ends, or a wish to bind his pen to any par-
1 Sparks' " Diplomatic Correspondence," xii., p. 95.

182 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [«782
ticular plans. They proposed that he should be
paid eight hundred dollars per annum from some
national fund. Paine having consented, Robert
Morris wrote to Robert R. Livingston on the sub
ject, and the result was a meeting of these two with
Washington, at which the following was framed :
" Philadelphia, Feb. 10, 1782. — The subscribers, taking
into consideration the important situation of affairs at the
present moment, and the propriety and even necessity of
informing the people and rousing them into action ; con
sidering also the abilities of Mr. Thomas Paine as a writer,
and that he has been of considerable utility to the common
cause by several of his publications : They are agreed that it
will be much for the interest of the United States that Mr.
Paine be engaged in their service for the purpose above men
tioned. They are therefore agreed that Mr. Paine be offered
a salary of $800 per annum, and that the same be paid him by
the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. The salary to commence
from this day, and to be paid by the Secretary of Foreign
Affairs out of monies to be allowed by the Superintendent of
Finance for secret services. The subscribers being of opinion
that a salary publicly and avowedly given for the above pur
pose would injure the effect of Mr. Paine's publications, and
subject him to injurious personal reflections.
"Robt. Morris.
"Robt. Livingston.
" Go. Washington."
Before this joint note was written, Paine's pen
had been resumed. March 5th is the date of an
extended pamphlet, that must long have been in
hand. It is introduced by some comments on the
King's speech, which concludes with a quotation of
Smollett's fearful description of the massacres and
rapine which followed the defeat of the Stuarts at
Culloden in 1746. This, a memory from Paine's

1782] THE MUZZLED OX. 183
boyhood at Thetford, was an effective comment on
the King's expression of his desire " to restore the
public tranquillity," though poor George IIL, who
was born in the same year as Paine, would hardly
have countenanced such vengeance. He then deals
— no doubt after consultation with Robert Morris,
Superintendent of Finance — with the whole subject
of finance and taxation, in the course of which he
sounds a brave note for a more perfect union of the
States, which must be the foundation-stone of their
independence. As Paine was the first to raise the
flag of republican independence he was the first to
raise that of a Union which, above the States,
should inherit the supremacy wrested from the
Crown. These passages bear witness by their
nicety to the writer's consciousness that he was
touching a sensitive subject. The States were
jealous of their " sovereignty," and he could only
delicately intimate the necessity of surrendering it.
But he manages to say that " each state (with a
small s) is to the United States what each individ
ual is to the state he lives in. And it is on this
grand point, this movement upon one centre, that
our existence as a nation, our happiness as a people,
and our safety as individuals, depend." He also
strikes the federal keynote by saying : " The United
States will become heir to an extensive quantity of
vacant land " — the doctrine of national inheritance
which cost him dear.
Before the Declaration, Paine minted the phrases
" Free and Independent States of America," and
" The Glorious Union." In his second Crisis, dated
January 13, 1777, he says to Lord Howe: " 'The

1 84 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. \^7^
United States of America ' will sound as pomp
ously in the world or in history as ' the kingdom of
Great Britain.' "
The friendliness of Robert Morris to the author
is creditable to him. In the Deane controversy,
Paine had censured him and other members of
Congress for utilizing that agent of the United
States to transact their commercial business in
Europe. Morris frankly stated the facts, and,
though his letter showed irritation, he realized
that Paine was no respecter of persons where the
American cause was concerned.1 In 1782 the
Revolution required nicest steering. With the
port in sight, the people were prone to forget that
it is on the coast that dangerous rocks are to be
found. Since the surrender of Cornwallis they
were over-confident, and therein likely to play into
the hands of the enemy, which had lost confidence
in its power to conquer the States by arms. Eng
land was now making efforts to detach America
and France from each other by large inducements.
In France Paine was shown by Franklin and Ver
gennes the overtures that had been made, and told
the secret history of the offers of mediation from
Russia and Austria. With these delicate matters
he resolved to deal, but before using the documents
in his possession consulted Washington and Morris.
This, I suppose, was the matter alluded to in a
note of March 17, 1782, to Washington, then in
Philadelphia :
" You will do me a great deal of pleasure if you can make
it convenient to yourself to spend a part of an evening at my
apartments, and eat a few oysters or a crust of bread and
1 Almon's Remembrancer 1778-9, p. 382.

1782] THE MUZZLED OX. 185
cheese ; for besides the favour you will do me, I want much
to consult with you on a matter of public business, tho' of a
secret nature, which I have already mentioned to Mr. Morris,
whom I likewise intend to ask, as soon as yourself shall please
to mention the evening when."
A similar note was written to Robert Morris four
days before. No doubt after due consultation the
next Crisis, dated May 22, 1782, appeared. It
dealt with the duties of the alliance :
" General Conway," he says, " who made the motion in the
British parliament for discontinuing offensive war in America,
is a gentleman of an amiable character. We have no personal
quarrel with him. But he feels not as we feel ; he is not in
our situation, and that alone without any other explanation is
enough. The British parliament suppose they have many
friends in America, and that, when all chance of conquest is
over, they will be able to draw her from her alliance with
France. Now if I have any conception of the human heart,
they will fail in this more than in anything that they have yet
tried. This part of the business is not a question of policy
only, but of honor and honesty."
Paine's next production was a public letter to
Sir Guy Carleton, commanding in New York, con
cerning a matter which gave Washington much
anxiety. On April 12th Captain Huddy had been
hanged by a band of " refugees," who had sallied
from New York into New Jersey (April 12th). The
crime was traced to one Captain Lippencott, and,
after full consultation with his officers, Washington
demanded the murderer. Satisfaction not being
given, Washington and his generals determined on
retaliation, and Colonel Hazen, who had prisoners
under guard at Lancaster, was directed to have an
officer of Captain Huddy's rank chosen by lot to
suffer death. Hazen included the officers who had

186 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l782
capitulated with Cornwallis, though they were ex
pressly relieved from liability to reprisals (Article
14). The lot fell upon one of these, young Captain
Asgill (May 27th). It sufficiently proves the for
midable character of the excitement Huddy's death
had caused in the army that Washington did not at
once send Asgill back. The fact that he was one
of the capitulation officers was not known outside
the military circle. Of this circumstance Paine
seems ignorant when he wrote his letter to Sir
Guy Carleton, in which he expresses profound
sympathy with Captain Huddy, and warns Carle
ton that by giving sanctuary to the murderer he
becomes the real executioner of the innocent youth.
Washington was resolved to hang this innocent
man, and, distressing as the confession is, no gen
eral appears to have warned him of the wrong he
was about to commit.1 But Paine, with well-weighed
1 Historians have evaded this ugly business. I am indebted to the family
of General Lincoln, then Secretary of War, for the following letter addressed
to him by Washington, June 5, 1782 : " Col. Hazen's sending me an officer
under the capitulation of Yorktown for the purpose of retaliation has dis
tressed me exceedingly. Be so good as to give me your opinion of the
propriety of doing this upon Captain Asgill, if we should be driven to it for
want of an unconditional prisoner. Presuming that this matter has been a
subject of much conversation, pray with your own let me know the opinions
of the most sensible of those with whom you have conversed. Congress by
their resolve has unanimously approved of my determination to retaliate.
The army have advised it, and the country look for it. But how far is it
justifiable upon an officer under the faith of a capitulation, if none other can
be had is the question ? Hazen's sending Captain Asgill on for this purpose
makes the matter more distressing, as the whole business will have the
appearance of a farce, if some person is not sacrificed to the mains of
poor Huddy ; which will be the case if an unconditional prisoner cannot be
found, and Asgill escapes. I write you in exceeding great haste ; but beg
your sentiments may be transmitted as soon as possible (by express), as I
may be forced to a decision in the course of a few days. — I am most
sincerely and affectionately, D'r Sir, yr. obed't,
" G. Washington."

1782] THE MUZZLED OX. 187
words, gently withstood the commander, prudently
ignoring the legal point, if aware of it.
" For my own part, I am fully persuaded that a suspension
of his fate, still holding it in terrorem, will operate on a greater
quantity of their passions and vices, and restrain them more,
than his execution would do. However, the change of meas
ures which seems now to be taking place, gives somewhat of a
new cast to former designs ; and if the case, without the
execution, can be so managed as to answer all the purposes of
the last, it will look much better hereafter, when the sensa
tions that now provoke, and the circumstances which would
justify his exit shall be forgotten."
This was written on September 7th, and on the
30th Washington, writing to a member of Con
gress, for the first time intimates a desire that
Asgill shall be released by that body.
In October came from Vergennes a letter, in
spired by Marie Antoinette, to whom Lady Asgill
had appealed, in which he reminds Washington
that the Captain is a prisoner whom the King's
arms contributed to surrender into his hands.
That he had a right, therefore, to intercede for his
life. This letter (of July 29, 1 782) was laid before
Congress, which at once set Asgill at liberty.
Washington was relieved, and wrote the Captain
a handsome congratulation.
Although Paine could never find the interval of
leisure necessary to write consecutively his " His
tory of the Revolution," it is to a large extent
distributed through his writings. From these and
his letters a true history of that seven years can be
gathered, apart from the details of battles ; and
even as regards these his contributions are of high

1 88 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782
importance, notably as regards the retreat across
the Delaware, the affairs at Trenton and Prince
ton, and the skirmishes near Philadelphia follow
ing the British occupation of that city. The lat
ter are vividly described in his letter to Franklin
(p. 104), and the former in his review of the Abbe
Raynal. In his letter to Washington, of November 30,
1 781, Paine mentioned that he had begun "some
remarks " on the Abbe's work " On the Revolution
of the English Colonies in North America." It
was published early in September, 1782. The
chief interest of the pamphlet, apart from the pas
sages concerning the military events of 1 776, lies
in its reflections of events in the nine months dur
ing which the paper lingered on his table. In
those' months he wrote four numbers of the Crisis,
one of urgent importance on the financial situation.
The review of the Abbe's history was evidently
written at intervals. As a literary production it is
artistic. With the courtliness of one engaged in
"an affair of honor," he shakes the Abbe's hand,
sympathizes with his misfortune in having his
manuscript stolen, and thus denied opportunity to
revise the errors for which he must be called to
account. His main reason for challenging the
historian is an allegation that the Revolution origi
nated in the question " whether the mother country
had, or had not, a right to lay, directly or indi
rectly, a slight tax upon the colonies." The
quantity of the tax had nothing to do with it.
The tax on tea was a British experiment to test its
declaratory Act affirming the right of Parliament

1782] THE MUZZLED OX. 189
" to bind America in all cases whatever," and that
claim was resisted in the first stage of its execution.
Secondly, the Abbe suffers for having described
the affair at Trenton as accidental. Paine's answer
is an admirable piece of history. Thirdly, the
Abbe" suggests that the Americans would probably
have accommodated their differences with England
when commissioners visited them in April, 1778,
but for their alliance with France. Paine affirms
that Congress had rejected the English proposals
(afterwards brought by the commissioners) on
April 2 2d, eleven days before news arrived of the
French alliance.1 The Abbe is metaphysically
punished for assuming that a French monarchy in
aiding defenders of liberty could have no such
motive as " the happiness of mankind." Not hav
ing access to the archives of France, Paine was
able to endow Vergennes with the enthusiasm of
Lafayette, and to see in the alliance a new dawn
ing era of international affection. All such alliances
are republican. The Abbe is leniently dealt with
for his clear plagiarisms from Paine, and then left
for a lecture to England. That country is advised
to form friendship with France and Spain ; to
1 Here Paine is more acute than exact. On June 3, 1778, the English
Commissioners sent Congress the resolutions for negotiation adopted by
Parliament, February 17th. Congress answered that on April 22d it
had published its sentiments on these acts. But these sentiments had
admitted a willingness to negotiate if Great Britain should " as a prelimi
nary thereto, either withdraw their fleets and armies, or else, in positive and
express terms, acknowledge the independence of the said States." But
in referring the commissioners (June 6th) to its manifesto of April 22d, the
Congress essentially modified the conditions : it would treat only as an
independent nation, and with ' ' sacred regard " to its treaties. On June
17th Congress returned the English Commissioners their proposal (sent on
the gth) unconsidered, because of its insults to their ally.

ICO THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782
expand its mind beyond its island, and improve
its manners. This is the refrain of a previous
passage. " If we take a review of what part Britain has acted we
shall find everything which should make a nation blush. The
most vulgar abuse, accompanied by that species of haughtiness
which distinguishes the hero of a mob from the character of a
gentleman ; it was equally as much from her manners as her
injustice that she lost the colonies. By the latter she pro
voked their principle, by the former she wore out their tem
per ; and it ought to be held out as an example to the world,
to show how necessary it is to conduct the business of govern
ment with civility."
The close of this essay, written with peace in the
air, contains some friendly advice to England. She
is especially warned to abandon Canada, which,
after loss of the thirteen colonies, will be a con
stant charge. Canada can never be populous, and
of all that is done for it " Britain will sustain the
expense, and America reap the advantage."
In a letter dated " Bordentown, September 7,
1782," Paine says to Washington:
" I have the honour of presenting you with fifty copies of
my Letter to the Abb6 Raynal, for the use of the army, and to
repeat to you my acknowledgments for your friendship.
" I fully believe we have seen our worst days over. The
spirit of the war, on the part of the enemy, is certainly on the
decline full as much as we think. I draw this opinion not
only from the present promising appearance of things, and the
difficulties we know the British Cabinet is in ; but I add to it
the peculiar effect which certain periods of time have, more or
less, on all men. The British have accustomed themselves to
think of seven years in a manner different to other portions of
time. They acquire this partly by habit, by reason, by reli
gion, and by superstition. They serve seven years' apprentice-

1782] THE MUZZLED OX. 191
ship — they elect their parliament for seven years — they punish
by seven years' transportation, or the duplicate or triplicate of
that term — they let their leases in the same manner, and they
read that Jacob served seven years for one wife, and after
that seven years for another ; and the same term likewise
extinguishes all obligations (in certain cases) of debt, or mat
rimony : and thus this particular period of time, by a variety
of concurrences, has obtained an influence on their mind.
They have now had seven years of war, and are no farther on
the Continent than when they began. The superstitious and
populous part will therefore conclude that it is not to be, and
the rational part of them will think they have tried an unsuc
cessful and expensive experiment long enough, and that it is
in vain to try it any longer, and by these two joining in the
same eventual opinion the obstinate part among them will be
beaten out, unless, consistent with their former sagacity, they
get over the matter at once by passing a new declaratory Act
to bind Time in all cases whatsoever, or declare him a rebel."
The rest of this letter is the cautious and re
spectful warning against the proposed execution of
Captain Asgill, quoted elsewhere. Washington's
answer is cheerful, and its complimentary close
exceptionally cordial.
Head-Quarters, Verplank's Point, 18 September, 1782.
— Sir, — I have the pleasure to acknowledge your favor, inform
ing me of your proposal to present me with fifty copies of
your last publication for the amusement of the army. For
this intention you have my sincere thanks, not only on my own
account, but for the pleasure, which I doubt not the gentle
men of the army will receive from the perusal of your pam
phlets. Your observations on the period of seven years, as it
applies itself to and affects British minds, are ingenious, and
I wish it may not fail of its effects in the present instance.
The measures and the policy of the enemy are at present in
great perplexity and embarrassment — but I have my fears,
whether their necessities (which are the only operating motives
with them) are yet arrived to that point, which must drive

192

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1782

them unavoidably into what they will esteem disagreeable and
dishonorable terms of peace, — such, for instance, as an abso
lute, unequivocal admission of American Independence, upon
the terms on which she can accept it. For this reason, added
to the obstinacy of the King, and the probable consonant
principles of some of the principal ministers, I have not so
full a confidence in the success of the present negociation for
peace as some gentlemen entertain. Should events prove my
jealousies to be ill founded, I shall make myself happy under
the mistake, consoling myself with the idea of having erred on
the safest side, and enjoying with as much satisfaction as any
of my countrymen the pleasing issue of our severe contest.
" The case of Captain Asgill has indeed been spun out to a
great length — but, with you, I hope that its termination will not
be unfavourable to this country.
" I am, sir, with great esteem and regard,
" Your most obedient servant,
" G. Washington."
A copy of the answer to the Abbe Raynal was
sent by Paine to Lord Shelburne, and with it in
manuscript his newest Crisis, dated October 29,
1782. This was suggested by his lordship's speech
of July 10th, in which he was reported to have
said : " The independence of America would be
the ruin of England." " Was America then," asks
Paine, " the giant of empire, and England only her
dwarf in waiting ? Is the case so strangely altered,
that those who once thought we could not live with
out them are now brought to declare that they
cannot exist without us ? "
Paine's prediction that it would be a seven years'
war was nearly true. There was indeed a dismal
eighth year, the army not being able to disband
until the enemy had entirely left the country, — a
year when peace seemed to " break out " like

1782] THE MUZZLED OX. 193
another war. The army, no longer uplifted by
ardors of conflict with a foreign foe, became con
scious of its hunger, its nakedness, and the prospect
of returning in rags to pauperized homes. They
saw all the civil officers of the country paid, while
those who had defended them were unpaid ; and
the only explanations that could be offered — the
inability of Congress, and incoherence of the
States — formed a new peril. The only hope of
meeting an emergency fast becoming acute, was
the unanimous adoption by the States of the pro
posal of Congress for a five-per-cent. duty on
imported articles, the money to be applied to the
payment of interest on loans to be made in Hol
land. Several of the States had been dilatory in
their consent, but Rhode Island absolutely refused,
and Paine undertook to reason with that State.
In the Providence Gazette, December 21st, ap
peared the following note, dated " Philadelphia,
November 27, 1782 " :
" Sir, — Inclosed I send you a Philadelphia paper of this
day's date, and desire you to insert the piece signed ' A
Friend to Rhode Island and the Union.' I am concerned
that Rhode Island should make it necessary to address a piece
to her, on a subject which the rest of the States are agreed in.
— Yours &c. Thomas Paine."
The insertion of Paine's letter led to a fierce
controversy, the immediate subject of which is
hardly of sufficient importance to detain us long.1
1 It may be traced through the Providence Gazette of December 21, 28
(1782), January 4, 11, 18, 25, February 1 (1783) ; also in the Newport
Mercury. Paine- writes under the signature of " A Friend to Rhode Island
and the Union.'' I am indebted to Prof essor Jamieson of Brown University
for assistance in this investigation.
vol. 1.— 13

194 THE LIFE 0F THOMAS PAINE. [1783
Yet this controversy, which presently carried Paine
to Providence, where he wrote and published six
letters, raised into general discussion the essential
principles of Union. Rhode Island's jealousy
of its "sovereignty" — in the inverse ratio of its
size, — made it the last to enter a Union which
gave it equal legislative power with the greatest
States ; it need not be wondered then that at this
earlier period, when sovereignty and self-interest
combined, our pioneer of nationality had to un
dergo some martyrdom. " What," he asked,
" would the sovereignity of any individual state
be, if left to itself to contend with a foreign power ?
It is on our united sovereignty that our greatness
and safety, and the security of our foreign com
merce, rest. This united sovereignty then must be
something more than a name, and requires to be as
completely organized for the line it is to act in as
that of any individual state, and, if anything, more
so, because more depends on it." He received
abuse, and such ridicule as this (February ist) :
" In the Name of Common Sense, Amen, I, Thomas Paine,
having according to appointment, proceeded with all con
venient speed to answer the objections to the five per cent, by
endeavouring to cover the design and blind the subject, before
I left Philadelphia, and having proceeded to a convenient place
of action in the State of Rhode Island, and there republished
my first letter," etc.
In the same paper with this appeared a letter of
self-defence from Paine, who speaks of the personal
civility extended to him in Rhode Island, but of
proposals to stop his publications. He quotes a
letter of friendship from Colonel Laurens, who gave

1783] THE MULZLED OX. 195
him his war-horse, and an equally cordial one from
General Nathaniel Greene, Rhode Island's darling
hero, declaring that he should be rewarded for his
public services.
This visit to Rhode Island was the last work
which Paine did in pursuance of his engagement,
which ended with the resignation of Morris in
January. Probably Paine received under it one
year's salary, $800 — certainly no more. I think
that during the time he kept his usual signature,
" Common Sense," sacred to his individual " testi
monies." On his return to Philadelphia Paine wrote a
memorial to Chancellor Livingston, Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, Robert Morris, Minister of Finance,
and his assistant Gouverneur Morris, urging the
necessity of adding "a Continental Legislature to
Congress, to be elected by the several States." Ro
bert Morris invited the Chancellor and a number of
eminent men to meet Paine at dinner, where his
plea for a stronger union was discussed and ap
proved. This was probably the earliest of a series
of consultations preliminary to the constitutional
Convention. The newspaper combat in Rhode Island, which
excited general attention, and the continued post
ponement of all prospect of paying the soldiers, had
a formidable effect on the army. The anti-republi
can elements of the country, after efforts to seduce
Washington, attempted to act without him. In
confronting the incendiary efforts of certain officers
at Newburg to turn the army of liberty into muti
neers against it, Washington is seen winning his

I96 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1783
noblest victory after the revolution had ended. He
not only subdued the reactionary intrigues, but
the supineness of the country, which had left its
soldiers in a condition that played into the intrigu
ers' hands.
On April 18th Washington formally announced
the cessation of hostilities. On April 19th — eighth
anniversary of the collision at Lexington — Paine
printed the little pamphlet entitled " Thoughts on
Peace and the Probable Advantages Thereof," in
cluded in his works as the last Crisis. It opens
with the words : " The times that tried men's souls
are over — and the greatest and completest revolution
the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accom
plished." He again, as in his first pamphlet, pleads
for a supreme nationality, absorbing all cherished
sovereignties. This is Paine's " farewell address."
" It was the cause of America that made me an author. The
force with which it struck my mind, and the dangerous con
dition in which the country was in, by courting an impossible
and an unnatural reconciliation with those who were determined
to reduce her, instead of striking 'out into the only line that
could save her, a Declaration of Independence, made it impos
sible for me, feeling as I did, to be silent ; and if, in the course
of more than seven years, I have rendered her any service, I
have likewise added something to the reputation of literature,
by freely and disinterestedly employing it in the great cause of
mankind. . . . But as the scenes of war are closed, and every
man preparing for home and happier times, I therefore take
leave of the subject. I have most sincerely followed it from
beginning to end, and through all its turns and windings ; and
whatever country I may hereafter be in, I shall always feel an
honest pride at the part I have taken and acted, and a gratitude
to nature and providence for putting it in my power to be of
some use to mankind."

CHAPTER XIV.
GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE.
The world held no other man so great and so
happy as Washington, in September, 1783, — -the
month of final peace. Congress, then sitting at
Princeton, had invited him to consult with them on
the arrangements necessary for a time of peace,
and prepared a mansion for him at Rocky Hill.
For a time the General gave himself up to hilarity,
as ambassadors of congratulation gathered from
every part of the world. A glimpse of the festivi
ties is given by David Howell of Rhode Island in
a letter to Governor Greene.
"The President, with all the present members, chaplains,
and great officers of Congress, had the honor of dining at the
General's table last Friday. The tables were spread under
a marquise or tent taken from the British. The repast was
elegant, but the General's company crowned the whole. As
I had the good fortune to be seated facing the General, I
had the pleasure of hearing all his conversation. The Presi
dent of Congress was seated on his right, and the Minister
of France on his left. I observed with much pleasure that the
General's front was uncommonly open and pleasant ; the con
tracted, pensive phiz betokening deep thought and much care,
which I noticed at Prospect Hill in 1775, is done away, and a
pleasant smile and sparkling vivacity of wit and humor suc
ceeds. On the President observing that in the present situation
of our affairs he believed that Mr. [Robert] Morris had his
IQ7

198 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1783
hands full, the General replied at the same instant, ' he wished
he had his pockets full too.' On Mr. Peters observing that
the man who made these cups (for we drank wine out of silver
cups) was turned a Quaker preacher, the General replied that
' he wished he had turned a Quaker preacher before he made
the cups.' You must also hear the French Minister's remark
on the General's humor — ' You tink de penitence wou'd have
been good for de cups.' Congress has ordered an Egyptian
statue of General Washington, to be erected at the place where
they may establish their permanent residence. No honors short
of those which the Deity vindicates to himself can be too great
for Gen. Washington."
At this time Paine sat in his little home in Bor-
dentown, living on his crust. He had put most of
his savings in this house (on two tenths of an acre)
so as to be near his friend Col. Joseph Kirkbride.
The Colonel was also of Quaker origin, and a
hearty sympathizer with Paine's principles. They
had together helped to frame the democratic con
stitution of Pennsylvania (1776), had fought side
by side, and both had scientific tastes. Since the
burning of his house, Bellevue (Bucks), Colonel
Kirkbride had moved to Bordentown, N. J., and
lived at Hill Top, now part of a female college.
A part of Paine's house also stands. At Borden
town also resided Mr. Hall, who had much mechan
ical skill, and whom he had found eager to help
him in constructing models of his inventions. To
such things he now meant to devote himself, but
before settling down permanently he longed to see
his aged parents and revisit his English friends.
For this, however, he had not means. Robert
Morris advised Paine to call the attention of Con
gress to various unremunerated services. His

1783] GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE. I99
secretaryship "of the Foreign Affairs Committee,
terminated by an admitted injustice to him, had
been burdensome and virtually unpaid ; its nominal
$70 per month was really about $15. His perilous
journey to France, with young Laurens, after the
millions that wrought wonders, had not brought
him even a paper dollar. Paine, therefore, on
June 7th, wrote to Elias Boudinot, President of
Congress, stating that though for his services he
had " neither sought, received, nor stipulated any
honors, advantages, or emoluments," he thought
Congress should inquire into them. The letter
had some effect, but meanwhile Paine passed
three months of poverty and gloom, and had no
part in the festivities at Princeton.
One day a ray from that festive splendor shone
in his humble abode. The great Commander had
not forgotten his unwearied fellow-soldier, and
wrote him a letter worthy to be engraved on the
tombs of both. " Rocky Hill, Sept. 10, 1783.
"Dear Sir,
" I have learned since I have been at this place, that you are
at Bordentown. Whether for the sake of retirement or econo
my, I know not. Be it for either, for both, or whatever it may,
if you will come to this place, and partake with me, I shall be
exceedingly happy to see you.
Your presence may remind Congress of your past services
to this country ; and if it is in my power to impress them,
command my best services with freedom, as they will be ren
dered cheerfully by one who entertains a lively sense of the
importance of your works, and who, with much pleasure, sub
scribes himself, " Your sincere friend,
"G. Washington."

2QO THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1783
The following was Paine's reply :
"Borden Town, Sept. 21. — Sir, — I am made exceedingly
happy by the receipt of your friendly letter of the 10th.
instant, which is this moment come to hand ; and the young
gentleman that brought it, a son of Col. Geo. Morgan, waits
while I write this. It had been sent to Philadelphia, and on
my not being there, was returned, agreeable to directions on
the outside, to Col. Morgan at Princetown, who forwarded it
to this place.
" I most sincerely thank you for your good wishes and
friendship to me, and the kind invitation you have honored
me with, which I shall with much pleasure accept.
" On the resignation of Mr. Livingston in the winter and
likewise of Mr. R. Morris, at [the same] time it was judged
proper to discontinue the matter which took place when you
were in Philadelphia.1 It was at the same time a pleasure to
me to find both these gentlemen (to whom I was before that
time but little known) so warmly disposed to assist in render
ing my situation permanent, and Mr. Livingston's letter to me,
in answer to one of mine to him, which I enclose, will serve to
show that his friendship to me is in concurrence with yours.
" By the advice of Mr. Morris I presented a letter to Con
gress expressing a request that they would be pleased to direct
me to lay before them an account of what my services, such
as they were, and situation, had been during the course of the
war. This letter was referred to a committee, and their re
port is now before Congress, and contains, as I am informed,
a recommendation that I be appointed historiographer to the
continent." I have desired some members that the further
consideration of it be postponed, until I can state to the com
mittee some matters which I wish them to be acquainted with,
both with regard to myself and the appointment. And as it
was my intention, so I am now encouraged by your friendship
to take your confidential advice upon it before I present it.
For though I never was at a loss in writing on public matters,
I feel exceedingly so in what respects myself.
1 See page 182.
* This had been Washington's suggestion.

1783] GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE. 201
" I am hurt by the neglect of the collective ostensible body
of America, in a way which it is probable they do not perceive
my feelings. It has an effect in putting either my reputation
or their generosity at stake ; for it cannot fail of suggesting
that either I (notwithstanding the appearance of service)
have been undeserving their regard or that they are remiss
towards me. Their silence is to me something like con
demnation, and their neglect must be justified by my loss of
reputation, or my reputation supported at their injury ; either
of which is alike painful to me. But as I have ever been
dumb on everything which might touch national honor so I
mean ever to continue so.
"Wishing you, Sir, the happy enjoyment of peace and every
public and private felicity I remain &c.
" Thomas Paine.
" Col. Kirkbride at whose house I am, desires me to present
you his respectful compliments."
Paine had a happy visit at Washington's head
quarters, where he met old revolutionary comrades,
among them Humphreys, Lincoln, and Cobb. He
saw Washington set the river on fire on Guy
Fawkes Day with a roll of cartridge-paper. When
American art is more mature we may have a pic
ture of war making way for science, illustrated by
the night-scene of Washington and Paine on a
scow, using their, cartridge-paper to fire the gas
released from the river-bed by soldiers with poles!1
There was a small party in Congress which
looked With sullen jealousy on Washington's
friendliness with Paine. The States, since the
conclusion of the war, were already withdrawing
into their several shells of " sovereignty," while
1 See Paine's essay on "The Cause of the [Yellow Fever." These ex
periments on the river at . Rocky Hill were followed by others in Philadel
phia, with Rittenhouse.

202

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l784

Paine was arguing with everybody that there
could be no sovereignty but that of the United
States, — and even that was merely the supremacy
of Law. The arguments in favor of the tax
imposed by Congress, which he had used in Rhode
Island, were repeated in his last Crisis (April 19th),
and it must have been under Washington's roof at
Rocky Hill that he wrote his letter "To the
People of America" (dated December 9th), in
which a high national doctrine was advocated.
This was elicited by Lord Sheffield's pamphlet,
" Observations on the Commerce of the United
States," which had been followed by a prohibition
of commerce with the West Indies in American
bottoms. Lord Sheffield had said : " It will be a
long time before the American States can be
brought to act as a nation ; neither are they to be
feared by us as such." Paine calls the attention of
Rhode Island to this, and says : "America is now
sovereign and independent, and ought to conduct
her affairs in a regular style of character." She
has a perfect right of commercial retaliation.
" But it is only by acting in union that the usurpations of
foreign nations on the freedom of trade can be counteracted)
and security extended to the commerce of America. And
when we view a flag, which to the eye is beautiful, and to
contemplate its rise and origin inspires a sensation of sublime
delight, our national honor must unite with our interest to pre
vent injury to the one or insult to the other."
Noble as these sentiments now appear, they
then excited alarm in certain Congressmen, and it
required all Washington's influence to secure any
favorable action in Paine's case. In 1784, how-

1784] GREA T WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE. 203
ever, New York presented Paine with "two hun
dred and seventy-seven acres, more or less, which
became forfeited to and vested in the People of
this State by the conviction of Frederick Devoe." 1
With such cheerful prospects, national and per
sonal, Paine rose into song, as appears by the
following letter (" New York, April 28th ") to
Washington :
" Dear Sir, — As I hope to have in a few days the honor and
happiness of seeing you well at Philadelphia, I shall not trouble
you with a long letter.
" It was my intention to have followed you on to Philadel
phia, but when I recollected the friendship you had shewn to
me, and the pains you had taken to promote my interests, and
knew likewise the untoward disposition of two or three Mem
bers of Congress, I felt an exceeding unwillingness that your
„ mdrjiip to me should be put to further tryals, or that you
sfould experience the mortification of having your wishes dis
appointed, especially by one to whom delegation is his daily
bread. " While I was pondering on these matters, Mr. Duane and
some other friends of yours and mine, who were persuaded
that nothing would take place in Congress (as a single man
when only nine states were present could stop the whole), pro
posed a new line which is to leave it to the States individually ;
and a unanimous resolution has passed the senate of this State,
which is generally expressive of their opinion and friendship.
What they have proposed is worth at least a thousand guineas,
and other States will act as they see proper. If I do but get
enough to carry me decently thro' the world and independently
thro' the History of the Revolution, I neither wish nor care for
more ; and that the States may very easily do if they are
1 The indenture, made June 16, 1784, is in the Register's Office of West
chester County, Vol. T. of Grantees, p. 163. The confiscated estate of the
loyalist Devoe is the well-known one at New Rochelle on which Paine's
monument stands. I am indebted for investigations at White Plains, and
documents relating to the estate, to my friend George Hoadly, and Mr.
B. Davis Washburn.

204 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1784
disposed to it. The State of Pennsylvania might have done it
alone. " I present you with a new song for the Cincinnati ; and beg
to offer you a remark on that subject.1 The intention of the
name appears to me either to be lost or not understood. For
it is material to the future freedom of the country that the
example of the late army retiring to private life, on the princi
ples of Cincinnatus, should be commemorated, that in future
ages it may be imitated. Whether every part of the institution
is perfectly consistent with a republic is another question, but
the precedent ought not to be lost.
"I have not yet heard of any objection in the Assembly
of this State, to the resolution of the Senate, and, I am in
hopes there will be none made. Should the method succeed,
I shall stand perfectly clear of Congress, which will b<: an
agreeable circumstance to me ; because whatever I may then
say on the necessity of strengthening the union, and enlarging
its powers, will come from me with a much better grace than if
Congress had made the acknowledgment the.nselves. a- oe
" If you have a convenient opportunity I should be mifch
obliged to you to mention this subject to Mr. President. Dick
inson. I have two reasons for it, the one is my own interest
and circumstances, the other is on account of the State,
for what with their parties and contentions, they have acted
to me with a churlish selfishness, which I wish to conceal
unless they force it from me.
" As I see by the papers you are settling a tract of land,
J enclose you a letter I received from England on the subject •
of settlements. I think lands might be disposed of in that
country to advantage. I am, dear Sir, &c."
The estate at New Rochelle had a handsome
house on it (once a patrimonial mansion of the
1 Paine wrote four patriotic American songs: "Hail, Great Republic of
the World " (tune ' ' Rule Britannia ") ; "To Columbia, who Gladly Reclined
at her Ease"; "Ye Sons of Columbia, who Bravely have Fought," — both
of the latter being for the tune of " Anacreon in Heaven " ; and "Liberty
Tree " (tune " Gods of the Greeks"), beginning, " In a chariot of light, from
the regions of Day," etc.

1784] GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE. 205
Jays), and Paine received distinguished welcome
when he went to take possession. This he recipro
cated, but he did not remain long at New Ro-
chelle.1 Bordentown had become his home ; he
had found there a congenial circle of friends, —
proved such during his poverty. He was not,
indeed, entirely relieved of poverty by the New
York honorarium, but he had expectation that the
other States would follow the example. In a letter
to Jefferson also Paine explained his reason for
desiring that the States, rather than Congress,
should remunerate him. That Washington appre
ciated this motive appears by letters to Richard
Henry Lee and James Madison.
" Mount Vernon, 1 2 June. — Unsollicited by, and unknown
to Mr. Paine, I take the liberty of hinting the services and the
distressed (for so I think it may be called) situation of that
Gentleman. "That his Common Sense, and many of his Crisis, were
well timed and had a happy effect upon the public mind, none,
I believe, who will recur to the epocha's at which they were
published will deny. — That his services hitherto have passed
of [f] unnoticed is obvious to all ; — and that he is chagreened
and necessitous I will undertake to aver. — Does not common
justice then point to some compensation ?
" He is not in circumstances to refuse the bounty of the
1 " An old lady, now a boarding-housekeeper in Cedar Street, remembers
when a girl visiting Mr. Paine when he took possession of his house and
farm at New Rochelle, and gave a village fete on the occasion ; she then only
knew him as ' Common Sense,' and supposed that was his name. On that
day he had something to say to everybody, and young as she was she received
a portion of his attention ; while he sat in the shade, and assisted in the
labor of the feast, by cutting or breaking sugar to be used in some agreeable
liquids by his guests. Mr. Paine was then, if not handsome, a fine agreeable
looking man." — Vale, 1841. The original house was accidentally destroyed
by fire, while Paine was in the French Convention. The present house was,
however, occupied by him after his return to America.

206 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. ['784
public. New York, not the least distressed nor most able State
in the Union, has set the example. He prefers the benevolence
of the States individually to an allowance from Congress, for
reasons which are conclusive in his own mind, and such as I
think may be approved by others. His views are moderate, a
decent independency is, I believe, the height of his ambition,
and if you view his services in the American cause in the
same important light that I do, I am sure you will have pleasure
in obtaining it for him. — I am with esteem and regard, Dr. sir,
yr. most obdt. servt., " George Washington." '
" Mount Vernon, June 12. — Dear Sir, — Can nothing be
done in our Assembly for poor Paine ? Must the merits and
services of Common Sense continue to glide down the stream of
time, unrewarded by this country ?
" His writings certainly have had a powerful effect on the
public mind, — ought they not then to meet an adequate
return ? He is poor ! he is chagreened ! and almost if not
altogether in despair of relief.
" New York, it is true, not the least distressed nor best able
State in the Union, has done something for him. This kind of
provision he prefers to an allowance from Congress, he has
reasons for it, which to him are conclusive, and such, I think,
as would have weight with others. His views are moderate — a
decent independency is, I believe, all he aims at. Should he
not obtain this ? If you think so I am sure you will not only
move the matter but give it your support. For me it only
remains to feel for his situation and to assure you of the
sincere esteem and regard with which I have the honor to he,
D Sir, " Yr. Most Obedt. Humble Servt.,
" G. Washington.1
" James Madison, Esq."
A similar letter was written to Patrick Henry
and perhaps to others. A bill introduced into the
1 I found this letter (to Lee) among the Franklin MSS. in the Philo
sophical Society, Philadelphia.
s I am indebted for this letter to Mr. Frederick McGuire, of Washington.

1784] GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE. 207
Virginia Legislature (June 28th) to give Paine a
tract of land, being lost on the third reading,
Madison (June 30th) offered a "bill for selling the
public land in the county of Northampton, called
the Secretary's land, and applying part of the
money arising therefrom to the purchase of a tract
to be vested in Thomas Payne and his heirs."
The result is described by Madison (July 2d) to
Washington :
" The easy reception it found, induced the friends of the
measure to add the other moiety to the proposition, which
would have raised the market value of the donation to about
four thousand pounds, or upwards, though it would not prob
ably have commanded a rent of more than one hundred
pounds per annum. In this form the bill passed through two
readings. The third reading proved that the tide had sud
denly changed, for the bill was thrown out by a large majority.
An attempt was next made to sell the land in question, and
apply two thousand pounds of the money to the purchase of a
farm for Mr. Paine. This was lost by a single voice. Whether
a greater disposition to reward patriotic and distinguished
exertions of genius will be found on any succeeding occasion,
is not for me to predetermine. Should it finally appear that
the merits of the man, whose writings have so much con
tributed to enforce and foster the spirit of independence in the
people of America, are unable to inspire them with a just
beneficence, the world, it is to be feared, will give us as little
credit for our policy as for gratitude in this particular."
R. H. Lee — unfortunately not present, because
of illness — writes Washington (July 2 2d) :
" I have been told that it miscarried from its being observed
that he had shown enmity to this State by having written
a pamphlet injurious to our claim of Western Territory. It
has ever appeared to me that this pamphlet was the conse-

208 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [i784
quence of Mr. Paine's being himself imposed upon, and that it
was rather the fault of the place than the man." '
So the news came that Virginia had snubbed
Paine, at the moment of voting a statue to Wash
ington. But his powerful friend did not relax his
efforts, and he consulted honest John Dickinson,
President of Pennsylvania. Under date of Novem
ber 27th, the following was written by Paine to
General Irwin, Vice-President of Pennsylvania :
" The President has made me acquainted with a Conversa
tion which General Washington had with him at their last
interview respecting myself, and he is desirous that I should
communicate to you his wishes, which are, that as he stands
engaged on the General's request to recommend to the Assem
bly, so far as lies in his power, their taking into consideration
the part I have acted during the war, that you would join your
assistance with him in the measure. — Having thus, Sir, opened
the matter to you in general terms, I will take an opportunity
at some time convenient to yourself to state it to you more
fully, as there are many parts in it that are not publicly known.
— I shall have the pleasure of seeing you at the President's
to-day to dine and in the mean time I am etc."
On December 6th the Council sent this message
to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania :
" Gentlemen : The President having reported in Council
a conversation between General Washington and himself
respecting Mr. Thomas Paine, we have thereby been induced
to take the services and situation of that gentleman at this time
into our particular consideration.
1 ' ' Arthur Lee was most responsible for the failure of the measure, for he
was active in cultivating a prejudice against Paine. This was somewhat
ungracious, as Paine had befriended Lee in his controversy with D/-"jie." —
Ford's "Writings of Washington," x., p. 395. Had there been any belief
at this time that Paine had been paid for writing the pamphlet objected to,
" Public Good," it would no doubt have been mentioned.

1785] GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE. 209
" Arriving in America just before the war broke out, he
commenced his residence here, and became a citizen of this
Commonwealth by taking the oath of allegiance at a very early
period. So important were his services during the late con
test, that those persons whose own merits in the course of
it have been the most distinguished concur with a highly hon
orable unanimity in entertaining sentiments of esteem for
him, and interesting themselves in his deserts. It is unneces
sary for us to enlarge on this subject. If the General Assem
bly shall be pleased to appoint a Committee, they will receive
information that we doubt not will in every respect prove
satisfactory. "We confide that you will, then, feel the attention of
Pennsylvania is drawn towards Mr. Paine by motives equally
grateful to the human heart, and reputable to the Republic ;
and that you will join with us in the opinion that a suitable
acknowledgment of his eminent services, and a proper pro
vision for the continuance of them in an independent manner,
should be made on the part of this State."
Pennsylvania promptly voted to Paine ^500, —
a snug little fortune in those days.
Paine thus had a happy New Year. Only two
States had acted, but they had made him inde
pendent. Meanwhile Congress also was willing
to remunerate him, but he had put difficulties iii
the way. He desired, as we have seen, to be
independent of that body, and wished it only to
pay its debts to him ; but one of these — his under
paid secretaryship — would involve overhauling the
Paine-Deane case again. Perhaps that was what
Paine desired ; had the matter been passed on
again the implied censures of Paine' on. the journal
of Congress would have been * reversed. When
therefore a gratuity was spoken of Paine inter
fered, and wrote to Congress, now sitting in New

2IO THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1785
York, asking leave to submit his accounts. This
letter was referred to a committee (Gerry, Pettit,
King). "Mr. Gerry,' says Paine, came to me and said that the
Committee had consulted on the subject, and they intended to
bring in a handsome report, but that they thought it best not
to take any notice of your letter, or make any reference to
Deane's affair, or your salary. They will indemnify you with
out it. The case is, there are some motions on the journals of
Congress for censuring you, with respect to Deane's affair,
which cannot now be recalled, because they have been printed.
Therefore [we] will bring in a report that will supersede them
without mentioning the purport of your letter."
On the committee's report Congress resolved
(August 26th) :
'' That the early, unsolicited, and continued labors of Mr.
Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of
the late revolution by ingenious and timely publications upon
the nature of liberty, and civil government, have been well
received by the citizens of these States, and merit the appro
bation of Congress ; and that in consideration of these services,
and the benefits produced thereby, Mr. Paine is entitled to a
liberal gratification from the United States."
This of course was not what Paine wished, and
he again (September 27th) urged settlement of his
accounts. But, on October 3d, Congress ordered
the Treasurer to pay Paine $3,000, " for the con
siderations mentioned in the resolution of the 26th
of August last." " It was," Paine maintained to
the last, " an indemnity to me for some injustice
done me, for Congress had acted dishonorably by
me." The Committee had proposed $6,000, but the
author's enemies had managed to reduce it. The

1785] GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE. 211
sum paid was too small to cover Paine's journey
to France with Laurens, which was never repaid.
The services of Thomas Paine to the American
cause cannot, at this distance of time, be estimated
by any records of them, nor by his printed works.
They are best measured in the value set on them
by the great leaders most cognizant of them, — by
Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Madison,
Robert Morris, Chancellor Livingston, R. H. Lee,
Colonel Laurens, General Greene, Dickinson. Had
there been anything dishonorable or mercenary
in Paine's career, these are the men who would
have known it ; but their letters are searched
in vain for even the faintest hint of anything
disparaging to his patriotic self-devotion during
those eight weary years. Their letters, however,
already quoted in these pages, and others omitted,
show plainly that they believed that all the States
owed Paine large " returns (as Madison wrote to
Washington) of gratitude for voluntary services,"
and that these services were not merely literary.
Such was the verdict of the men most competent
to pass judgment on the author, the soldier, the
secretary. It can never be reversed.
To the radical of to-day, however, Paine will
seem to have fared pretty well for a free lance ;
and he could now beat all his lances into bridge
iron, without sparing any for the wolf that had
haunted his door.

CHAPTER XV.
PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS.
Paine was the literary lion in New York — where
Congress sat in 1 785 — and was especially intimate
with the Nicholsons, whose house was the social
salon of leading republicans.1 One may easily read
between the lines of the following note to Franklin
that the writer is having " a good time " in New
York, where it was written September 23d :
" My Dear Sir, — It gives me exceeding great pleasure to
have the opportunity of congratulating you on your return
home, and to a land of Peace ; and to express to you my heart
felt wishes that the remainder of your days may be to you a
time of happy ease and rest. Should Fate prolong my life to
the extent of yours, it would give me the greatest felicity to
have the evening scene some resemblance of what you now enjoy.
" In making you this address I have an additional pleasure
in reflecting, that, so far as I have hitherto gone, I am not
conscious of any circumstance in my conduct that should give
1 " Commodore Nicholson was an active republican politician in the city
of New York, and his house was a. headquarters for the men of his way of
thinking. The young ladies' letters are full of allusions to the New York
society of that day, and to calls from Aaron Burr, the Livingstons, the Clin
tons, and many others. . . . An other man still more famous in some
respects was a frequent visitor at their house. It is now almost forgotten that
Thomas Paine, down to the time of his departure for Europe in 1787, was a
fashionable member of society, admired and courted as the greatest literary
genius of his day. . . . Here is a little autograph, found among the
papers of Mrs. Gallatin [ne'e Nicholson] ; its address is to : ' Miss Hannah
N., at the Lord knows where. — You Mistress Hannah if you don't come
home, I '11 come and fetch you. T. Paine.' " — Adams' " Life of Gallatin."

1785] PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS. 213
you one repentant thought for being my patron and introducer
to America.
" It would give me great pleasure to make a journey to
Philadelphia on purpose to see you, but an interesting affair I
have with Congress makes my absence at this time improper.
" If you have time to let me know how your health is,
I shall be much obliged to you.
" I am, dear Sir, with the sincerest affection and respect,
" Your obedient, humble servant,
" Thomas Paine.
" The Hon'ble Benjamin Franklin, Esquire.
" My address is Messrs. Lawrence and Morris, Merchants."
To this came the following reply, dated Philadel
phia, September 24th :
" Dear Sir, — I have just received your friendly congratula
tions on my return to America, for which, as well as your kind
wishes for my welfare, I beg you to accept my most thankful
acknowledgments. Ben is also very sensible of your polite
ness, and desires his respects may be presented.
" I was sorry on my arrival to find you had left this city.
Your present arduous undertaking, I easily conceive, demands
retirement, and tho' we shall reap the fruits of it, I cannot help
regretting the want of your abilities here where in the present
moment they might, I think, be successfully employed. Par
ties still run very high — Common Sense would unite them. It
is to be hoped therefore it has not abandoned us forever." '
1 The remainder of the letter (MS. Philosoph. Soc. , Philadelphia) seems
to be in the writing of William Temple Franklin, to whom probably Paine
had enclosed a note : " Mr. Williams whom you inquire after accompanied
us to America, and is now here. We left Mrs. Wms. and her sisters well at
St. Ger's, but they proposed shortly returning to England to live with their
uncle, Mr. J. Alexander, who has entirely settled his affairs with Mr. Wal
pole and the Bank. Mr. Wm. Alex'r I suppose you know is in Virginia
fulfilling his tobacco contract with the Farmer Gen'l. The Marquis la
Fayette we saw a few days before we left Passy — he was well and on the
point of setting off on an excursion into Germany, and a visit to the Emperor
K. of Prussia. — I purpose shortly being at New York, where I will with
pleasure give you any further information you may wish, and shall be very
happy to cultivate the acquaintance and friendship of Mr. Paine, for whose
character I have a sincere regard and of whose services I, as an American,
have a grateful sense "

214 THE LTFE 0F THOMAS PAINE. [1785
The " arduous undertaking " to which Franklin
refers was of course the iron bridge. But it will be
seen by our next letter that Paine had another in
vention to lay before Franklin, to whom he hast
ened after receiving his $3,000 from Congress :
" Dec. 31, 1785. — Dear Sir, — I send you the Candles I have
been making ; — In a little time afer they are lighted the smoke
and flame separate, the one issuing from one end of the Candle,
and the other from the other end. I supposed this to be
because a quantity of air enters into the Candle between the
Tallow and the flame, and in its passage downwards takes the
smoke with it ; for if you allow a quantity of air up the
Candle, the current will be changed, and the smoke reascends,
and in passing this the flame makes a small flash and a little
noise. " But to express the Idea I mean, of the smoke descending
more clearly it is this, — that the air enters the Candle in the
very place where the melted tallow is getting into the state of
flame, and takes it down before the change is completed — for
there appears to me to be two kinds of smoke, humid matter
which never can be flame, and enflameable matter which would
be flame if some accident did not prevent the change being
completed — and this I suppose to be the case with the
descending smoke of the Candle.
" As you can compare the Candle with the Lamp, you will
have an opportunity of ascertaining the cause — why it will do
in the one and not in the other. When the edge of the en-
flamed part of the wick is close with the edge of the Tin of the
Lamp no counter current of air can enter — but as this contact
does not take place in the Candle a counter current enters and
prevents the effect [?] in the candles which illuminates the
Lamp. For the passing of the air thro' the Lamp does not, I
imagine, burn the smoke, but burns up all the oil into flame,
or by its rapidity prevents any part of the oil flying off in the
state of half-flame which is smoke.
" I do not, my Dear Sir, offer these reasons to you but to
myself, for I have often observed that by lending words for
my thoughts I understand my thoughts the better. Thoughts

1786] PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS. 215
are a kind of mental smoke, which require words to illuminate
them. " I am affectionately your Obt. & Hble. servant,
" Thomas Paine.
" I hope to be well enough tomorrow to wait on you."
Paine had now to lay aside his iron arch and
bridge a financial flood. A party had arisen in
Philadelphia, determined to destroy the " Bank
of North America." Paine had confidence in
this bank, and no one knew its history better, for
it had grown out of the subscription he headed
(May, 1780) with $500 for the relief of Wash
ington's suffering army. It had been incor
porated by Congress, and ultimately by Pennsyl
vania, April 1, 1782. Investments and deposits
by and in the Bank had become very large, and
to repeal its charter was to violate a contract.
The attack was in the interest of paper money, of
which there was a large issue. The repeal had to
be submitted to popular suffrage, and even Cheet
ham admits that Paine's pamphlet " probably
averted the act of despotism." The pamphlet was
entitled, " Dissertations on Government, the Affairs
of the Bank, and Paper Money " (54 pages 8vo). It
was written and printed, Paine says in his preface
(dated February 18, 1786), "during the short re
cess of the Assembly." This was between Decem
ber 22d and February 26th.
The first fourteen pages of the work are devoted
to a consideration of general principles. English
men who receive their constitutional instruction
from Walter Bagehot and Albert Dicey will find in
this introduction by Paine the foundation of their

2l6 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. LI786
Republic. In discussing " sovereignty " he points
out that the term, when applied to a people, has
a different meaning from the arbitrariness it signi
fies in a monarchy. " Despotism may be more
effectually acted by many over a few, than by one
over all." "A republic is a sovereignty of justice,
in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will." The
distinct powers of the legislature are stated — those
of legislation and those of agency. " All laws are
acts, but all acts are not laws." Laws are for
every individual ; they may be altered. Acts of
agency or negotiation are deeds and contracts.
" The greatness of one party cannot give it a superiority or
advantage over the other. The state or its representative, the
assembly, has no more power over an act of this kind, after
it has passed, than if the state was a private person. It is the
glory of a republic to have it so, because it secures the indi
vidual from becoming the prey of power, and prevents might
from overcoming right. If any difference or dispute arise
between the state and the individuals with whom the agree
ment is made respecting the contract, or the meaning or ex
tent of any of the matters contained in the act, which may
affect the property or interest of either, such difference or
dispute must be judged of and decided upon by the laws of the
land, in a court of justice and trial by jury ; that is, by the
laws of the land already in being at the time such act and
contract was made."
" That this is justice," adds Paine, " that it is the
true principle of republican government, no man
will be so hardy as to deny." So, indeed, it seemed
in those days. In the next year those principles
were embodied in the Constitution ; and in 1 792,
when a State pleaded its sovereign right to repu
diate a contract (" Chisholm vs. Georgia") the

1786] PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS. 217
Supreme Court affirmed every contention of
Paine's pamphlet, using his ideas and sometimes
his very phrases.
Our first Attorney-General (Edmund Ran
dolph, of Virginia) eloquently maintained that the
inferiority of one party, or dignity of the other,
could not affect the balances of justice. Individu
als could not be left the victims of States. So it
was decided. Justice Wilson remarked that the
term sovereignty is unknown to the Constitution :
" The term ' sovereign ' has for its correlative,
' subject.' " A State contracting as a merchant
cannot, when asked to fulfil its contract, take
refuge in its' " sovereignty. " "The rights of indi
viduals," said Justice Cushing, "and the justice due
to them are as dear and precious as those of States.
Indeed the latter are founded on the former ; and
the great end and object of them must be to secure
and support the rights of individuals, or else vain
is government." 1 But the decline of republicanism
set in ; the shameful Eleventh Amendment was
adopted ; Chisholm was defrauded of his victory
by a retrospective action of this amendment ; and
America stands to-day as the only nation profess
ing civilization, which shields repudiation under
" State sovereignty."
In the strength of these principles Paine was
able to overwhelm the whole brood of heresies, —
State privilege, legal tender, repudiation, retro
spective laws. His arguments are too modern to
need repetition here ; in fineness and force they
1 See "Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and Papers of
Edmund Randolph," Chap. XVIIL, for a full history of this subject.

218 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1786
are like the ribs of his bridge : as to-day commerce
travels on Paine's iron span, so on his argumen
tative arch it passes over freshets endangering
honest money.
For a like reason it is unnecessary to give here
all the details of his bridge sent by Paine to • his
correspondents. Of this invention more is said in
further chapters, but the subjoined letters are
appropriate at this point. The first two were
written at Bordentown, where Paine settled him
self in the spring.
To Franklin, undated. — " I send you the two essays I men
tioned. As the standing or not standing of such an arch is
not governed by opinions, therefore opinions one way or the
other will not alter the fact. The opinions of its standing will
not make it stand, the opinions of its falling will not make it
fall ; but I shall be exceedingly obliged to you to bestow a few
thoughts on the subject and to communicate to me any diffi
culties or doubtfulness that may occur to you, because it will
be of use to me to know them. As you have not the model
to look at I enclose a sketch of a rib, except that the blocks
which separate the bars are not represented."
To Franklin, June 6th. — " The gentleman, Mr. Hall, who
presents you with this letter, has the care of two models for
a bridge, one of wood, the other of cast iron, which I have
the pleasure of submitting to you, as well for the purpose of
showing my respect to you, as my patron in this country,
as for the sake of having your opinion and judgment thereon.
— The European method of bridge architecture, by piers and
arches, is not adapted to many of the rivers in America on
account of the ice in the winter. The construction of those
I have the honor of presenting to you is designed to obviate
the difficulty by leaving the whole passage of the river clear of
the incumbrance of piers. . . My first design in the
wooden model was for a bridge over the Harlem River, for my
good friend General Morris of Morrisania . . . but I

1786] PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS. 219
cannot help thinking that it might be carried across the
Schuylkill. . . . Mr. Hall, who has been with me at
Borden Town, and has done the chief share of the working
part, for we have done the whole ourselves, will inform you of
any circumstance relating to it which does not depend on the
mathematical construction. Mr. Hall will undertake to see
the models brought safe from the stage boat to you ; they are
too large to be admitted into the house, but will stand very
well in the garden. Should there be a vessel going round to
New York within about a week after my arrival in Philadel
phia I shall take that convenience for sending them there, at
which place I hope to be in about a fortnight."
Address and date not given ; written in Philadelphia, proba
bly in June. — " Honorable Sir, — I have sent to His Excel
lency, the President [Franklin] two models for a Bridge,
the one of wood the other of cast-iron bars, to be erected
over rivers, without piers. As I shall in a few days go to New
York, and take them with me, I do myself the honor of pre
senting an invitation to Council to take a view of them before
they are removed. If it is convenient to Council to see and
examine their construction to-day, at the usual time of their
adjournment, I will attend at the President's at half after
twelve o'clock, or any other day or hour Council may please
to appoint." '
To the Hon. Thomas Fitzsimmons ; addressed " To be left
at the Bank, Philadelphia." Written at Bordentown, Novem
ber 19th. — " I write you a few loose thoughts as they occur to
me. Next to the gaining a majority is that of keeping it.
This, at least (in my opinion), will not be best accomplished
by doing or attempting a great deal of business, but by doing
no more than is absolutely necessary to be done, acting mod
erately and giving no offence. It is with the whole as it is
with the members individually, and we always see at every new
election that it is more difficult to turn out an old member
against whom no direct complaint can be made than it is to
put in a new one though a better man. I am sure it will be best
' This and the two letters preceding are among the Franklin MSS. in
the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

220 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1786
not to touch any part of the plan of finance this year. If it
falls short, as most probably it will, it would be (I speak for
myself) best to reduce the interest that the whole body of
those who are stiled public creditors may share it equally as
far as it will go. If any thing can be saved from the Civil List
expences it ought not to be finally mortgaged to make up the
deficiency ; it may be applied to bring the creditors to a bal
ance for the present year. There is more to be said respect
ing this debt than has 5Tet been said. The matter has never
been taken up but by those who were interested in the matter.
The public has been deficient and the claimants exorbitant —
neglect on one side and grediness on the other. That which
is truly Justice may be always advocated. But I could no
more think of paying six per cent. Interest in real money, in
perpetuity, for a debt a great part of which is quondam than
I could think of not paying at all. Six per cent on any part
of the debt, even to the original holders is ten or twelve per
cent, and to the speculators twenty or thirty or more. It is
better that the matter rest until it is fuller investigated and
better understood, for in its present state it will be hazardous
to touch upon.
" I have not heard a word of news from Philadelphia since
I came to this place. I wrote a line to Mr. Francis and
desired him to give me a little account of matters but he does
not, perhaps, think it very necessary now.
" I see by the papers that the subject of the Bank is likely
to be renewed. I should like to know when it will come on,
as I have some thought of coming down at that time, if I can.
" I see by the papers that the Agricultural Society have
presented a petition to the house respecting building a Bridge
over the Schuylkill — on a model prepared for that purpose.
In this I think they are too hasty. I have already constructed
a model of a Bridge of Cast Iron, consisting of one arch. I
am now making another of wrought Iron Of one arch, but on
a different Plan. I expect to finish it in about three weeks
and shall send it first to Philadelphia. I have no opinion of
any Bridge over the Schuylkill that is to be erected on piers —
the sinking of piers will sink more money than they have any
Idea of and will not stand when done. But there is another

1786] PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS. 221
point they have not taken into their consideration ; which is,
that the sinking three piers in the middle of the river, large and
powerful enough to resist the ice, will cause such an alteration
in the bed and channel of the river that there is no saying
what course it may take, or whether it will not force a new
channel somewhere else." '
To George Clymer, Esquire, "to be left at the Bank,
Philadelphia." Written at Bordentown, November 19th. —
" I observe by the minutes that the Agricultural Society
have presented a petition to the house for an act of in
corporation for the purpose of erecting a bridge over the
Schuylkill on a model in their possession. I hope this busi
ness will not be gone into too hastily. A Bridge on piers
will never answer for that river, they may sink money but
they never will sink piers that will stand. But admitting that
the piers do stand — they will cause such an alteration in the
Bed and channel of the river, as will most probable alter its
course either to divide the channel, and require two bridges
or cause it to force a new channel in some other part. It is a
matter of more hazard than they are aware of the altering by
obstructions the bed and channel of a River ; the water must
go somewhere — the force of the freshets and the Ice is very
great now but will be much greater then.
" I am finishing -as fast as I can my new model of an Iron
Bridge of one arch which if it answers, as I have no doubt
but it will, the whole difficulty of erecting Bridges over that
river, or others of like circumstances, will be removed, and
the expense not greater, (and I believe not so great) as the
sum mentioned by Mr. Morris in the house, and I am sure
will stand four times as long or as much longer as Iron is
more durable than wood. I mention these circumstances to
you that you may be informed of them — and not let the
matter proceed so far as to put the Agricultural Society in a
difficult situation at last.
" The giving a Society the exclusive right to build a bridge,
unless the plan is prepared before hand, will prevent a
bridge being built ; because those who might afterwards pro-
1 I am indebted for this letter to Mr. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia.

222 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. \M%7
duce models preferable to their own, will not present them to
any such body of men, and they can have no right to take
other peoples labours or inventions to compleat their own
undertakings by.
" I have not heard any news since I came to this place. I
wish you would give me a line and let me know how matters
are going on. — The Stage Boat comes to Borden Town every
Wednesday and Sunday from the Crooked Billet Wharf." '
At the close of the war Paine was eager to visit
England. He speaks of it in his letter of June 7,
1783, to Elias Boudinot, already referred to — but
he had not the means. The measures for his re
muneration had delayed him two and a half years,
and it now became imperative that he should put
in a fair way of success his invention of the bridge.
The models made a good impression on Franklin
and the Council, and a committee was appointed
to investigate it. Early in the year following the
Pennsylvania Assembly appointed another commit
tee. But meanwhile Paine's correspondence with
his parents determined him to visit them at once,
and look after the interests of his invention upon
his return.8 He no doubt also thought, and it may
have been suggested by Franklin, that the success
of his bridge would be assured in America and
England if it should receive approval of the engi
neers in France. In March, 1787, he is in Philadel
phia, consulting committees, and on the 31st writes
to Franklin of his prospects and plans :
" I mentioned in one of my essays my design of going
this spring to Europe. — I intend landing in france and from
1 For this letter I am indebted to Mr. Charles Roberts, of Philadelphia.
2 It is known that he received an affectionate letter from his father, now in
his 78th year, but it has not been found, and was probably burned with the
Bonneville papers in St. Louis.

1787] PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS. 223
thence England, — and that I should take the model with me.
The time I had fixed with myself was May, but under
standing (since I saw you yesterday) that no french packet
sails that month, I must either take the April packet or wait
till June. As I can get ready by the April packet I intend
not omitting the opportunity. My Father and Mother are yet
living, whom I am very anxious to see, and have informed
them of my coming over the ensuing summer.
" I propose going from hence by the stage on Wednesday
for New York, and shall be glad to be favoured with the care
of any letters of yours to France or England. My stay in
Paris, when with Col. Laurens, was so short that I do not feel
myself introduced there, for I was in no house but at Passy,
and the Hotel Col. Laurens was at. As I have taken a part in
the Revolution and politics of this country, and am not an
unknown character in the political world, I conceive it would
be proper on my going to Paris, that I should pay my respects
to Count Vergennes, to whom I am personally unknown ; and
I shall be very glad of a letter from you to him affording me
that opportunity, or rendering my waiting on him easy to me ;
for it so often happens that men live to forfeit the reputation
at one time they gained at another, that it is prudent not to
presume too much on one's self. The Marquis La Fayette I
am the most known to of any gentleman in France. Should
he be absent from Paris there are none I am much acquainted
with. I am on exceeding good terms with Mr. Jefferson which
will necessarily be the first place I go to. As I had the honor
of your introduction to America it will add to my happiness
to have the same friendship continued to me on the present
occasion. " Respecting the model, I shall be obliged to you for a let
ter to some of the Commissioners in that department. I shall
be glad to hear their opinion of it. If they will undertake
the experiment of two Ribs, it will decide the matter and pro
mote the work here, — but this need not be mentioned. The
Assembly have appointed another Committee, consisting of
Mr. Morris, Mr. Clymer, Mr. Fitzsimons, Mr. Wheeler, Mr.
Robinson, to confer with me on the undertaking. The matter
therefore will remain suspended till my return next winter.
It is worth waiting this event, because if a single arch to that

224 THE LIFE 0F THOMAS PAINE. [l787
extent will answer, all difficulties in that river, or others of the
same condition, are overcome at once.
"I will do myself the pleasure of waiting on you to
morrow." During the time when Paine was perfecting his
bridge, and consulting the scientific committees, the
country was absorbed with preparations for forming
a national Constitution and Union. When the
States were nominating and electing delegates to
the Convention of 1787, no one seems to have sug
gested Paine for a seat in it, nor does he appear to
have aspired to one. The reasons are not far to
seek. Paine was altogether too inventive for the
kind of work contemplated by the colonial poli
ticians. He had shown in all his writings, espe
cially in his " Dissertations on Government," that
he would build a constitution as he built his bridge :
it must be mathematical, founded and shaped in
impregnable principles, means adopted and adapted
strictly for an ideal national purpose. His iron
span did not consider whether there might be large
interests invested in piers, or superstitions in favor
of oak ; as little did his anti-slavery essays consider
the investments in slavery, or his "Public Good"
the jealous sovereignty of States. A recent writer
says that Paine's " Common Sense " was " just
what the moment demanded," and that it " may be
briefly described as a plea for independence and a
continental government."1 In setting the nation
at once to a discussion of the principles of such
government, he led it to assume the principle of
1 "The Development of Constitutional Liberty in the English Colonies of
America," by Eben Greenough Scott, 1890.

1787] PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS. 225
independence ; over the old English piers on their
quicksands, which some would rebuild, he threw
his republican arch, on which the people passed
from shore to shore. He and Franklin did the
like in framing the Pennsylvania constitution of
1776, by which the chasm of "Toryism" was
spanned. Every pamphlet of Paine was of the
nature of an invention, by which principles of
liberty and equality were framed in constructions
adapted to emergencies of a republic. But when
the emergencies were past, the old contrivances
regained their familiar attractions, and these were
enhanced by independence. Privilege, so odious
in Lords, was not so bad when inherited by
democracy ; individual sovereignty, unsuited to
King George, might be a fine thing for President
George ; and if England had a House of Peers, \
why should we not make one out of a peerage of ;
States ? " Our experience in republicanism," wrote \
Paine, " is yet so slender, that it is much to be \
doubted whether all our public laws and acts are
consistent with, or can be justified on, the princi
ples of a republican government." But the more
he talked in this way, or reminded the nation of
the " Declaration of Independence " and the " Bill
of Rights," the more did he close the doors of the
Constitutional Convention against himself.
In those days there used to meet in Franklin's
library a " Society for Political Inquiries." It had
forty-two members, among them Washington,
James Wilson, Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris,
Clymer, Rush, Bingham, Bradford, Hare, Rawle,
and Paine. A memorandum of Rawle says : " Paine
VOL. I.— 15

226 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. Cr787
never opened his mouth, but he furnished one of
the few essays which the members of the Society
were expected to produce. It was a well written
dissertation on the inexpediency of incorporating
towns."1 That in such company, and at such a
time, Paine should be silent, or discuss corporations,
suggests political solitude. Franklin, indeed, agreed
with him, but was too old to struggle against the
reaction in favor of the bicameral and other English
institutions. M. Chanut (" Nouv. Biog. Generate ") says that
Paine's bridge was not erected on the Schuylkill
because of " the imperfect state of iron manufacture
in America." Something of the same kind might
be said of the state of political architecture.
And so it was, that while the Convention was
assembling in Independence Hall, he who first
raised the standard of Independence, and before
the Declaration proposed a Charter of the " United
Colonies of America," was far out at sea on his
way to rejoin his comrades in the old world, whose
hearts and burdens he had represented in the new.
1 " Memoir of Penn. Hist. Soc, 1840." The gist of Paine's paper (read
Apr. 20, 1787) is no doubt contained in "The Rights of Man," Part II., Ch. 5.
The printed Rules of the Society (founded February 9, 1787) are in the
Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. The preamble, plainly Paine's, says :
" Important as these inquiries are to all, to the inhabitants of these republics
they are objects of peculiar magnitude and necessity. Accustomed to
look up to those nations, from whom we have derived our origin, for our
laws, our opinions, and our manners, we have retained with undistinguishing
reverence their errors, with their improvements ; have blended with our
public institutions the policy of dissimilar countries ; and have grafted on
our infant commonwealth the manners of ancient and corrupted monarchies.
In having effected a separate government, we have as yet effected but a
partial independence. The revolution can only be said to be compleat,
when we shall have freed ourselves, no less from the influence of foreign
prejudices than from the fetters of foreign power."

CHAPTER XVI.
RETURNING TO THE OLD HOME.
Even now one can hardly repress regret that
Paine did not remain in his beloved Bordentown.
There he was the honored man ; his striking figure,
decorated with the noblest associations, was re
garded with pride ; when he rode the lanes on his
horse Button, the folk had a pleasant word with
him ; the best homes prized his intimacy, and
the young ladies would sometimes greet the old
gentleman with a kiss. From all this he was drawn
by the tender letter of a father he was never to see
again. He sailed in April for a year's absence ;
he remained away fifteen, — if such years may be
reckoned by calendar.
The French packet from New York had a swift
voyage, and early in the summer Paine was receiving
honors in Paris. Franklin had given him letters of
introduction, but he hardly needed them.1 He was
already a hero of the progressives, who had relished
his artistic dissection of the Abbe Raynal's dis
paragement of the American Revolution. Among
those who greeted him was Auberteuil, whose
1 " This letter goes by Mr. Paine, one of our principal writers at the
Revolution, being the author of ' Common Sense, ' a pamphlet that had
prodigious effects." — Franklin to M. de Veillard.
¦2.1-J

228 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1787
history of the American Revolution Paine had
corrected, an early copy having been sent him
(1783) by Franklin for that purpose. But Paine's
main object in France was to secure a verdict from
the Academy of Sciences, the supreme authority,
on his bridge, a model of which he carried with
him. The Academy received him with the honors
due to an M.A. of the University of Pennsylvania,
a member of the Philosophical Society, and a friend
of Franklin. It appointed M. Leroy, M. Bossou,
and M. Borda a committee to report on his bridge.
On August 1 8th he writes to Jefferson, then
Minister in Paris :
" I am much obliged to you for the book you are so kind
to send me. The second part of your letter, concerning
taking my picture, I must feel as an honor done to me, not as
a favour asked of me — but in this, as in other matters, I am at
the disposal of your friendship.
" The committee have among themselves finally agreed on
their report ; I saw this morning it will be read in the Acad
emy on Wednesday. The report goes pretty fully to support
the principles of the construction, with their reasons for that
opinion." On August 15th, a cheery letter had gone to
George Clymer in Philadelphia, in which he says :
" This comes by Mr. Derby, of Massachusetts, who leaves
Paris to-day to take shipping at L' [Orient] for Boston. The
enclosed for Dr. Franklin is from his friend Mr. Le Roy, of
the Academy of Sciences, respecting the bridge, and the
causes that have delayed the completing report. An arch of
4 or 5 hundred feet is such an unprecedented thing, and will
so much attract notice in the northern part of Europe, that
the Academy is cautious in what manner to express their final
opinion. It is, I find, their custom to give reasons for their

1787] RETURNING TO THE OLD HOME. 229
opinion, and this embarrasses them more than the opinion
itself. That the model is strong, and that a bridge con
structed on the same principles will also be strong, they
appear to be well agreed in, but to what particular causes to
assign the strength they are not agreed in. The Committee
was directed by the Academy to examine all the models and
plans for iron bridges that had been proposed in France, and
they unanimously gave the preference to our own, as being
the simplest, strongest, and lightest. They have likewise
agreed on some material points." '
Dr. Robinet says that on this visit (1787) Paine,
who had long known the " soul of the people,"
came into relation with eminent men of all groups,
philosophical and political, — Condorcet, Achille
Duchatelet, Cardinal De Brienne, and, he believes,
also Danton, who, like the English republican, was
a freemason.2 This intercourse, adds the same
author, enabled him to print in England his re
markable prophecy concerning the change going
on in the French mind. Dr. Robinet quotes from
a pamphlet presently noticed, partly written in
Paris during this summer. Although it was Paine's
grievous destiny soon to be once more a revolu
tionary figure, it is certain that he had returned
to Europe as an apostle of peace and good-will.
While the engineers were considering his daring
scheme of an iron arch of five hundred feet, he was
devising with the Cardinal Minister, De Brienne, a
1 For this letter I am indebted to Mr. Curtis Guild, of Boston. The letter
goes on to describe, with drawings, the famous bridge at Schaffhausen,
built by Grubenmann, an uneducated carpenter, the model being shown
Paine by the King's architect, Perronet. The Academy's committee presently
made its report, which was even more favorable than Paine had anticipated.
1 " Danton Emigre," p. 7. Paine wrote a brief archaeological treatise on
freemasonry, but I have not met with the statement that he was a free
mason except in Dr. Robinet's volume, — certainly high authority.

230 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l787
bridge of friendship across the Channel. He drew
up a paper in this sense, on which the Minister
wrote and signed his approval. The bridge-model
approved by the Academy he sent to Sir Joseph
Banks, President of the Royal Society ; the pro
posal for friendship between France and England,
approved by the Cardinal Minister, he carried by
his own hand to Edmund Burke.
On his arrival in London Paine gave to the
printer a manuscript on which he had been en
gaged, and straightway went to Thetford.1 His
father had died the year before.2 His mother, now
in her ninety-first year, he found in the comfort his
remittances had supplied. The house, with its
large garden, stands in Guildhall (then Heathen
man) Street. I was politely shown through it by
its present occupant, Mr. Brett. Mr. Stephen Old-
man, Sr., who went to school in the house, told me
that it was identified by " old Jack Whistler," a
barber, as the place where he went to shave Paine,
in 1787. At this time Paine settled on his mother
an allowance of nine shillings per week, which in
the Thetford of that period was ample for her
comfort. During this autumn with his mother he
rarely left her side. As she lived to be ninety-four
it may be that he sat beside her in the Quaker
1 The exact time of his arrival in England is doubtful. Oldys says : " He
arrived at the White Bear, Picadilly, on the 3d of September, 1787, just
thirteen years after his departure for Philadelphia." Writing in 1803
Paine also says it was in September. But his " Rubicon " pamphlet is dated
" York Street, St. James's Square, 20th August, 1787." Possibly the manu
script was dated in Paris and forwarded to the London printer with the
address at which he wished to find proof on his arrival.
2 St. Cuthbert's Register : " Burials, 1786. Joseph Payne (a Quaker) aged
78 years. November 14th."

1787] RETURNING TO THE OLD HOME. 23 1
meeting-house, to which she had become attached
in her latter years.
Eloquent and pathetic must have been the silence
around the gray man when, after so many tempests,
he sat once more in the little meeting-house where
his childhood was nurtured. From this, his spirit
ual cradle, he had borne away a beautiful theory,
in ignorance of the contrasted actuality. Theo
retically the Society of Friends is a theocracy ;
the Spirit alone rules and directs, effacing all dis
tinctions of rank or sex. As a matter of fact, one
old Quaker, or the clerk of a meeting, often over
rules the "inner lights" of hundreds. Of the
practical working of Quaker government Paine
had no experience ; he had nothing to check his
ideal formed in boyhood. His whole political sys
tem is explicable only by his theocratic Quakerism.
His first essay, the plea for negro emancipation, was
brought from Thetford meeting-house. His " Com
mon Sense," a new-world scripture, is a " testimony"
against the proud who raised their paltry dignities
above the divine presence in the lowliest. " But
where, say some, is the King of America? I '11
tell you, friend, he reigns above." Paine's love
of his adopted country was not mere patriotism ;
he beheld in it the land of promise for all mankind,
seen from afar while on his Thetford Pisgah.
Therefore he made so much of the various races
in America.
" The mere independence of America, were it to have been
followed by a system of government modelled after the corrupt
system of the English government, would not have interested
me with the unabated ardour that it did. It was to bring for-

232

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [i787

ward and establish the representative system of government
that was the leading principle with me."
So he spake to Congress, and to its president he
said that he would have done the same for any
country as for America. The religious basis of
his political system has a droll illustration in an
anecdote of his early life told by himself. While
bowling with friends at Lewes, Mr. Verril re
marked that Frederick of Prussia "was the best
fellow in the world for a king ; he had so much
of the devil in him." It struck Paine that "if
it were necessary for a king to have so much of
the devil in him, kings might very beneficially
be dispensed with." From this time he seems to
have developed a theory of human rights based
on theocracy ; and so genuinely that in America,
while the Bible was still to him the word of God,
he solemnly proposed, in the beginning of the
Revolution, that a crown should be publicly laid
on that book, to signify to the world that " in
America the Law is King."
While in America the States were discussing the
Constitution proposed by the Convention, Paine
sat in the silent meeting at Thetford dreaming of
the Parliament of Man, and federation of the
world. In America the dawn of the new nation
was a splendor, but it paled the ideals that had
shone through the night of struggle. The prin
ciples of the Declaration, which would have freed
every slave, — representation proportionate to popu
lation, so essential to equality, the sovereignty of
justice instead of majorities or of States, — had be
come " glittering generalities." The first to affirm

1787] RETURNING TO THE OLD HOME. 233
the principles of the Declaration, Paine awaited
the unsummoned Convention that would not com
promise any of them away. For politicians these
lofty ideas might be extinguished by the rising of
a national sun ; but in Paine there remained the
deep Quaker well where the stars shone on through
the garish day.1
Seated in the Quaker meeting-house beside his
mother, and beside his father's fresh grave, Paine
revises the past while revising the proofs of his
pamphlet. The glamor of war, even of the Am
erican Revolution, fades ; the shudder with which
he saw in childhood soldiers reeking from the mas
sacres of Culloden and Inverness returns ; he begins
his new career in the old world with a " testimony "
against war. 2
"When we consider, for the feelings of Nature cannot be
dismissed, the calamities of war and the miseries it inflicts
upon the human species, the thousands and tens of thousands
of every age and sex who are rendered wretched by the event,
surely there is something in the heart of man that calls upon
him to think ! Surely there is some tender chord, tuned by
the hand of the Creator, that still struggles to emit in the hear
ing of the soul a note of sorrowing sympathy. Let it then be
heard, and let man learn to feel that the true greatness of a
nation is founded on principles of humanity. . . War
involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen and unsup-
posed circumstances, such a combination of foreign matters,
that no human wisdom can calculate the end. It has but one
thing certain, and that is to increase taxes. ... I defend
the cause of the poor, of the manufacturer, of the tradesman,
1 " In wells where truth in secret lay
He saw the midnight stars by day." — W. D. Howells.
5 " Prospects on the Rubicon ; or, An Investigation into the Causes and
Consequences of the Politics to be Agitated at the Meeting of Parliament."
London, 1787. Pp. 68.

234

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [^87

of the farmer, and of all those on whom the real burthen of
taxes fall — but above all, I defend the cause of humanity."
So little did Paine contemplate or desire revolu
tion in England or France. His exhortation to
young Pitt is to avoid war with Holland, to be
friendly with France, to shun alliances involving
aid in war, and to build up the wealth and liberties
of England by uniting the people with the throne.
He has discovered that this healthy change is going
on in France. The French people are allying " the
Majesty of the Sovereign with the Majesty of the
Nation." " Of all alliances this is infinitely the
strongest and the safest to be trusted to, because
the interest so formed and operating against ex
ternal enemies can never be divided." Freedom
doubles the value of the subject to the government.
When the desire of freedom becomes universal
among the people, then, " and not before, is the im
portant moment for the most effectual consolida
tion of national strength and greatness." The
government must not be frightened by disturb
ances incidental to beneficent changes. "The
creation we enjoy arose out of a chaos." 1
1 The pamphlet was reprinted in London in 1793 under the title : " Pros
pects on the War, and Paper Currency. The second edition, corrected."
Advertisement (June 20th) : ' ' This pamphlet was written by Mr. Paine in
the year 1787, on one of Mr. Pitt's armaments, namely, that against Holland.
His object was to prevent the people of England from being seduced into a
war, by stating clearly to them the consequences which would inevitably
befall the credit of this country should such a. calamity take place. The
minister has at length, however, succeeded in his great project, after three
expensive armaments within the space of seven years ; and the event has
proved how well founded were the predictions of Mr. Paine. The person
who has authority to bring forward this pamphlet in its present shape, thinks
his doing so a duty which he owes both to Mr. P  and the people of
England, in order that the latter may judge what credit is due to (what a
great judge calls) the wild theories of mr. paine."

1788] RETURNING TO THE OLD HOME. 235
Paine had seen a good deal of Jefferson in Paris,
and no doubt their conversation often related to
struggles in the Constitutional Convention at Phila
delphia. Jefferson wished the Constitution to in
clude a Declaration of Rights, and wrote Paine
some comments on the argument of James Wilson
(afterward of the Supreme Court), maintaining that
such a Declaration was unnecessary in a govern
ment without any powers not definitely granted,
and that such a Declaration might be construed to
imply some degree of power over the matters it
defined. Wilson's speeches, powerfully analyzing
the principles of liberty and federation, were deliv
ered on October 6th and November 24th, and it
will appear by the subjoined paper that they were
more in accord with Paine's than with Jefferson's
principles. The manuscript, which is among Jeffer
son's papers, bears no date, but was no doubt
written at Thetford early in the year 1 788.
" After I got home, being alone and wanting amusement, I
sat down to explain to myself (for there is such a thing) my
ideas of national and civil rights, and the distinction between
them. I send them to you to see how nearly we agree.
" Suppose twenty persons, strangers to each other, to meet
in a country not before inhabited. Each would be a Sovereign
in his own natural right. His will would be his law, but his
power, in many cases, inadequate to his right ; and the conse
quence would be that each might be exposed, not only to each
other, but to the other nineteen. It would then occur to them
that their condition would be much improved, if a way could
be devised to exchange that quantity of danger into so much
protection ; so that each individual should possess the
strength of the whole number. As all their rights in the first
case are natural rights, and the exercise of those rights sup
ported only by their own natural individual power, they would

236 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1788
begin by distinguishing between those rights they could indi
vidually exercise, fully and perfectly, and those they could
not. Of the first kind are the rights of thinking, speaking,
forming and giving opinions, and perhaps are those which can
be fully exercised by the individual without the aid of exterior
assistance ; or in other words, rights of personal competency.
Of the second kind are those of personal protection, of acquir
ing and possessing property, in the exercise of which the .indi
vidual natural power is less than the natural right.
" Having drawn this line they agree to retain individually
the first class of Rights, or those of personal competency ; and
to detach from their personal possession the second class, or
those of defective power, and to accept in lieu thereof a right
to the whole power produced by a condensation of all the
parts. These I conceive to be civil rights, or rights of com
pact, and are distinguishable from natural rights because in
' the one we act wholly in our own person, in the other we
agree not to do so, but act under the guarantee of society.
" It therefore follows that the more of those imperfect
natural rights or rights of imperfect power we give up, and
thus exchange, the more security we possess ; and as the word
liberty is often mistakenly put for security, Mr. Wilson has
confused his argument by confounding the terms. But it does
not follow that the more natural rights of every kind we assign
the more security we possess, because if we resign those of
the first class we may suffer much by the exchange ; for where
the right and the power are equal with each other in the indi
vidual, naturally, they ought to rest there.
" Mr. Wilson must have some allusion to this distinction, or
his position would be subject to the inference you draw
from it.
" I consider the individual sovereignty of the States retained
under the act of confederation to be of the second class of
right. It becomes dangerous because it is defective in the
power necessary to support it. It answers the pride and pur
pose of a few men in each State, but the State collectively is
injured by it."
The paper just quoted may be of importance to
those students of Yale College who shall compete

1788] RETURNING TO THE OLD HOME. 237
for the Ten Eyck prize of 1892, on the interesting
subject, " Thomas Paine : Deism and Democracy
in the Days of the American Revolution." There
was no nearer approach to democracy, in Paine's
theory, than that of this paper sent to Jefferson.
The Constitutional Convention represented to him
the contracting People, all the individuals being
parties to a Compact whereby every majority
pledges itself to protect the minority in matters
not essential to the security of all. In represen
tative government thus limited by compact he
recognized the guaranty of individual freedom
and influence by which the mass could be steadily
enlightened. Royall Tyler considered some of his
views on these subjects " whimsical paradoxes " ;
but they are not so " unaccountable " as he supposed.
Tyler's portraiture of Paine in London, though
somewhat adapted to prejudices anent "The Age
of Reason," is graphic, and Paine's anti-democratic
paradox wittily described.
" I met this interesting personage at the lodgings of the
son of a late patriotic American governour [Trumbull]. . .
He was dressed in a snuff-coloured coat, olive velvet vest,
drab breeches, coarse hose. His shoe buckles of the size of
a half dollar. A bob tailed wig covered that head which
worked such mickle woe to courts and kings. If I should
attempt to describe it, it would be in the same stile and
principle with which the veteran soldier bepraiseth an old
standard : the more tattered, the more glorious. It is prob
able that this was the same identical wig under the shadow of
whose curls he wrote Common Sense, in America, many years
before. He was a spare man, rather under size ; subject to
the extreme of low, and highly exhilirating spirits ; often sat
reserved in company ; seldom mingled in common chit chat :
But when a man of sense and elocution was present, and the

238 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1788
company numerous, he delighted in advancing the most unac
countable, and often the most whimsical paradoxes ; which he
defended in his own plausible manner. If encouraged by
success, or the applause of the company, his countenance was
animated with an expression of feature which, on ordinary
occasions one would look for in vain, in a man so much cele
brated for acuteness of thought ; but if interrupted by extra
neous observation, by the inattention of his auditory, or in an
irritable moment, even by the accidental fall of the poker, he
would retire into himself, and no persuasion could induce him to
proceed upon the most favourite topic. ... I heard Thomas
Paine once assert in the presence of Mr. Wolcott, better known,
in this country, by the facetious name of Peter Pindar, that the
minority, in all deliberative bodies, ought, in all cases, to gov
ern the majority. Peter smiled. You must grant me, said
Z7«common Sense, that the proportion of men of sense, to the
ignorant among mankind, is at least as twenty, thirty, or even
forty-nine, to an hundred. The majority of mankind are con
sequently most prone to errour ; and if we atchieve the right,
the minority ought in all cases to govern. Peter continued to
smile archly." '
In the end this theory was put to a vote of the
company present, and all arose with Paine except
Peter Pindar, who thereupon said, " I am the wise
minority who ought, in all cases, to govern your
ignorant majority."
1 "The Algerine Captive," 1797. (Paine's shoe-buckles in the National
Museum, Washington, are of the fashionable kind.)

CHAPTER XVII.
A BRITISH LION WITH AN AMERICAN HEART.
The influence of Paine's Quaker training has
been traced in his constructive politics, but its re
pressive side had more perhaps to do with his
career. " I had some turn," he said, " and I be
lieve some talent, for poetry ; but this I rather
repressed than encouraged." It is your half-
repressed poets that kindle revolutions. History
might be different had Paine not been taught fear of
music and poetry. He must have epical common
wealths. The American Republic having tempora
rily filled his ideal horizon in the political direction,
the disguised Muse turned his eye upon the possi
bilities of nature. Morally utilitarian, he yet
rarely writes about physics without betraying the
poetic passion for nature of a suppressed Words
worth. Nature' is his Aphrodite and his Madonna.
" Bred up in antediluvian notions, she has not yet acquired
the European taste of receiving visitors in her dressing-room ;
she locks and bolts up her private recesses with extraordinary
care, as if not only resolved to preserve her hoards but conceal
her age, and hide the remains of a face that was young and
lovely in the days of Adam."
Defining for Jefferson the distinction between
attraction and cohesion, he says :
239

240 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1788
" I recollect a scene at one of the theatres which very well
explains the difference. A condemned lady wishes to see her
child and the child its mother : that is Attraction. They were
admitted to meet, but when ordered to part threw their arms
around each other and fastened their persons together : this is
Cohesion." All the atoms or molecules are little mothers
and daughters and lovers clasping each other ; it is
an interlocking of figures ; " and if our eyes were
good enough we should see how it was done." He
has a transcendental perception of unity in things
dissimilar. On his walks to Challiot he passes
trees and fountains, and writes a little essay, with
figures, explaining to his friend that the tree is also
a fountain, and that by measuring diameters of
trunks and tubes, or branches, the quantity of tim
ber thrown up by sap-fountains might be known.
Some of his casual speculations he calls " conceits."
They are the exuberance of a scientific imagination
inspired by philanthropy and naturalistic religion.
The " inner light " of man corresponds to an " inner
spirit " of nature. The human mind dimmed by
ignorance, perverted by passion, turns the very
gifts of nature to thorns, amid which her divine
beauty sleeps until awakened by the kiss of science.
It would be difficult to find anything in the lit
erature of mechanical invention more naively pict
uresque than this Quaker, passed through furnaces
of two revolutions, trying to humanize gunpow
der. Here is a substance with maximum of power
and minimum of bulk and weight.
" When I consider the wisdom of nature I must think that
she endowed matter with this extraordinary property for other
purposes than that of destruction. Poisons are capable of

1788] A BRITISH LION WITH AN AMERICAN HEART. 241
other uses than that of killing. If the power which an ounce
of gunpowder contains could be detailed out as steam or water
can be it would be a most commodious natural power."
Having failed to convert revolutions to Quaker
ism, Paine tries to soften the heart of gunpowder
itself, and insists that its explosiveness may be
restrained and detailed like strokes on a boy's top to
obtain continual motion. The sleeping top, the
chastened repose of perfect motion, like the quiet
of the spinning worlds, is the Quaker inventor's
ideal, and he begs the President of the United
States to try the effect of the smallest pistol made —
the size of a quill — on a wheel with peripheral cups
to receive the discharges.1
"The biographers of Paine," wrote his friend,
Joel Barlow, "should not forget his mathematical
acquirements and his mechanical genius." But it
would require a staff of specialists, and a large
volume, to deal with Paine's scientific studies and
contrivances — with his planing machine, his new
crane, his smokeless candle, his wheel of concentric
rim, his scheme for using gunpowder as a motor,
above all his iron bridge. As for the bridge, Paine
feels that it is a sort of American revolution carried
into mechanics ; his eagle cannot help spreading
a little in the wondering eyes of the Old World.
" Great scenes inspire great ideas," he writes to Sir
George Staunton.
" The natural mightiness of America expands the mind, and
it partakes of the greatness it contemplates. Even the war,
1 I am reluctantly compelled to give only the main ideas of several theses
of this kind by Paine, found among Jefferson's papers. The portion of the
"Jefferson Papers" at Washington written by Paine would fill a good
-volume. VOL. 1. — 16

242 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1788
with all its evils, had some advantages. It energized invention
and lessened the catalogue of impossibilities. At the conclu
sion of it every man returned to his home to repair the ravages
it had occasioned, and to think of war no more. As one
amongst thousands who had borne a share in that memorable
revolution, I returned with them to the re-enjoyment of quiet
life, and, that I might not be idle, undertook to construct a
single arch for this river [Schuylkill]. Our beloved General
had engaged in rendering another river, the Potowmac, navi
gable. The quantity of iron I had allowed in my plan for
this arch was five hundred and twenty tons, to be distributed
into thirteen ribs, in commemoration of the Thirteen United
States." It is amusing after this to find Paine, in his pat
ent, declaring his special license from " His Most
Excellent Majesty King George the Third." ' Had
poor George been in his right senses, or ever heard
of the invention, he might have suspected some
connection between this insurrection of the iron
age and the American " rebellion." However,
Paine is successful in keeping America out of his
specification, albeit a poetic touch appears.
" The idea and construction of this arch is taken from the
figure of a spider's circular web, of which it resembles a sec
tion, and from a conviction that when nature empowered this
insect to make a web she also instructed her in the strongest
mechanical method of constructing it. Another idea, taken
from nature in the construction of this arch, is that of increas-
1 " No. 1667. Specification of Thomas Paine. Constructing Arches,
Vaulted Roofs, and Ceilings." The specification, dated August 28, 1788,
declares his in vention to be "on principles new and different to anything
hitherto practised." The patents for England, Scotland, and Ireland were
granted in September. An iron arch of one hundred feet was designed by
Pritchard and erected by Darby at Coalbrook Dale, Shropshire, in 1 779, but
it did not anticipate the invention of Paine, as may be seen by the article
on " Iron Bridges" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which also well re
marks that Paine's ' ' daring in engineering does full justice to the fervour of
his political career. "

1788] A BRITISH LION WITH AN AMERICAN HEART. 243
ing the strength of matter by dividing and combining it, and
thereby causing it to act over a larger space than it would
occupy in a solid state, as is seen in the quills of birds, bones
of animals, reeds, canes, &c. The curved bars of the arch are
composed of pieces of any length joined together to the whole
extent of the arch, and take curvature by bending."
Paine and his bridge came to England at a fortu
nate moment. Blackfriars Bridge had just given
way, and two over the Tyne, one built by Smeaton,
had collapsed by reason of quicksands under their
piers. And similarly Pitt's policy was collapsing
through the treacherous quicksands on which it
was based. Paper money and a " sinking fund " at
home, and foreign alliances that disregarded the
really controlling interests of nations, Paine saw as
piers set in the Channel.1 He at once took his place
in England as a sort of institution. While the en
gineers beheld with admiration his iron arch clear
ing the treacherous river-beds, statesmen saw with
delight his prospective bridges spanning the politi
cal " Rubicon." Nothing could be more felicitous
than the title of his inaugural pamphlet, " Prospects
on the Rubicon." It remembered an expression in
Parliament at the beginning of the war on America.
" ' The Rubicon is passed,' was once given as a
reason for prosecuting the most expensive war that
England ever knew. Sore with the event, and
groaning beneath a galling yoke of taxes, she has
again been led ministerially on to the shore of the
same delusive and fatal river." The bridge-builder
' It is droll to find even Paine's iron bridge resting somewhat on a " paper "
pier. "Perhaps," he writes Jefferson, "the excess of paper currency, and
the wish to find objects for realizing it, is one of the motives for promoting
the plan of the Bridge."

244 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1788
stretches his shining arches to France, Holland,
Germany, — free commerce and friendship with all
peoples, but no leagues with the sinking piers called
thrones. At Rotherham, in Yorkshire, where Messrs.
Walker fitted up a workshop for Paine, he was
visited by famous engineers and political person
ages. There and in London he was "lionized," as
Franklin had been in Paris. We find him now
passing a week with Edmund Burke, now at the
country-seat of the Duke of Portland, or enjoying
the hospitalities of Lord Fitzwilliam at Wentworth
House. He is entertained and consulted on public
affairs by Fox, Lord Lansdowne, Sir George Staun
ton, Sir Joseph Banks ; and many an effort is made
to enlist his pen. Lord Lansdowne, it appears, had
a notion of Paine's powers of political engineering
so sublime that he thought he might bridge the
Atlantic, and re-connect England and America !
All of this may be gathered from the Jefferson
papers, as we shall presently see ; but it should be
remarked here that Paine's head was not turned by
his association with the gentry and aristocracy.
The impression he made on these eminent gentle
men was largely due to his freedom from airs.
They found him in his workshop, hammer in hand,
proud only of free America and of his beautiful
arch. Professor Peter Lesley of Philadelphia tells me
that when visiting in early life the works at Rother
ham, Paine's workshop and the very tools he used
were pointed out. They were preserved with care.
He conversed with an aged and intelligent workman

1789] A BRITISH LION WITH AN AMERICAN HEART. 245
who had worked under Paine as a lad. Professor
Lesley, who had shared some of the prejudice
against Paine, was impressed by the earnest words
of this old man. Mr. Paine, he said, was the most
honest man, and the best man he ever knew. After
he had been there a little time everybody looked
up to him, the Walkers and their workmen. He
knew the people for miles round, and went into
their homes ; his benevolence, his friendliness, his
knowledge, made him beloved by all, rich and poor.
His memory had always lasted there.
In truth Paine, who had represented the heart
of England, in America, was now representing the
heart of America to England. America was work
ing by his hand, looking through his eyes, and
silently publishing to the people from whom he
sprung what the new nation could make out of
a starving English staymaker. He was a living
Declaration of Independence. The Americans in
London — the artists West and Trumbull, the Alex
anders (Franklin's connections), and others — were
fond of him as a friend and proud of him as a
countryman. The subjoined letter to Benjamin West (after
wards P. R. A.) shows Paine's pleasant relations
with that artist and with Trumbull. It is dated
March 8, 1 789.
" I have informed James of the matter which you and I
talked of on Saturday, and he is much rejoiced at an oppor
tunity of shewing his gratitude to you for the permission you
indulged him with in attending Mr. Trumbull at your rooms.
As I have known his parents upwards of twenty years, and the
manners and habits he has been educated in, and the disposi-

246 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [!789
tion he is of, I can with confidence to myself undertake to
vouch for the faithful discharge of any trust you may repose
in him ; and as he is a youth of quick discernment and a great
deal of silent observation he cannot be easily imposed upon,
or turned aside from his attention, by any contrivance of
workmen. I will put him in a way of keeping a diary of every
day's work he sees done, and of any observations he may make,
proper for you to be informed of, which he can send once or
twice a week to you at Windsor ; and any directions you may
have to give him in your absence can be conveyed through
Mr. Trumbull, or what other method you please, so that James
is certified they come from you.
" James has made a tender of his service to Mr. Trumbull, if
it should be of any use, when his picture is to be exhibited ;
but that will probably not be till nearly the time the impres
sions will be struck off. James need not entirely omit his
drawing while he is attending the plates. Some employment
will, in general, fix a person to a place better than having only
to stand still and look on. I suppose they strike off about
thres impressions in an hour, and as James is master of a watch
he will find their average of works, — and also how fast they
can work when they have a mind to make haste, — and he can
easily number each impression, which will be a double check
on any being carried off. I intend visiting him pretty often,
while he is on duty, which will be an additional satisfaction
to yourself for the trust you commit to him." '
This chapter may well close with a letter from
Paine in London (January 6, 1789) to his young
friend " Kitty Nicholson," — known at the Borden
town school, and in New York, — on the occasion
of her marriage with Colonel Few.2 Let those
who would know the real Thomas Paine read this
letter !
1 I have not been able to find anything more of Paine's protege" James,
whose parents were known to him before his departure for American. I am
indebted to Mr. W. E. Benjamin for the letter.
2 To a representative of this family I am indebted for the letter. Con
cerning the Nicholsons, see page 212.

1789] A BRITISH LION WITH AN AMERICAN HEART. 247
" I sincerely thank you for your very friendly and welcome
letter. I was in the country when it arrived and did not
receive it soon enough to answer it by the return of the
vessel. " I very affectionately congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Few on
their happy marriage, and every branch of the families allied
by that connection ; and I request my fair correspondent to
present me to her partner, and to say, for me, that he has
obtained one of the highest Prizes on the wheel. Besides the
pleasure which your letter gives me to hear you are all happy
and well, it relieves me from a sensation not easy to be dis
missed ; and if you will excuse a few dull thoughts for obtru
ding themselves into a congratulatory letter I will tell you
what it is. When I see my female friends drop off by matri
mony I am sensible of something that affects me like a loss in
spite of all the appearances of joy. I cannot help mixing the
sincere compliment of regret with that of congratulation. It
appears as if I had outlived or lost a friend. It seems to me
as if the original was no more, and that which she is changed
to forsakes the circle and forgets the scenes of former society.
Felicities are cares superior to those she formerly cared for,
create to her a new landscape of Life that excludes the little
friendships of the past. It is not every lady's mind that is
sufficiently capacious to prevent those greater objects crowding
out the less, or that can spare a thought to former friendships
after she has given her hand and heart to the man who loves
her. But the sentiment your letter contains has prevented
these dull Ideas from mixing with the congratulation I present
you, and is so congenial with the enlarged opinion I have
always formed of you, that at the time I read your letter with
pleasure I read it with pride, because it convinces me that I
have some judgment in that most difficult science — a Lady's
mind. Most sincerely do I wish you all the good that Heaven
can bless you with, and as you have in your own family an
example of domestic happiness you are already in the knowl
edge of obtaining it. That no condition we can enjoy is an
exemption from care — that some shade will mingle itself with
the brightest sunshine of Life — that even our affections may
become the instruments of our sorrows — that the sweet felici
ties of home depend on good temper as well as on good sense.

248 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. \M%9
and that there is always something to forgive even in the
nearest and dearest of our friends, — are truths which, tho' too
obvious to be told, ought never to be forgotten ; and I know
you will not esteem my friendship the less for impressing them
upon you.
" Though I appear a sort of wanderer, the married state has
not a sincerer friend than I am. It is the harbour of human
life, and is, with respect to the things of this world, what the
next world is to this. It is home ; and that one word conveys
more than any other word can express. For a few years we
may glide along the tide of youthful single life and be wonder
fully delighted ; but it is a tide that flows but once, and what
is still worse, it ebbs faster than it flows, and leaves many a
hapless voyager aground. I am one, you see that have expe
rienced the fate, I am describing.1 I have lost my tide ; it
passed by while every thought of my heart was on the wing
for the salvation of my dear America, and I have now as con
tentedly as I can, made myself a little bower of willows on the
shore that has the solitary resemblance of a home. Should I
always continue the tenant of this home, I hope my female
acquaintance will ever remember that it contains not the chur
lish enemy of their sex, not the inaccessible cold hearted
mortal, nor the capricious tempered oddity, but one of the
best and most affectionate of their friends.
" I did not forget the Dunstable hat, but it was not on wear
here when I arrived. That I am a negligent correspondent I
freely confess, and I always reproach myself for it. You men
tion only one letter, but I wrote twice ; once by Dr. Derby,
and another time by the Chevalier St. Triss — by whom I also
1 Paine's marriage and separation from his wife had been kept a secret in
America, where the ' ' Tories " would have used it to break the influence of
his patriotic writings. It may be stated here, in addition to what is said on
p. 32, that, in the absence of any divorce law in England, a separation
under the Common Law was generally held as pronouncing the marriage
a nullity ab initio. According to Chalmers Paine was dissatisfied with
articles of separation drawn up by an attorney, Josias Smith, May 24, 1774,
and insisted on new ones, to which the clergyman was a party. The ' ' com
mon lawyers '' regarded the marriage as completely annulled, and Paine thus
free to marry again. However, he evidently never thought of doing so, and
that his relations with ladies were as chaste as affectionate appears in this
letter to Mrs. Few, and in his correspondence generally.

1789] A BRITISH LION WITH AN AMERICAN HEART. 249
wrote to Gen. Morris, Col. Kirkbride, and several friends in
Philadelphia, but have received no answers. I had one letter
from Gen. Morris last winter, which is all I have received
from New York till the arrival of yours.
" I thank you for the details of news you give. Kiss Molly
Field for me and wish her joy, — and all the good girls of
Borden Town. How is my favorite Sally Morris, my boy Joe,
and my horse Button ? pray let me know. Polly and Nancy
Rogers, — are they married ? or do they intend to build bowers
as I have done ? If they do, I wish they would twist their
green willows somewhere near to mine.
" I am very much engaged here about my Bridge — There is
one building of my Construction at Messers. Walker's Iron
Works in Yorkshire, and I have direction of it. I am lately
come from thence and shall return again in two or three weeks.
" As to news on this side the water, the king is mad, and
there is great bustle about appointing a Regent. As it hap
pens, I am in pretty close intimacy with the heads of the
opposition — the Duke of Portland, Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke.
I have sent your letter to Mrs. Burke as a specimen of the
accomplishments of the American Ladies. I sent it to Miss
Alexander, a lady you have heard me speak of, and I asked
her to give me a few of her thoughts how to answer it. She
told me to write as I felt, and I have followed her advice.
" I very kindly thank you for your friendly invitation to
Georgia and if I am ever within a thousand miles of you, I
will come and see you ; though it be but for a day.
"You touch me on a very tender part when you say my
friends on your side the water ' cannot be reconciled to the
idea of my resigning my adopted America, even for my native
England.' They are right. Though I am in as elegant style
of acquaintance here as any American that ever came over,
my heart and myself are 3000 miles apart ; and I had rather
see my horse Button in his own stable, or eating the grass of
Bordentown or Morrisania, than see all the pomp and show of
Europe. " A thousand years hence (for I must indulge in a few
thoughts) perhaps in less, America may be what England now
is ! The innocence of her character that won the hearts of all
nations in her favor may sound like a romance, and her inimit-

250 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1789
able virtue as if it had never been. The ruins of that liberty
which thousands bled for, or suffered to obtain, may just fur
nish materials for a village tale or extort a sigh from rustic
sensibility, while the fashionable of that day, enveloped in
dissipation, shall deride the principle and deny the fact.
" When we contemplate the fall of Empires and the extinc
tion of nations of the ancient world, we see but little to excite
our regret than the mouldering ruins of pompous palaces,
magnificent monuments, lofty pyramids, and walls and towers
of the most costly workmanship. But when the Empire of
America shall fall, the subject for contemplative sorrow will be
infinitely greater than crumbling brass or marble can inspire.
It will not then be said, here stood a temple of vast antiquity,
— here rose a Babel of invisible height, or there a palace of
sumptuous extravagance ; but here, ah painful thought ! the
noblest work of human wisdom, the grandest scene of human
glory, the fair cause of freedom rose and fell !
" Read this and then ask if I forget America — But I '11 not
be dull if I can help it, so I leave off, and close my letter to
morrow, which is the day the mail is made up for America.
" January 7th. I have heard this morning with extreme
concern of the death of our worthy friend Capt. Read. Mrs.
Read lives in a house of mine at Bordentown, and you will
much oblige me by telling her how much I am affected by her
loss ; and to mention to her, with that delicacy which such an
offer and her situation require, and which no one knows better
how to convey than yourself, that the two years' rent which is
due I request her to accept of, and to consider herself at home
till she hears further from me.
" This is the severest winter I ever knew in England ; the
frost has continued upwards of five weeks, and is still likely
to continue. All the vessels from America have been kept off
by contrary winds. The ' Polly ' and the ' Pigeon ' from Phila
delphia and the ' Eagle ' from Charleston are just got in.
" If you should leave New York before I arrive (which I
hope will not be the case) and should pass through Philadel
phia, I wish you would do me the favor to present my compli
ments to Mrs. Powell, the lady whom I wanted an opportunity
to introduce you to when you were in Philadelphia, but was
prevented by your being at a house where I did not visit.

1789] A BRITISH LION WITH AN AMERICAN HEART. 251
" There is a Quaker favorite of mine at New York, formerly
Miss Watson of Philadelphia ; she is now married to Dr.
Lawrence, and is an acquaintance of Mrs. Oswald : be so
kind as to make her a visit for me. You will like her conver
sation. She has a little of the Quaker primness — but of the
pleasing kind — about her.
" I am always distressed at closing a letter, because it seems
like taking leave of my friends after a parting conversation. —
Captain Nicholson, Mrs. Nicholson, Hannah, Fanny, James,
and the little ones, and you my dear Kitty, and your partner for
life — God bless you all ! and send me safe back to my much
loved America ! "Thomas Paine — set. 52.
" or if you better like it
" ' Common Sense.'
" This comes by the packet which sails from Falmouth, 300
miles from London ; but by the first vessel from London to
New York I will send you some magazines. In the meantime
be so kind as to write to me by the first opportunity. Re
member me to the family at Morrisania, and all my friends
at New York and Bordentown. Desire Gen. Morris to take
another guinea of Mr. Constable, who has some money of
mine in his hands, and give it to my boy Joe. Tell Sally to
take care of ' Button.' Then direct for me at Mr. Peter
Whiteside's London. When you are at Charleston remem
ber me to my dear old friend Mrs. Lawrence, Col. and Mrs.
L. Morris, and Col. Washington ; and at Georgia, to Col.
Walton. Adieu."

CHAPTER XVIII.
PAINE'S LETTERS TO JEFFERSON IN PARIS.
A note of Paine to Jefferson, dated February
19, 1788, shows him in that city consulting with
Lafayette about his bridge, and preparing a memo
rial for the government. The visit was no doubt
meant to secure a patent, and also arrange for the
erection of the bridge. This appears to be his last
meeting with Jefferson in Europe. He must have
returned soon to England, where a letter of June
15th reports to Jefferson large progress in his pat
ent, and other arrangements. Paine's letters were
by no means confined to his personal affairs. In
one of his letters Jefferson says : " I have great
confidence in your communications, and since Mr.
Adams' departure I am in need of authentic infor
mation from that country." Jefferson subscribes
his letters — " I am with great and sincere attach
ment, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and servant,"
— and Paine responded with wonted fidelity. For
more than a year the United States government
was supplied by Paine, mainly through Jefferson,
with information concerning affairs in England. It
will be seen by some of the subjoined extracts that
Paine was recognized by English statesmen as a
sort of American Minister, and that the information
252

1788] PAINE'S LETTERS TO JEFFERSON IN PARIS. 253
he transmits is rarely, if ever, erroneous. All of
this would appear more clearly could space be here
given to the entire letters. The omissions are
chiefly of items of news now without interest, or of
technical details concerning the bridge. It is only
just to remind the reader, before introducing the
quotations, that these letters were confidential, and
to a very intimate friend, being thus not liable to
any charge of egotism from the public, for whose
eye they were not intended.
"London, Broad Street Buildings, No. 13. Sept. 9,
1788. — That I am a bad correspondent is so general a com
plaint against me, that I must expect the same accusation from
you — But hear me first — When there is no matter to write
upon, a letter is not worth the trouble of receiving and reading
and while any thing which is to be the subject of a letter, is in
suspence, it is difficult to write and perhaps best to let it alone
— 'least said is soonest mended,' and nothing said requires no
mending. " The model has the good fortune of preserving in England
the reputation which it received from the Academy of Sciences.
It is a favourite hobby horse with all who have seen it ; and
every one who has talked with me on the subject advised me
to endeavour to obtain a Patent, as it is only by that means
that I can secure to myself the direction and management.
For this purpose I went, in company with Mr Whiteside to the
office which is an appendage to Lord Sydney's — told them who
I was, and made an affidavit that the construction was my own
Invention. This was the only step I took in the business.
Last Wednesday I received a Patent for England, the next day
a Patent for Scotland, and I am to have one for Ireland.
" As I had already the opinion of the scientific Judges both
in France and England on the Model, it was also necessary
that I should have that of the practical Iron men who must
finally be the executors of the work. There are several capi
tal Iron Works in this country, the principal of which are those
in Shropshire, Yorkshire, and Scotland. It was my intention

254 THE LIFE 0F THOMAS PAINE. [1788
to have communicated with Mr. Wilkinson, who is one of the
proprietors of the Shropshire Iron Works, and concerned in
those in France, but his departure for Sweden before I had
possession of the patents prevented me. The Iron Works in
Yorkshire belonging to the Walkers near to Sheffield are the
most eminent in England in point of establishment and prop
erty. The proprietors are reputed to be worth two hundred
thousand pounds and consequently capable of giving energy to
any great undertaking. A friend of theirs who had seen the
model wrote to them on the subject, and two of them came to
London last Fryday to see it and talk with me on the business.
Their opinion is very decided that it can be executed either in
wrought or cast Iron, and I am to go down to their Works next
week to erect an experiment arch. This is the point I am now
got to, and until now I had nothing to inform you of. If I
succeed in erecting the arch all reasoning and opinion will be
at an end, and, as this will soon be known, I shall not return to
France till that time ; and until then I wish every thing to
remain respecting my Bridge over the Seine, in the state I left
matters in when I came from France. With respect to the
Patents in England it is my intention to dispose of them as
soon as I have established the certainty of the construction.
" Besides the ill success of Black friars Bridge, two Bridges
built successively on the same spot, the last by Mr Smeaton, at
Hexham, over the Tyne in Northumberland, have fallen down,
occasioned by quicksands under the bed of the river. If there
fore arches can be extended in the proportion the model
promises, the construction in certain situations, without regard
to cheapness or dearness, will be valuable in all countries.
. . . As to English news or Politics, there is little more than
what the public papers contain. The assembling the States
General, and the reappointment of Mr. Neckar, make consid
erable impression here. They overawe a great deal of the
English habitual rashness, and check that triumph of pre
sumption which they indulged themselves in with respect to
what they called the deranged and almost ruinous condition
of the finances of France. They acknowledge unreservedly
that the natural resources of France are greater than those of
England, but they plume themselves on the superiority of the
means necessary to bring national resources forth. But the

1788] PAINE'S LETTERS TO JEFFERSON IN PARIS. 255
two circumstances above mentioned serve very well to lower
this exaltation.
" Some time ago I spent a week at Mr. Burke's, and the
Duke of Portland's in Buckinghamshire. You will recollect
that the Duke was the member during the time of the coalition
— he is now in the opposition, and I find the opposition as
much warped in some respects as to Continental Politics as
the Ministry. — What the extent of the Treaty with Russia is,
Mr. B[urke] says that he and all the opposition are totally
unacquainted with ; and they speak of it not as a very wise
measure, but rather tending to involve England in unnecessary
continental disputes. The preference of the opposition is to
a connection with Prussia if it could have been obtained. Sir
George Staunton tells me that the interference with respect to
Holland last year met with considerable opposition from part
of the Cabinet. Mr. Pitt was against it at first, but it was a
favourite measure with the King, and that the opposition at
that crisis contrived to have it known to him that they were
disposed to support his measures. This together with the noti
fication of the 16th of September gave Mr. Pitt cause and
pretence for changing his ground.
" The Marquis of Landsdown is unconnected either with the
Ministry or the opposition. His politics is distinct from both.
This plan is a sort of armed neutrality which has many advo
cates. In conversation with me he reprobated the conduct of
the Ministry towards France last year as operating to ' cut the
throat of confidence' (this was his expression) between France
and England at a time when there was a fair opportunity of
improving it.
" The enmity of this country against Russia is as bitter as
it ever was against America, and is carried to every pitch of
abuse and vulgarity. What I hear in conversations exceeds
what may be seen in the news-papers. They are sour and
mortified at every success she acquires, and voraciously be
lieve and rejoice in the most improbable accounts and rumours
to the contrary. You may mention this to Mr. Simelin on
any terms you please for you cannot exceed the fact.
" There are those who amuse themselves here in the hopes
of managing Spain. The notification which the Marquis del
Campo made last year to the British Cabinet, is perhaps the only

256 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l*/88
secret kept in this country. Mr. B[urke] tells me that the oppo
sition knows nothing of it. They all very freely admit that if the
Combined fleets had had thirty or forty thousand land forces,
when they came up the channel last war, there was nothing in
England to oppose their landing, and that such a measure
would have been fatal to their resources, by at least a tempo
rary destruction of national credit. This is the point on which
this country is most impressible. Wars carried on at a dis
tance, they care but little about, and seem always disposed to
enter into them. It is bringing the matter home to them that
makes them fear and feel, for their weakest part is at home.
This I take to be the reason of the attention they are paying
to Spain ; for while France and Spain make a common cause
and start together, they may easily overawe this country.
" I intended sending this letter by Mr. Parker, but he goes
by the way of Holland, and as I do not chuse to send it by the
English Post, I shall desire Mr. Bartholemy to forward it
to you.
" Remember me with much affection to the Marquis de la
Fayette. This letter will serve for two letters. Whether I
am in London or the country any letter to me at Mr White
side's, Merchant, No. 13 Broad Street Buildings, will come
safe. My compliments to Mr. Short."
"London, September 15. — I have not heard of Mr. [Lewis]
Littlepage since I left Paris, — if you have, I shall be glad to
know it. As he dined sometimes at Mr. Neckar's, he under
took to describe the Bridge to him. Mr. Neckar very readily
conceived it. If you have an opportunity of seeing Mr.
Neckar, and see it convenient to renew the subject, you might
mention that I am going forward with an experiment arch. —
Mr. Le Couteulx desired me to examine the construction of
the Albion Steam Mills erected by Bolton and Watt. I have
not yet written to him because I had nothing certain to write
about. I have talked with Mr. Rumsey, who is here, upon
this matter, and who appears to me to be master of that sub
ject, and who has procured a model of the Mill, which is
worked originally from the steam. . . When you see Mr.
Le Roy please to present my compliments. I hope to realize
the opinion of the Academy on the Model, in which case I
shall give the Academy the proper information. We have no

1I789I PAINE'S LETTERS TO JEFFERSON IN PARIS. 257
certain accounts here of the arrangement of the new Ministry.
The papers mention Count St. Preist for Foreign Affairs.
When you see him please to present my compliments. . . .
Please to present my compliments to M. and Madame De
Corney." "London, December 16. — That the King is insane is now
old news. He yet continues in the same state, and the Parlia
ment are on the business of appointing a Regent. The Dukes
of York and Gloucester have both made speeches in the
house of Peers. An embarrassing question, whether the Prince
of Wales has a right in himself by succession during the
incapacity of his father, or whether the right must derive to
him thro' Parliament, has been agitated in both Houses. [Illegi
ble] and the speeches of York and Gloucester of avoiding
the question. This day is fixt for bringing the matter on in
the house of Commons. A change of Ministry is expected,
and I believe determined on. The Duke of Portland and his
friends will in all probability come in. I shall be exceedingly
glad to hear from you, and to know if you have received my
letters, and also when you intend setting off for America, or
whether you intend to visit England before you go. In case
of change of Ministry here there are certain matters I shall be
glad to see you upon. Remember me to the Marquis de la
Fayette. We hear good things from France, and I sincerely
wish them all well and happy. Remember me to Mr. Short
and Mr. Mazzei.1 "
" London, Jan. 15, 1789. — My last letter requested to know
if you had any thoughts of coming to England before you
sailed to America. There will certainly be a change of minis
try, and probably some change of measures, and it might not
be inconvenient if you could know before your sailing, for the
information of the new Congress, what measures the new
Ministry here intended to pursue or adopt with respect to
commercial arrangements with America. I am in some in-
1 Mazzei was a scientific Italian who settled in Virginia with a Tuscan
•colony before the Revolution, in which he took up arms and was captured by
the British. His colony had been under the patronage of Jefferson, to
whose fortunes he was always devoted, though the publication of Jefferson's
famous letter to him, reflecting on Washington's administration, caused his
patron much trouble.
vol. 1. — 17

258 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. \l1$9
timacy with Mr. Burke, and after the new ministry are formed
he has proposed to introduce me to them. The Duke of
Portland, at whose seat in the country I was a few days last
summer, will be at the head of the Treasury, and Mr. Fox
Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The King continues, I believe,
as mad as ever. It appears that he has amassed several mil
lions of money, great part of which is in foreign funds. He
had made a Will, while he had his senses, and devised it
among his children, but a second Will has been produced,
made since he was mad, dated the 25th of Oct., in which he
gives his property to the Queen. This will probably produce
much dispute, as it is attended with many suspicious circum
stances. It came out in the examination of the physicians,
that one of them, Dr. Warrens, on being asked the particular
time of his observing the King's insanity, said the twenty-
second of October, and some influence has been exerted to
induce him to retract that declaration, or to say that the
insanity was not so much as to prevent him making a Will,
which he has refused to do."
" London, February 16. — Your favour of the 23d December
continued to the  of Janry. came safe to hand, — for which
I thank you. I begin this without knowing of any opportu
nity of conveyance, and shall follow the method of your letter
by writing on till an opportunity offers.
" I thank you for the many and judicious observations
about my bridge. I am exactly in your Ideas as you will per
ceive by the following account. — I went to the Iron Works
the latter end of Octr. My intention at the time of writing
to you was to construct an experiment arch of 250 feet, but
in the first place, the season was too far advanced to work out
of doors and an arch of that extent could not be worked
within doors, and nextly, there was a prospect of a real Bridge
being wanted on the spot of 90 feet extent. The person who
appeared disposed to erect a Bridge is Mr. Foljambe nephew
to the late Sir George Saville, and member in the last Parlia
ment for Yorkshire. He lives about three miles from the
works, and the River Don runs in front of his house, over
which there is an old ill constructed Bridge which he wants to
remove. These circumstances determined me to begin an
arch of 90 feet with an elevation of 5 feet. This extent I could ¦

1789] PAINE'S LETTERS TO JEFFERSON IN PARIS. 259
manage within doors by working half the arch at a time. . . .
A great part of our time, as you will naturally suppose was
taken up in preparations, but after we began to work we went
on rapidly, and that without any mistake, or anything to alter
or amend. The foreman of the works is a Relation to the
Proprietors, an excellent mechanic and who fell into all my
Ideas with great ease and penetration. I staid at the works
till one half the Rib, 45 feet, was compleated and framed
horizontally together and came up to London at the meeting
of Parliament on the 4th of December. The foreman, whom,
as I told him, I should appoint ' President of the Board of
Works, in my absence " wrote me word that he has got the
other half together with much less trouble than the first. He
is now preparing for erecting and I for returning.
" February 26. — A few days ago I received a letter from
Mr. Foljambe in which he says : ' I saw the Rib of your
Bridge. In point of elegance and beauty, it far exceeded my
expectations and is certainly beyond any thing I ever saw.' —
My model and myself had many visitors while I was at the
works. A few days after I got there, Lord Fitz-William, heir
to the Marquis of Rockingham, came with Mr. Burke. The
former gave the workmen five guineas and invited me to
Wentworth House, a few miles distant from the works, where
I went, and staid a few days.
" This Bridge I expect will bring forth something greater,
but in the meantime I feel like a Bird from its nest and wish
ing most anxiously to return. Therefore, as soon as I can
bring any thing to bear, I shall dispose of the contract and bid
adieu. I can very truly say that my mind is not at home.
" I am very much rejoiced at the account you give me of
the state of affairs in France. I feel exceedingly interested
in the happiness of that nation. They are now got or getting
into the right way, and the present reign will be more Immor
talized in France than any that ever preceded it. They have
all died away, forgotten in the common mass of things, but
this will be to France like an Anno Mundi, or an Anno Dom
ini. The happiness of doing good and the Pride of doing
great things unite themselves in this business. But as there
are two kinds of Pride — the little and the great, the privileged
orders will in some degree be governed by this Division.

2CO THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1789
Those of little pride (I mean little-minded pride) will be
schismatical, and those of the great pride will be orthodox,
with respect to the States General. Interest will likewise
have some share, and could this operate freely it would arrange
itself on the orthodox side. To enrich a Nation is to enrich
the individuals which compose it. To enrich the farmer is
to enrich the farm — and consequently the Landlord ; — for
whatever the farmer is, the farm will be. The richer the sub
ject, the richer the revenue, because the consumption from
which Taxes are raised is in proportion to the abilities of
people to consume ; therefore the most effectual method to
raise both the revenue and the rental of a country is to raise
the condition of the people, — or that order known in france
by the Tiers Etat. But I ought to ask pardon for entering
into reasonings in a letter to you, and only do it because I
like the subject.
" I observe in all the companies I go into the impression
which the present circumstances of France has upon this
Country. An internal Alliance in France [between Throne
and People] is an alliance which England never dreamed of,
and which she most dreads. Whether she will be better or
worse tempered afterwards I cannot judge of, but I believe
she will be more cautious in giving offence. She is likewise
impressed with an Idea that a negotiation is on foot between
the King [Louis XVI.] and the Emperor for adding Austrian
Flanders to France. This appears to me such a probable
thing, and may be rendered so conducive to the interest and
good of all the parties concerned, that I am inclined to give
it credit and wish it success. I hope then to see the Scheld
opened, for it is a sin to refuse the bounties of nature. On
these matters I shall be glad of your opinion. I think the
States General of Holland could not be in earnest when they
applied to France for the payment of the quota to the Em
peror. All things considered to request it was meanness, and
to expect it absurdity. I am more inclined to think they
made it an opportunity to find how they stood with France.
Absalom (I think it was) set fire to his brother's field of corn
to bring on a conversation.
"March 12. — With respect to Political matters here, the
truth is, the people are fools. They have no discernment

1789] PAINE'S LETTERS TO JEFFERSON IN PARIS. 261
into principles and consequences. Had Mr. Pitt proposed
a National Convention, at the time of the King's insanity, he
had done right ; but instead of this he has absorbed the right
of the Nation into a right of Parliament, — one house of which
(the Peers) is hereditary in its own right, and over which the
people have no controul (not so much as they have over their
King ;) and the other elective by only a small part of the
Nation. Therefore he has lessened instead of increased the
rights of the people ; but as they have not sense enough to
see it, they have been huzzaing him. There can be no fixed
principles of government, or anything like a constitution in a
country where the Government can alter itself, or one part of
it supply the other.
" Whether a man that has been so compleatly mad as not
to be managed but by force and the mad shirt can ever be
confided in afterwards as a reasonable man, is a matter I
have very little opinion of. Such a circumstance, in my esti
mation, if mentioned, ought to be a perpetual disqualification.
" The Emperor I am told has entered a caveat against the
Elector of Hanover (not the electoral vote) for King of the
Romans. John Bull, however, is not so mad as he was, and
a message has been manufactured for him to Parliament in
which there is nothing particular. The Treaty with Prussia
is not yet before Parliament but is to be.
" Had the Regency gone on and the new administration
been formed I should have been able to communicate some
matters of business to you, both with respect to America and
France ; as an interview for that purpose was agreed upon
and to take place as soon as the persons who were to fill the
offices should succeed. I am the more confidential with those
persons, as they are distinguished by the name of the Blue &
Buff, — a dress taken up during the American War, and is the
undress uniform of General Washington with Lapels which
they still wear.1 But, at any rate, I do not think it is worth
while for Congress to appoint any Minister to this Court.
The greater distance Congress observes on this point the
better. It will be all money thrown away to go to any ex-
1 On this Blue and Buff Society, Canning wrote some satirical verses. He
also described " French philanthropy" as " Condorcet filtered through the
dregs of Paine."

262 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1789
pence about it — at least during the present reign. I know
the nation well, and the line of acquaintance I am in enables me
to judge better than any other American can judge — especially
at a distance. If Congress should have any business to state
to the Government here, it can be easily done thro' their
Minister at Paris — but the seldomer the better.
" I believe I am not so much in the good graces of the Mar
quis of Landsdowne as I used to be — I do not answer his pur
pose. He was always talking of a sort of reconnection of
England and America, and my coldness and reserve on this
subject checked communication."
" London, April 10. — The King continues in his amended
state, but Dr. Willis, his son, and attendants, are yet about-his
person. He has not been to Parliament nor made any public
appearance, but he has fixed the 23d April for a public thanks
giving, and he is to go in great Parade to offer up his Devo
tions at St. Paul's on that day. Those about him have
endeavoured to dissuade him from this ostentatious pilgrim
age, most probably from an apprehension of some effect it may
have upon him, but he persists. . . The acts for regulating
the trade with America are to be continued as last year. A
paper from the Privy Council respecting the American fly is
before Parliament. I had some conversation with Sir Joseph
Banks upon this subject, as he was the person whom the Privy
Council referred to. I told him that the Hessian fly attacked
only the green plant, and did not exist in the dry grain. He
said that with respect to the Hessian fly, they had no apprehen
sion, but it was the weevil they alluded to. I told him the weevil
had always more or less been in the wheat countries of America,
and that if the prohibition was on that account it was as neces
sary fifty or sixty years ago, as now ; that I believe it was only
a political manoeuvre of the Ministry to please the landed
interest, as a balance for prohibiting the exportation of wool
to please the manufacturing interest. He did not reply, and
as we are on very sociable terms I went farther by saying —
The English ought not to complain of the non-payment of
Debts from America while they prohibit the means of payment.
" I suggest to you a thought on this subject. The debts due
before the war, ought to be distinguished from the debts con
tracted since, and all and every mode of payment and remit-

1789] PAINE'S LETTERS TO JEFFERSON IN PARIS. 263
tance under which they have been discharged at the time they
were contracted ought to accompany those Debts, so long as
any of them shall continue unpaid ; because the circumstances
of payment became united with the debt, and cannot be
separated by subsequent acts of one side only. If this was
taken up in America, and insisted on as a right co-eval with
and inseparable from those Debts, it would force some of the
restrictions here to give way.
" You speak very truly of this country when you say ' that
they are slumbering under a half reformation of Politics and
religion, and cannot be excited by any thing they hear or see
to question the remains of prejudice.' Their ignorance on
some matters, is unfathomable, for instance the Bank of Eng
land discount Bills at 5 p cent, but a proposal is talked of
for discounting at 4^ ; and the reason given is the vast quan
tity of money, and that money of the good houses discounts
at 4| ; from this they deduce the great ability and credit of
the nation. Whereas the contrary is the case. This money is
all in paper, and the quantity is greater than the object to
circulate it upon, and therefore shows that the market is
glutted, and consequently the ability for farther paper excre
tions is lessened. — If a war should ever break out, between the
countries again, this is the spot where it ought to be prose
cuted, they neither feel nor care for any thing at a distance,
but are frightened and spiritless at every thing which happens
at home. The Combined fleet coming up the Channel, Paul
Jones, and the Mob of 1738, are the dreadful eras of this
country. But for national puffing none equals them. The
addresses which have been presented are stuffed with nonsense
of this kind. One of them published in the London Gazette
and presented by a Sir William Appleby begins thus, —
' Britain, the Queen of Isles, the pride of Nations, the Ar-
bitress of Europe, perhaps of the world.' . . . On the
receipt of your last, I went to Sir Joseph Banks to inform him
of your having heard from Ledyard, from Grand Cairo, but
found he had a letter from him of the same date. Sir Joseph
is one of the society for promoting that undertaking. He has
an high opinion of Ledyard, and thinks him the only man
fitted for such an exploration. As you may probably hear of
Ledyard by accounts that may not reach here, Sir Joseph will

264 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1789
be obliged to you to communicate to him any matters respect
ing him that may come to you (Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., Soho
Square). . . .
"While writing this I am informed that the Minister has had
a conference with some of the American creditors, and pro
posed to them to assume the debts and give them ten shillings
on the pound — the conjecture is that he means, when the
new Congress is established, to demand the payment. If you
are writing to General Washington, it may not be amiss to
mention this — and if I hear farther on the matter I will
inform you.1 But, as being a money matter it cannot come
forward but thro' Parliament, there will be notice given of
the business. This would be a proper time to show that the
British Acts since the Peace militate against the payment by
narrowing the means by which those debts might have been
paid when they were contracted, and which ought to be con
sidered as constituant parts of the contract."
" June 17. — I received your last to the 21st May. I am just
now informed of Messrs. Parker and Cutting setting off to
morrow morning for Paris by whom this will be delivered to
you. Nothing new is showing here. The trial of Hastings,
and the Examination of evidence before the house of Com
mons into the Slave Trade still continue.
" I wrote Sir Joseph Banks an account of my Experiment
Arch. In his answer he informs me of its being read before
the Royal Society who expressed ' great satisfaction at the
Communication.' 'I expect' says Sir Joseph 'many im
provements from your Countrymen who think with vigor, and
are in a great measure free from those shackles of Theory
which are imposed on the minds of our people before they
are capable of exerting their mental faculties to advan
tage.' In the close of his letter he says : ' We have lost
poor Ledyard. He had agreed with certain Moors to conduct
him to Sennar. The time for their departure was arrived
when he found himself ill, and took a large dose of Emetic
Tartar, burst a blood-vessel in the operation, which carried
him off in three days. We sincerely lament his loss, as the
papers we have received from him are full of those emana-
1 This and other parts of Paine's correspondence were forwarded to Wash
ington.

1789] PAINE'S LETTERS TO JEFFERSON IN PARIS. 265
tions of spirit, which taught you to construct a Bridge with
out any reference to the means used by your predecessors in
that art.' I have wrote to the Walkers and proposed to
them to manufacture me a compleat Bridge and erect it in
London, and afterwards put it up to sale. I do this by way
of bringing forward a Bridge over the Thames — which appears
to me the most advantageous of all objects. For, if only a fifth
of the persons, at a half penny each, pass over a new Bridge
as now pass over the old ones the tolls will pay 25 per Cent
besides what will arise from carriage and horses. Mrs.
Williams tells me that her letters from America mention Dr.
Franklin as being exceedingly ill. I have been to see the Cot
ton Mills, — the Potteries — the Steel furnaces — Tin plate manu
facture — White lead manufacture. All those things might be
easily carried on in America. I saw a few days ago part of a
hand bill of what was called a geometrical wheelbarrow, — but
cannot find where it is to be seen. The Idea is one of those
that needed only to be thought of, — for it is very easy to con
ceive that if a wheelbarrow, as it is called, be driven round a
piece of land, — a sheet of paper may be placed in it — so as to
receive by the tracings of a Pencil, regulated by a little
Mechanism — the figure and content of the land — and that
neither Theodolite nor chain are necessary."
" Rotherham, Yorkshire, July 1 3. — The Walkers are to find
all the materials, and fit and frame them ready for erecting,
put them on board a vessel & send them to London. I am
to undertake all expense from that time & to compleat the
erecting. We intend first to exhibit it and afterwards put it
up to sale, or dispose of it by private contract, and after pay
ing the expences of each party the remainder to be equally
divided — one half theirs, the other mine. My principal ob
ject in this plan is to open the way for a Bridge over the
Thames. ... I shall now have occasion to draw upon
some funds I have in America. I have one thousand Dollars
Stock in the Bank at Philadelphia, and two years interest due
upon it last April, £i&o in the hands of General Morris ;£a°
with Mr. Constable of New York ; a house at Borden Town,
and a farm at New Rochelle. The stock and interest in the
Bank, which Mr. Willing manages for me, is the easiest nego
tiated, and full sufficient for what I shall want. On this fund

266 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1789
I have drawn fifteen guineas payable to Mr. Trumbull, tho' I
shall not want the money longer than till the Exhibition and sale
of the Bridge. I had rather draw than ask to borrow of
any body here. If you go to America this year I shall be
very glad if you can manage this matter for me, by giving
me credit for two hundred pounds, on London, and receiving
that amount of Mr. Willing. I am not acquainted with the
method of negotiating money matters, but if you can accom
modate me in this, and will direct me how the transfer is to
be made, I shall be much obliged to you. Please direct to
me under cover to Mr. Trumbull. I have some thoughts of
coming over to France for two or three weeks, as I shall have
little to do here until the Bridge is ready for erecting.
"September 15. — When I left Paris I was to return with
the Model, but I could now bring over a compleat Bridge.
Tho' I have a slender opinion of myself for executive busi
ness, I think, upon the whole that I have managed this
matter tolerable well. With no money to spare for such an
undertaking I am the sole Patentee here, and connected with
one of the first and best established houses in the Nation.
But absent from America I feel a craving desire to return
and I can scarcely forbear weeping at the thoughts of your
going and my staying behind.
" Accept my dear Sir, my most hearty thanks for your many
services and friendship. Remember me with an overflowing
affection to my dear America — the people and the place.
Be so kind to shake hands with them for me, and tell our
beloved General Washington, and my old friend Dr. Franklin
how much I long to see them. I wish you would spend a
day with General Morris of Morrisania, and present my best
wishes to all the family. — But I find myself wandering into a
melancholy subject that will be tiresome to read, — so wishing
you a prosperous passage, and a happy meeting with all your
friends and mine, I remain yours affectionately, etc.
" I shall be very glad to hear from you when you arrive.
If you direct for me to the care of Mr. Benjamin Vaughn it
will find me. — Please present my friendship to Captain
Nicholson and family of New York, and to Mr. and Mrs. Few.
" September 18. — I this moment receive yours of ye 13
int. which being Post Night, affords me the welcome oppor-

1789] PAINE'S LETTERS TO JEFFERSON IN PARIS. 267
tunity of acknowledging it. I wrote you on the 15th by post —
but I was so full of the thoughts of America and my American
friends that I forgot France.
" The people of this Country speak very differently on the
affairs of France. The mass of them, so far as I can col
lect, say that France is a much freer Country than England.
The Peers, the Bishops, &c. say the National Assembly has
gone too far. There are yet in this country, very considerable
remains of the feudal System which people did not see till the
revolution in france placed it before their eyes. While the
multitude here could be terrified with the cry and apprehension
of Arbitrary power, wooden shoes, popery, and such like stuff,
they thought themselves by comparison an extraordinary free
people ; but this bugbear now loses its force, and they appear
to me to be turning their eyes towards the Aristocrats of their
own Nation. This is a new mode of conquering, and I think
it will have its effect.
" I am looking out for a place to erect my Bridge, within
some of the Squares would be very convenient. I had thought
of Soho Square, where Sir Joseph Banks lives, but he is now in
Lincolnshire. I expect it will be ready for erecting and in
London by the latter end of October. Whether I shall then
sell it in England or bring it over to Paris, and re-erect it there,
I have not determined in my mind. In order to bring any
kind of a contract forward for the Seine, it is necessary it
should be seen, and, as ceconomy will now be a principle in the
Government, it will have a better chance than before.
" If you should pass thro' Borden Town in Jersey, which is
not out of your way from Philadelphia to New York, I shall
be glad you would enquire out my particular friend Col. Kirk
bride. You will be very much pleased with him. His house
is my home when in that part of the Country — and it was there
that I made the Model of my Bridge."

CHAPTER XIX.
THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE.
In June, 1777, the Emperor Joseph II. visited
his sister, the Queen of France, and passed a day
at Nantes. The Count de Menou, commandant of
the place, pointed out in the harbor, among the
flags raised in his honor, one bearing thirteen stars.
The Emperor turned away his eyes, saying : " I
cannot look on that ; my own profession is to be
royalist." Weber, foster-brother of Marie Antoinette, who
reports the Emperor's remark, recognized the
fate of France in those thirteen stars. That re
public, he says, was formed by the subjects of a
King, aided by another King. These French
armies, mingling their flags with those of America,
learned a new language. Those warriors, the
flower of their age, went out Frenchmen and
returned Americans. They returned to a court,
but decorated with republican emblems and show
ing the scars of Liberty. Lafayette, it is said, had
in his study a large carton, splendidly framed, in
two columns : on one was inscribed the American
Declaration of Independence ; the other was blank,
awaiting the like Declaration of France.1
1 " Memoires concernant Marie-Antoinette," pp. 34-79.
268

1789] THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE. 269
The year 1789 found France afflicted with a
sort of famine, its finances in disorder ; while
the people, their eyes directed to the new world
by the French comrades of Washington, beheld
that great chieftain inaugurated as president of
a prosperous republic. The first pamphlet of
Thomas Paine, expurgated in translation of
anti-monarchism, had been widely circulated, and
John Adams (1779) found himself welcomed in
France as the supposed author of " Common
Sense." The lion's skin dropped from Paine's
disgusted enemy, and when, ten years later, the
lion himself became known in Paris, he was hailed
with enthusiasm. This was in the autumn of 1 789,
when Paine witnessed the scenes that ushered in
the " crowned republic," from which he hoped so
much. Jefferson had sailed in September, and
Paine was recognized by Lafayette and other
leaders as the representative of the United States.
To him Lafayette gave for presentation to Wash
ington the Key of the destroyed Bastille, ever
since visible at Mount Vernon, — symbol of the
fact that, in Paine's words, " the principles of
America opened the Bastille."
But now an American enemy of Paine's princi
ples more inveterate than Adams found himself
similarly eclipsed in Paris by the famous author.
Early in 1 789 Gouverneur Morris came upon the
stage of events in Europe. He was entrusted by
the President with a financial mission which, being
secret, swelled him to importance in the imagi
nation of courtiers. At Jefferson's request Gou
verneur Morris posed t©- Houdon for the bust of

270

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l79°

Washington ; and when, to Morris' joy, Jeffer
son departed, he posed politically as Washington
to the eyes of Europe. He was scandalized that
Jefferson should retain recollections of the Declara
tion of Independence strong enough to desire for
France " a downright republican form of govern
ment" ; and how it happened that under Jefferson's
secretaryship of state this man, whom even Hamil
ton pronounced " an exotic " in a republic, was
presently appointed Minister to France, is a mystery
remaining to be solved.
Morris had a " high old time " in Europe. In
timacy with Washington secured him influence
with Lafayette, and the fine ladies of Paris, seeking
official favors for relatives and lovers, welcomed
him to the boudoirs, baths, and bedrooms to which
his diary now introduces the public.
It was but natural that such a man, just as he
had been relieved of the overlaying Jefferson,
should try to brush Paine aside. On January 26,
1 790, he enters in his diary :
" To-day, at half-past three, I go to M. de Lafayette's. He
tells me that he wishes to have a meeting of Mr. Short, Mr.
Paine, and myself, to consider their judiciary, because his
place imposes on him the necessity of being right. I tell him
that Paine can do him no good, for that, although he has an ex
cellent pen to write, he has but an indifferent head to think."
Eight years before, Gouverneur Morris had joined
Robert Morris in appealing to the author to en
lighten the nation on the subject of finance and the
direction of the war. He had also confessed to
Paine that he had been duped by Silas Deane, who,
by the way, was now justifying all that Paine had
said of him by hawking his secret letter-books in

1 790] THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE. 2J\
London. Now, in Paris, Morris discovers that
Paine has but an indifferent head to think.1
Gouverneur M orris was a fascinating man. H is di
ary and letters, always entertaining, reveal the secret
of his success in twisting the Constitution and Jeffer
son and Washington around his fingers in several im
portant junctures. To Paine also he was irresistible.
His cordial manners disarm suspicion, and we pres
ently find the author pouring into the ear of his secret
detractor what state secrets he learns in London.
On March 17, 1790, Paine left Paris to see after
his Bridge in Yorkshire, now near completion. On
the day before, he writes to a friend in Philadel
phia how prosperously everything is going on in
France, where Lafayette is acting the part of a
Washington ; how the political reformation is sure to
influence England ; and how he longs for America.
" I wish most anxiously to see my much loved America. It
is the country from whence all reformation must originally
spring. I despair of seeing an abolition of the infernal traffic
in negroes. We must push that matter further on your side of
the water. I wish that a few well-instructed could be sent
among their brethren in bondage ; for until they are able to
take their own part nothing will be done."2
1 " Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris." Edited by Anne Cary Mor
ris, i., p. 286.
2 One cannot help wondering how, in this matter, Paine got along with his
friend Jefferson, who, at the very time of his enthusiasm for the French Rev
olution, had a slave in his house at Challiot. Paine was not of the philan
thropic type portrayed in the " Biglow Papers " :
" I du believe in Freedom's cause
Ez fur away ez Payris is ;
I love to see her stick her claws
In them infarnal Phayrisees.
It 's well enough agin a king
To dror resolves and triggers,
But libbaty 's a kind 'o thing
That don't agree with niggers."

272 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. \j-V)°
On his arrival in London he has the happiness
of meeting his old friend General Morris of Morri-
sania, and his wife. Gouverneur is presently over
there, to see his brother ; and in the intervals of danc
ing attendance at the opera on titled ladies — among
them Lady Dunmore, whose husband desolated the
Virginia coast, — he gets Paine's confidences.1 Poor
Paine was an easy victim of any show of personal
kindness, especially when it seemed like the mag
nanimity of a political opponent.
The historic sense may recognize a picturesque
incident in the selection by Lafayette of Thomas
Paine to convey the Key of the Bastille to Wash
ington. In the series of intellectual and moral
movements which culminated in the French Revo
lution, the Bastille was especially the prison of
Paine's forerunners, the writers, and the place
where their books were burned. " The gates of
the Bastille," says Rocquain, " were opened wide
for abbes, savants, brilliant intellects, professors of
the University and doctors of the Sorbonne, all
accused of writing or reciting verses against the
King, casting reflections on the Government, or
publishing books in favor of Deism, and contrary
to good morals. Diderot was one of the first
arrested, and it was during his detention that he
conceived the plan of his ' Encyclopedia.' "i
The coming Key was announced to Washington
with the following letters :
1 " Diary," etc., i., pp. 339, 341.
8 " L'Esprit revolutionaire avant la Revolution." A good service has
just been done by Miss Hunting in translating and condensing the admira
ble historical treatise of M. Felix Rocquain on " The Revolutionary Spirit
Preceding the Revolution," for which Professor Huxley has written a preface.

1790] THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE. 273
"London, May 1, 1790. — Sir, — Our very good friend the
Marquis de la Fayette has entrusted to my care the Key of the
Bastille, and a drawing, handsomely framed, representing the
demolition of that detestable prison, as a present to your Ex
cellency, of which his letter will more particularly inform. I
feel myself happy in being the person thro' whom the Marquis
has conveyed this early trophy of the Spoils of despotism, and
the first ripe fruits of American principles transplanted into
Europe, to his great master and patron. When he mentioned
to me the present he intended you, my heart leaped with joy.
It is something so truly in character that no remarks can illus
trate it, and is more happily expressive of his remembrance of
his American friends than any letters can convey. That the
principles of America opened the Bastille is not to be doubted,
^nd therefore the Key comes to the right place.
" I beg leave to suggest to your Excellency the propriety of
•congratulating the King and Queen of France (for they have
been our friends,) and the National Assembly, on the happy
example they are giving to Europe. You will see by the
King's speech, which I enclose, that he prides himself on being
at the head of the Revolution ; and I am certain that such a
congratulation will be well received and have a good effect.
" I should rejoice to be the direct bearer of the Marquis's
present to your Excellency, but I doubt I shall not be able to
see my much loved America till next Spring. I shall therefore
send it by some American vessel to New York. I have per
mitted no drawing to be taken here, tho' it has been often
requested, as I think there is a propriety that it should first be
presented. B[ut] Mr. West wishes Mr. Trumbull to make a
painting of the presentation of the Key to you.
" I returned from France to London about five weeks ago,
and I am engaged to return to Paris when the Constitution
shall be proclaimed, and to carry the American flag in the pro
cession. I have not the least doubt of the final and compleat
success of the French Revolution. Little Ebbings and Flow-
ings, for and against, the natural companions of revolutions,
sometimes appear ; but the full current of it, is, in my opinion,
as fixed as the Gulph Stream.
" I have manufactured a Bridge (a single arch) of one hun
dred and ten feet span, and five feet high from the cord of the

274 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l79»
arch. It is now on board a vessel coming from Yorkshire to
London, where it is to be erected. I see nothing yet to disap
point my hopes of its being advantageous to me. It is this
only which keeps me [in] Europe, and happy shall I be when
I shall have it in my power to return to America. I have not
heard of Mr. Jefferson since he sailed, except of his arrival.
As I have always indulged the belief of having many friends in
America, or rather no enemies, I have [mutilated'] to mention
but my affectionate [mutilated] and am Sir with the greatest
respect, &c.
" If any of my friends are disposed to favor me with a letter
it will come to hand by addressing it to the care of Benjamin
Vaughn Esq., Jeffries Square, London."
" London, May 31, 1790. — Sir, — By Mr. James Morris, who
sailed in the May Packet, I transmitted you a letter from the
Marquis de la Fayette, at the same time informing you that the
Marquis had entrusted to my charge the Key of the Bastille, and
a drawing of that prison, as a present to your Excellency. Mr.
J. Rutledge, jun'r, had intended coming in the ship ' Marquis
de la Fayette,' and I had chosen that opportunity for the
purpose of transmitting the present ; but, the ship not sailing
at the time appointed, Mr. Rutledge takes his passage on
the Packet, and I have committed to his care that trophie
of Liberty which I know it will give you pleasure to receive.
The french Revolution is not only compleat but triumphant,
and the envious despotism of this nation is compelled to own
the magnanimity with which it has been conducted.
" The political hemisphere is again clouded by a dispute
between England and Spain, the circumstances of which you
will hear before this letter can arrive. A Messenger was sent
from hence the 6th inst. to Madrid with very peremptory
demands, and to wait there only forty-eight hours. His re
turn has been expected for two or three days past. I was this
morning at the Marquis del Campo's but nothing is yet arrived.
Mr. Rutledge sets off at four o'clock this afternoon, but should
any news arrive before the making up the mail on Wednesday
June 2, I will forward it to you under cover.
" The views of this Court as well as of the Nation, so far as
they extend to South America, are not for the purpose of free
dom, but conquest. They already talk of sending some of the

1790] THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE. 275
young branches to reign over them, and to pay off their national
debt with the produce of their Mines. The Bondage of those
countries will, as far as I can perceive, be prolonged by what this
Court has in contemplation.
" My Bridge is arrived and I have engaged a place to erect
it in. A little time will determine its fate, but I yet see no
cause to doubt of its success, tho' it is very probable that a
War, should it break out, will as in all new things prevent its
progress so far as regards profits.
" In the partition in the Box, which contains the Key of the
Bastille, I have put up half a dozen Razors, manufactured from
Cast-steel made at the Works where the Bridge was constructed,
which I request you to accept as a little token from a very
grateful heart.
" I received about a week ago a letter from Mr. G. Clymer.
It is dated the 4th February, but has been travelling ever since.
I request you to acknowledge it for me and that I will answer
it when my Bridge is erected. With much affection to all my
friends, and many wishes to see them again, I am, etc."
Washington received the Key at New York,
along with this last letter, and on August 10, 1790,
acknowledges Paine's " agreeable letters."
" It must, I dare say, give you great pleasure to learn by re
peated opportunities, that our new government answers its pur
poses as well as could have been reasonably expected, that we
are gradually overcoming the difficulties which presented in its
first organization, and that our prospects in general are growing
more favorable."
Paine is said by several biographers to have gone
to Paris in the May of this year. No doubt he
was missed from London, but it was probably
because he had gone to Thetford, where his
mother died about the middle of May. Gouver
neur Morris reports interviews with him August
8th and 15th, in London. The beautiful iron

276 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1790
bridge, no feet long, had been erected in June
at Leasing-Green (now Paddington-Green) at the
joint expense of Paine and Peter Whiteside, an
American merchant in London. It was attracting
a fair number of visitors, at a shilling each, also
favorable press notices, and all promised well.
So Paine was free to run over to Paris, where
Carlyle mentions him, this year, as among the
English " missionaries." 1 It was a brief visit, how
ever, for October finds him again in London,
drawn probably by intimations of disaster to the
interests of his Bridge. Whiteside had failed, and
his assignees, finding on his books ^620 debited to
Paine's Bridge, came upon the inventor for the
money ; no doubt unfairly, for it seems to have
been Whiteside's investment, but Paine, the Ameri
can merchants Cleggett and Murdoch becoming
his bail, scraped together the money and paid it.
Probably he lost through Whiteside's bankruptcy
other moneys, among them the sum he had de
posited to supply his mother with her weekly nine
shillings. Paine was too much accustomed to
straitened means to allow this affair to trouble him
much. The Bridge exhibition went on smoothly
enough. Country gentlemen, deputations from
riverside towns, visited it, and suggested negotia
tions for utilizing the invention. The snug copy
right fortune which the author had sacrificed to the
American cause seemed about to be recovered by
the inventor.
1 "Her Paine; rebellious Staymaker ; unkempt; who feels that he, a
single needleman, did, by his ' Common Sense ' pamphlet, free America ; —
that he can and will free all this World ; perhaps even the other." — French
Revolution.

1790] THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE. 277
But again the Cause arose before him ; he must
part from all — patent interests, literary leisure, fine
society — and take the hand of Liberty, undowered,
but as yet unstained. He must beat his bridge-
iron into a Key that shall unlock the British Bas
tille, whose walls he sees steadily closing around
the people.

CHAPTER XX.
"THE RIGHTS OF MAN."
Edmund Burke's " Reflexions on the Revolu
tion in France" appeared about November i, 1790.
Paine was staying at the Angel inn, Islington, and
there immediately began his reply. With his senti
ment for anniversaries, he may have begun his
work on November 4th, in honor of the English
Revolution, whose centenary celebration he had
witnessed three years before. In a hundred years
all that had been turned into a more secure lease
of monarchy. Burke's pamphlet founded on that
Revolution a claim that the throne represented a
perpetual popular franchise. Paine might have
heard under his window the boys, with their
" Please to remember
The fifth of November,"
and seen their effigy of Guy Fawkes, which in two
years his own effigy was to replace. But no mis
givings of that kind haunted him. For his eyes
the omens hung over the dark Past ; on the hori
zon a new day was breaking in morning stars and
stripes. With the inspiration of perfect faith, born
of the sacrifices that had ended so triumphantly
in America, Paine wrote the book which, coming
from such deep, the deeps answered.
278

179°] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 379
Although Paine had been revising his religion,
much of the orthodox temper survived in him ;
notably, he still required some kind of Satan to
bring out his full energy. In America it had
been George III., duly hoofed and horned, at
whom his inkstand was hurled ; now it is Rnrkp,
who appeared with all the gpr|lir1'""? -hfilliani-y nf. a
fallen Lucifer. No man had been more idealized
jay Paine than Burke. Not only because of his
magnificent defence of American patriots, but be
cause ot his far-reaching exposures of despotism.
"then creeping, snake-like, from one skin to another.
At the very time that Paine was writing " Common
Sense," Burke was pointing nut that "rb<? pnwPr ™f
the crown, almost dead and rotten as prerogative.
has grown up anew, with much more strength and
fax less odium, under the name of influence." He
had given liberalism the sentence : " The forms of
a free and the ends of an arbitrary government
are things not altogether incompatible." He had
been the intimate inend ol Priestley and other
liberals, and when Paine arrived in 1787 had taken
him to his heart and home. Paine maintained his
faith in Burke after Priestley and Price had re
marked a change. In the winter of 1789, when
the enthusiastic author was sending out jubilant
missives to Washington and others, announcing
the glorious transformation of France, he sent one
to Burke, who might even then have been pre
paring the attack on France, delivered early in the
Parliament of 1 790. When, soon after his return
from Paris, Paine mingled with the mourners for
their lost leader, he was informed that Burke had

28o THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [i79»
for some time been a " masked pensioner," to the
extent of ,£1,500 per annum. This rumor Paine
mentioned, and it was not denied, whether because
true, or because Burke was looking forward to his
subsequent pension of ,£2,500, is doubtful. Burke's
book preceded the events in France which caused
reaction in the minds of Wordsworth and other
thinkers in England and America. The French
were then engaged in adapting their government
to the free principles of which Burke himself had
long been the eloquent advocate. It was not with
out justice that Erskine charged him with having
challenged a Revolution in England, by claiming
that its hereditary monarchy was bound on the
people by a compact of the previous century, and
that, good or bad, they had no power to alter it,
The power of Burke's pamphlet lay largely in his
deftness with the methods of those he assailed.
He had courted their company, familiarized him
self with their ideas, received their confidences.
This had been especially the case with Paine. So
there seemed to be a soupcon of treachery in his
subtleties and his disclosures.
But after all he did not know Paine. He had
not imagined the completeness with which the
struggle in America had trained this man in every
art of controversy. Grappling with Philadelphia
Tories, Quakers, reactionists, with aristocrats on] the
one hand and anarchists on the other, Paine Kad
been familiarized beyond all men with every defl
and by-way of the subject on which Burke hz
ventured. Where Burke had dabbled Paine ha<!
dived. Never did man reputed wise go beybn<

179'] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 281
his depth in such a bowl as when Burke appealed
to a revolution of 1688 as authoritative. If one
revolution could be authoritative, why not another ?
How Hid the seventeenth renrnry seenre a rnonop-
gfylri revolution ? If a revolution in one century
could transfer the throne from one family to
another, why might not the same power in another
transfer it to an elective monarch, or a president,
*or 'p;avp it vnrnnt ?
To demolish Burke was the least part of Paine's
task. Burke was, indeed, already answered by
the government established in America, presided
over by a man to whom the world paid homage.
\o Washington, Paine's work was dedicated. His
real design was to write, a Constitution for the
English nation. And to-day the student of political
istory may find in Burke's pamphlet the fossilized,
|n3 in Paine's (potentially; the living, constitution
of Great Britain.
*.i.n. ... — **  —
1 For adequacy to a purpose Paine's " Common
Sense" and his " Rights of Man" have never been
surpassed. Washington pronounced the former
unanswerable, and Burke passed the like verdict on
the latter when he said that the refutation it de
served was "that of criminal justice." There was
not the slightest confusion of ideas and aim in this
book, ty laying down first principles of human
government, Paine imports no preference of hig
Qyvn for one form or another. The people have the
right to establish any government they choose, be
it democracy or monarchy,— if not hereditary. He
explains with nicety of consecutive statement that
a real Constitution must be of the people, and for

282 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [*79I
the people. TJiat is, for the people who make it ;
they have no right, by any hereditary principle, to"
bind another people, unborn.^ His principle of tne
rights of man was founded in the, religious axiom of
his age that all men derived existence from a djyine
njakgr. To say men are born eqpal means fjjat
they are created equal. Precedent contradicts pre-
cedent, authority is against authority, in all our
appeals to antiquity, until we reach the time when
man came from the hands of his maker. " What
was he then ? Man. Man was his high and only
title, and a higher canflbt De gjyen'_hiin. "Qpd.
said Let us make man in our own image." N_o_dis-
tinction between men is pointed out. All histories,
all traditions/of the creation agree as to the unity
of man. Generation being the mode by which
creation is carried forward, every child derives its
existence from God. " The world is as new to him
as it was to thejjcst man that existed, and his nat
ural right to it is of the same kind." On these nat-
.ural rights Paine founds man's civil rights. Jo
^secure his natiiraLjjghts the individual deposits
some ot them — e.g. the right to judge in his own
cause — in the common stock of society.
raine next proceeds to distinguish governments
which have arisen out ot this social compacffrom
those which have not. Governments are Hassiherf a*
founded on — (i) superstition ,* (2) power-; Tj5) the
common interests of society, and the common rights
of man : that is. on priestcraft, on conquest, on
reason. A national constitution is the act of the
people antecedent to government ; a government
^cannot therefore determine or alter the organic Taw
it temporarily represents! Pitt's bill to reform Par-

I791] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 283
liament involves the absurdity of trusting an ad
mittedly vitiated body to reform itself. The judges
are to sit in their own case. " The right of reform
IS in the nation in its original r-hararter anrl fhpmn.
si^utional method would he hy a general ronven-
ti°n p^e^i-nrl fnr t Vi n pm-p/-.^ " Xhe organization of
the aggregate of rights which individuals concede
to society, for the security of all rights, makes the
Republic. So far as the rights have been surren
dered to extraneous authority, as of priest-craft,
hereditary power, or conquest, — it is Despotism.
To set forth these general principles was Paine's
first design. His next aim was to put on record the
true and exact history of events in France up to
the year 1 79 1 . This history, partly that of an eye
witness, partly obtained from the best men in
France — Lafayette, Danton, Brissot, and others, —
and by mingling with the masses, constitutes the
most fresh and important existing contribution to
our knowledge of the movement in its early
stages. The majority of histories of the French
Revolution, Carlyle's especially, are vitiated by
reason of their inadequate attention to Paine's nar
rative. There had been then few serious outbreaks
pt the mob, but of these Burke had made the most
Paine contends that the outrages can no more _be
charged against the French than the London riots
of 1 7»o against the English nation; then retorts
that mobs are the inevitable consequence of mis-
government. " It is by distortedly exalting some men, that others are dis-
Itortedly debased. A vast mass of mankind are degradedly
\thrown into the background of the human picture, to bring
forward, with greater glare, the puppet show of state and aris-

284 THE LIFE 0F THOMAS PAINE. ['79I
tocracy. In the commencement of a revolution, those men are
rather followers of the camp than of the standard of liberty,
and have yet to be instructed how to use it."
Part I. of " The Rights of Man " was printed by
Johnson in time for the opening of Parliament
(February), but this publisher became frightened,
and only a few copies bearing his name found their
way into private hands, — one of these being in the
British Museum. J. S. Jordan, 166 Fleet Street,
consented to publish it, and Paine, entrusting it to
a committee of his friends — William Godwin,
Thomas Holcroft, and Thomas Brand Hollis —
took his departure for Paris.1 From that city
he sent a brief preface which appeared with
Jordan's first edition, March 13, 1791. Oldys
(Chalmers) asserts that the work was altered by
Jordan. This assertion, in its sweeping form, is
disproved not only by Holcroft's note to Godwin,
but by a comparison of the "Johnson" and "Jor
dan " volumes in the British Museum.2
1 " I have got it — If this do not cure my cough it is a damned perverse
mule of a cough — The pamphlet — From the row — But mum — We don't sell
it — Oh, no — Ears and Eggs — Verbatim, except the addition of a short pref
ace, which as you have not seen, I send you my copy — Not a single castra
tion (Laud be unto God and J. S. Jordan !) can I discover — Hey for the
New Jerusalem ! The Millennium ! And peace and eternal beatitude be
unto the soul of Thomas Paine !" — C. Kegan Paul's "William Godwin."
In supposing that Paine may have gone to Paris before his book appeared
(March 13th), I have followed Rickman, who says the work was written
" partly at the Angel, at Islington, partly in Harding Street, Fetter Lane,
and finished at Versailles." He adds that " many hundred thousand more
copies were rapidly sold." But I have no certain trace of Paine in Paris in
1 791 earlier than April 8th.
8 This comparison was made for me by a careful writer, Mr. J. M.
Wheeler, of London, who finds, with a few corrections in spelling, but
one case of softening : " P. 60, in Johnson Paine wrote ' Everything in the
English government appears to me the reverse of what it ought to be'
which in Jordan is modified to ' Many things,' etc."

I79l] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 285
The preface to which Holcroft alludes is of
biographical interest both as regards Paine and
Burke. As it does not appear in the American
edition it is here inserted :
1 " From the part Mr. Burke took in the American Revolution,
it was natural that I should consider him a friend to mankind ;
and as our acquaintance commenced on that ground, it would
have been more agreeable to me to have had cause to continue
in that opinion, than to change it
" At the time Mr. Burke made his violent speech last winter
in the English Parliament against the French Revolution and
the National Assembly, I was in Paris, and had written him,
but a short time before, to inform him how prosperously mat
ters were going on. Soon after this I saw his advertisement of
the Pamphlet he intended to publish. As the attack was to be
made in a language but little studied, and less understood, in
France, and as everything suffers by translation, I promised
some of the friends of the Revolution in that country, that
whenever Mr. Burke's Pamphlet came forth, I would answer it.
This appeared to me the more necessary to be done, when I
saw the flagrant misrepresentations which Mr. Burke's Pamphlet
contains ; and .that while it is an outrageous abuse of the
French Revolution, and the principles of Liberty, it is an impo
sition on the rest of the world.
" I am the more astonished and disappointed at this conduct in
Mr. Burke, as (from the circumstance I am going to mention)
I had formed other expectations.'-!
" I had seen enough of the miseries of war, to wish it might
never more have existence in the world, and that some other
mode might be found out to settle the differences that should
occasionally arise in the neighbourhood of nations. This cer
tainly might be done if Courts were disposed to set honestly
about it, or if countries were enlightened enough not to be
made the dupes of Courts. The people of America had been
bred up in the same prejudices against France, which at that
time characterized the people of England ; but experience and
an acquaintance with the French Nation have most effectually
shown to the Americans the falsehood of those prejudices ; and

286 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. L1791
I do not believe that a more cordial and confidential inter
course exists between any two countries than between America
and France.
"When I came to France in the spring of 1787, the Arch
bishop of Thoulouse was then Minister, and at that time highly
esteemed. I became much acquainted with the private Secre
tary of that Minister, a man of an enlarged benevolent heart ;
and found that his sentiments and my own perfectly agreed
with respect to the madness of war, and the wretched impolicy
of two nations, like England and France, continually worrying
each other, to no other end than that of a mutual . increase
of burdens and taxes. That I might be assured I had not mis
understood him, nor he me, I put the substance of our opinions
into writing, and sent it to him ; subjoining a request, that if I
should see among the people of England any disposition to
cultivate a better understanding between the two nations than
had hitherto prevailed, how far I might be authorised to
say that the same disposition prevailed on the part of France ?
He answered me by letter in the most unreserved manner, and
that not for himself only, but for the Minister, with whose
knowledge the letter was declared to be written.
" I put this letter into the hands of Mr. Burke almost three
years ago, and left it with him, where it still remains, hoping,
and at the same time naturally expecting, from the opinion
I had conceived of him, that he would find some opportunity of
making a good use of it, for the purpose of removing those errors
and prejudices which two neighbouring nations, from the want
of knowing each other, had entertained, to the injury of both.
" When the French Revolution broke out, it certainly afforded
to Mr. Burke an opportunity of doing some good, had he been
disposed to it ; instead of which, no sooner did he see the old
prejudices wearing away, than he immediately began sowing the
seeds of a new inveteracy, as if he were afraid that England and
France would cease to be enemies. That there are men in all
countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up
the quarrels of Nations, is as shocking as it is true ; but when
those who are concerned in the government of a country, make
it their study to sow discord, and cultivate prejudices between
Nations, it becomes the more unpardonable.

1791] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 287
" With respect to a paragraph in this work alluding to Mr.
Burke's having a pension, the report has been some time in cir
culation, at least two months ; and as a person is often the last
to hear what concerns him the most to know, I have mentioned
it, that Mr. Burke may have an opportunity of contradicting the
rumour, if heythinks proper."
0
" The Rights of Man " produced a great impres
sion from the .first It powerfully reinforced the
"Constitutional Society, " formerl seven years ne-
fr.rei WhiVh — Paino had joined. The book was
adopted as their new Magna Charta. Their en
thusiasm was poured forth on March 23d in resolu
tions which Daniel Williams, secretary, is directed
to transmit " to all our corresponding Constitutional
Societies in England, Scotland, and France." In
Ireland the work was widely welcomed. I find
a note that " at a numerous meeting of the Whigs
of the Capital [Dublin] on Tuesday the 5th of
April, Hugh Crothers in the chair," a committee
was appointed to consider the most effectual mode
of disseminating Mr. Paine's pamphlet on " The
Rights of Man."
In order to be uniform with Burke's pamphlet
the earlier editions of " The Rights of Man," were
in the three-shilling style. The proceeds enriched
the Society for Constitutional Information, though
Paine had been drained of funds by the failure
of Whiteside. Gouverneur Morris, as appears by
the subjoined extracts from his diary, is disgusted
with Paine's "wretched apartments" in Paris, in
which, however, the reader may see something finer
than the diarist's luxury, which the author might have
rivalled with the means devoted to his Cause. This

288 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
was perhaps what Morris and Paine's friend Hodges
agreed in deeming a sort of lunacy.
" April 8. Return home, and read the answer of Paine to
Burke's book ; there are good things in the answer as well as
in the book. Paine calls on me. He says that he found great
difficulty in prevailing on any bookseller to publish his bdok ;
that it is extremely popular in England, and, of course, the
writer, which he considers as one of the many uncommon
revolutions of this age. He turns the conversation on times
of yore, and as he mentions me among those who were his
enemies, I frankly acknowledge that I urged his dismissal
from the office he held of secretary to the Committee of
Foreign Affairs."
" April 16. This morning I visit Paine and Mr. Hodges.
The former is abroad, the latter is in the wretched apartments
they occupy. He speaks of Paine as being a little mad, which
is not improbable."
" April 25. This morning Paine calls and tells me that the
Marquis de Lafayette has accepted the position of head of
the National Guards."
" May 1. Dine with Montmorin. Bouinville is *rrere. He
is just returned from England. He tells me that Paine's book
works mightily in England."
Up to this point Paine had, indeed, carried Eng
land with him, — for Fmgland was at heart with Fox
and the Opposition When Burke made his first
attack on the French Revolution (February 9, 1 790),
he was repeatedly called to order ; and Fox — with
tears, for their long friendship was breaking for
ever — overwhelmed Burke with his rebuke. Even
Pitt did not say a word for him. His pamphlet
nine months later was ascribed to inspiration of the
King, from whom he expected favors ; and although
the madmen under whom the French Revolution
fell presently came to the support of his case,

1791] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 289
Burke personally never recovered his place in the
esteem of England. That the popular instinct was
true, and that Burke was playing a deeper game
than appeared, was afterwards revealed in the
archives of England and France.1
There was every reason why Paine's reply should
carry liberal statesmen with him. His pamphlet
was statesmanlike. The French Constitution at
that time was the inchoate instrument beginning
with the " Declaration of Rights," adopted on
Lafayette's proposal (August 26, 1789), and con
taining provisions contrary to Paine's views. It
recognized the reigning house, and made its execu
tive power hereditary. Yet so free was Paine from
pedantry, so anxious for any peaceful advance, that
it was at the expected inauguration of this Consti
tution he had consented to bear the American flag,
and in his reply to Burke he respects the right of a
.people to establish even hereditary executive, the
-right of constitutional reform being retained.
" The Erenr.h constitution distinguishes between
the, king and the sovereign ; it considers the station
of the king as official, and places sovereignty in "tlie
jTation." In the same practical way he deals with
other survivals in the French Constitution — such
as clericalism, and the property qualification for
suffrage — by dwelling on their mitigations, while
reaffirming his own principles on these points.
1 " Thirty thousand copies of Burke's book were circulated in all the courts
and among the European aristocracy as so many lighted brands to set
Europe in flames. During this time the author, by his secret correspond-.
ence, excited Queen Marie-Antoinette, the court, the foreigners, to conspire
against the Revolution. ' No compromises with rebels ! ' he wrote ;
' appeal to sovereign neighbors ; above all trust to the support of foreign
armies.' " — " Histoire de France," par Henri Martin, i., p. 151.
VOL. 1. — 19

290

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791

A very important part of Paine's answer was
that which related to the United States. Burke,
the most famous defender of American revolution
ists, was anxious to separate their movement from
that in France. Paine, with ample knowledge,
proved how largely the uprising in France was due
to the training of Lafayette and other French offi
cers in America, and to the influence of Franklin,
who was " not the diplomatist of a court, but of
man." He also drew attention to the effect of the
American State Constitutions, which were a gram
mar of liberty.1 He points out that under this
transatlantic influence French liberalism had devi
ated from the line of its forerunners, — from Mon
tesquieu, " obliged to divide himself between
principle and prudence " ; Voltaire, " both the flat
terer and satirist of despotism " ; Rousseau, leav
ing " the mind in love with an object without
describing the means of possessing it " ; Turgot,
whose maxims are directed to " reform the admin
istration of government rather than the government
itself." To these high praise is awarded, but they
all had to be filtered through America.
1 Dr. Franklin had these constitutions translated, and presented them in a
finely bound volume to the King. According to Paine, who must have heard
it from Franklin, Vergennes resisted their publication, but was obliged to
give way to public demand. Paine could not allude to the effect of his own
work, " Common Sense," which may have been the more effective because
its argument against monarchy was omitted from the translation. But his
enemies did not fail to credit his pen with the catastrophes in France. John
Adams declares that the Constitution of Pennsylvania was ascribed wrongly
to Franklin ; it was written by Paine and three others ; Turgot, Condorcet,
and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld were enamored of it, and two of them
"owed their final and fatal catastrophe to this blind love" (Letter to S.
Perley, June 19, 1809). Whence Cheetham, dwelling on the enormity of
the " single representative assembly," queries : " May not Paine's constitu
tion of Pennsylvania have been the cause of the tyranny of Robespierre ? "

1791] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 29I
And it goes without saying that it was not the
reactionary America with which John Adams and
Gouverneur Morris had familiarized Burke. "Jhe
Rights of Man " was the first exposition of the
republicanism of Tefferson, Madison, and Edmund
Randolph tjint °""r npprnrH And as this repub
licanism was just then in deadly struggle with reac
tion, the first storm raised by Paine's book occurred
in America. It was known in America that Paine
was about to beard the British lion in his den, and
to expectant ears the roar was heard before its
utterance. " Paine's answer to Burke (writes Madison to Jefferson, May
1st) has not yet been received here [New York]. The moment
it can be got, Freneau tells me, it will be published in Child's
paper [Daily Advertiser]. It is said that the pamphlet has been
suppressed, and that the author withdrew to France before or
immediately after its appearance. This may account for his
not sending copies to his friends in this country."
Mr. Beckley, however, had by this time received
a copy and loaned it to Jefferson, with a request
that he would send it to J. B. Smith, whose brother,
S. H. Smith, printed it with the following Preface :
" The following Extracts from a note accompanying a copy
of this pamphlet for republication is so respectable a testing of
its value, that the Printer hopes the distinguished writer will
excuse its present appearance. It proceeds from a character
equally eminent in the councils of America, and conversant in
the affairs of France, from a long and recent residence at the
Court of Versailles in the Diplomatic department ; and at the
same time that it does justice to the writings of Mr. Paine, it
reflects honor on the source from which it flows by directing
the mind to a contemplation of that Republican firmness and
Democratic simplicity which endear their possessor to every
friend of the Rights of Man.

292 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
"After some prefatory remarks the Secretary of State ob
serves :
"'lam extremely pleased to find it will be reprinted, and that
something is at length to be publickly said against the political
heresies which have sprung up among us.
" ' I have no doubt our citizens will rally a second time round
the standard of Common Sense.' "
As the pamphlet had been dedicated to the
President,1 this encomium of the Secretary of State
(" Jefferson " was not mentioned by the sagacious
publisher) gave it the air of a manifesto by the
administration. Had all been contrived, Paine's
arrow could not have been more perfectly feathered
to reach the heart of the anti-republican faction.
The Secretary's allusion to "political heresies"
was so plainly meant for the Vice-President that
a million hands tossed the gauntlet to him, and
supposed it was his own hand that took it up.
These letters, to The Columbian C'entinel (Boston),
were indeed published in England as by " John
Adams," and in the trial of Paine were quoted by
the Attorney-General as proceeding from " the sec
ond in the executive government " of America.
Had it been generally known, however, that they
were by the Vice-President's son, John Quincy
Adams, the effect might not have been very dif
ferent on the father. Edmund Randolph, in view
of John Adams' past services, felt some regret at
the attacks on him, and wrote to Madison : " I
' " Sir, I present you a small treatise in defence of those principles of
freedom which your exemplary virtue hath so eminently contributed to
establish. That the rights of men may become as universal as your benev
olence can wish, and that you may enjoy the happiness of seeing the new
world regenerate the old, is the prayer of, Sir, your much obliged, and
obedient humble servant, Thomas Paine."

I791] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 293
should rejoice that the controversy has been excited,
were it not that under the character of [Publicola]
he, who was sufficiently depressed before, is now
irredeemable in the public opinion without being
the real author." The youth, however, was only
in his twenty-fourth year, an6 pretty certainly under
his father's inspiration.
It is improbable, however, that John Adams could
have written such scholarly and self-restrained
criticisms on any work by Paine, mere mention of
whom always made him foam at the mouth. Pub-
licola's arguments could not get a fair hearing amid
surviving animosities against England and enthu
siasm for a republican movement in France, as yet
not a revolution, which promised the prevalence of
American ideas in Europe. The actual England
of that era, whose evils were powerfully portrayed
by Paine, defeated in advance any theoretical esti
mate of the advantages of its unwritten Consti
tution. America had, too, an inventor's pride in
its written Constitution, as yet untried by expe
rience. Publicola assailed, successfully as I think,
Paine's principle that a vitiated legislature could
never be trusted to reform itself. It was answered
that there is no reason why the people may not
delegate to a legislature, renewed by suffrage,
the power of altering even the organic law. Pub
licola contends that the people could not act in
their original character in changing a constitution,
in opposition to an existing legislature, without
danger of anarchy and war ; that if the people
were in harmony with their legislature it could
be trusted to carry out their amendments ; that

294 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
a legislature without such constitutional powers
would nevertheless exercise them by forced con
structions; and that the difficulty and delay of
gathering the people in convention might conceiv
ably endanger the commonwealth, were the power
of fundamental alteration not delegated to the
legislature, — a concurrent right being reserved by
the people.
This philosophical statement, interesting in the
light of French revolutions and English evolutions,
recoiled on Publicola from the walls of Paine's
real fortress. This was built of the fact that in
England the majority was not represented even in
the Commons, and that the people had no rep
resentation at all in two branches of their govern
ment. Moreover, Paine's plea had been simply
for such reconstitution of government as would
enable the people to reform it without revolution
or convulsion. Publicola was compelled to admit
that the English people had no resort but the right
of revolution, so that it appeared mere Monarchism
to argue against Paine's plea for a self-amending
constitution in England.
Publicola's retort on the Secretary's phrase,
" political heresies " (infelicitous from a free
thinker), — " Does he consider this pamphlet of
Mr. Paine's as the canonical book of political
scripture," — hurt Jefferson so much that he sup
posed himself harmed. He was indeed much
annoyed by the whole affair, and straightway wrote
to political leaders letters — some private, others to
be quoted, — in which he sought to smooth things
by declaring that his note was not meant for publi-

1791] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 295
cation. To Washington he writes (May 8th) the
Beckley-Smith story, beginning :
" I am afraid the indiscretion of a printer has committed me
with my friend Mr. Adams, for whom, as one of the most
honest and disinterested men alive, I have a cordial esteem, in
creased by long habits of concurrence in opinion in the days
of his republicanism ; and even since his apostasy to hereditary
monarchy and nobility, though we differ, we differ as friends
should do."
The " Jefferson ians " were, of course, delighted,
and there is no knowing how much reputation for
pluck the Secretary was gaining in the country at
the very moment when his intimate friends were
soothing his tremors. These were increased by
the agitation of the British representatives in
America over the affair. The following re-enforce
ment was sent by Madison on May 12th :
" I had seen Paine's pamphlet, with the Preface of the
Philadelphia edition. It immediately occurred that you were
brought into the frontispiece in the manner you explain. But
I had not foreseen the particular use made of it by the British
partizans. Mr. Adams can least of all complain. Under a
mock defence of the Republican constitutions of his country
he attacked them with all the force he possessed, and this in
a book with his name to it, while he was the Representative of
his country at a foreign Court. Since he has been the second
magistrate in the new Republic, his pen has constantly been at
work in the same Cause ; and though his name has not been
prefixed to his anti-republican discourses, the author has been
as well known as if that formality had been observed. Surely
if it be innocent and decent in one servant of the public thus
to write attacks against its Government, it cannot be very
criminal or indecent in another to patronize a written defence
of the principles on which that Government is founded. The
sensibility of Hammond [British Minister] and Bond [British
Consul-General] for the indignity to the British Constitution

296 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [j79»
is truly ridiculous. If offence could be justly taken in that
quarter, what would France have a right to say to Burke's
pamphlet, and the countenance given to it and its author, par
ticularly by the King himself ? What, in fact, might not the
United States say, when revolutions and democratic Govern
ments come in for a large charge of the scurrility lavished on
those of France ? "
One curious circumstance of this incident was
that the fuss made by these British agents was
about a book concerning which heir government,
under whose nose it was published, had not said a
word. There was, indeed, one sting in the Ameri
can edition which was not in the English, but that
does not appear to have been noticed.1 The re
sentment shown by the British agents was plainly
meant to aid Adams and the partisans of England
in their efforts to crush the republicans, and bring
Washington to their side in hostility to Jefferson.
Four years later they succeeded, and already it was
apparent to the republican leaders that fine en
gineering was required to keep the Colossus on
their side. Washington being at Mount Vernon,
his secretary, Tobias Lear, was approached by
Major Beckwith, an English agent (at Mrs. Wash
ington's reception), who undertook to lecture
through him the President and Secretary of State.
He expressed surprise that Paine's pamphlet should
be dedicated to the President, as it contained re-
1 It has already been stated that the volume as printed by Jordan (Lon
don) in March, contained one single modification of that which Johnson
had printed in February, but declined to publish. The American edition
was printed from the Johnson volume ; and where the English were reading
"Many things," etc, the Americans read : "Every thing in the English
government appears to me the reverse of what it ought to be, and of what it
is said to be. "

1791] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 297
marks " that could not but be offensive to the
British government." The Major might have been
embarrassed if asked his instructions on the point,
but Lear only said that the President had not seen
the pamphlet, nor could he be held responsible for
its sentiments. " True," said Beckwith, " but I
observe, in the American edition, that the Secretary
of State has given a most unequivocal sanction to
the book, as Secretary of State ; it is not said as
Mr. Jefferson." Lear said he had not seen the
pamphlet, " but," he added, " I will venture to say
that the Secretary of State has not done a thing
which he would not justify." Beckwith then re
marked that he had spoken only as " a private
character," and Lear went off to report the conver
sation in a letter to Washington (May 8th), and next
day to Attorney- General Randolph. Lear also
reports to Washington that he had heard Adams
say, with his hand upon his breast : " I detest that
book and its tendency, from the bottom of my
heart." Meanwhile the Attorney-General, after
conversation with Beckwith, visited Jefferson, and
asked if he had authorized the publication of his
note in Paine's pamphlet.
" Mr. Jefferson said that, so far from having authorized it,
he was exceedingly sorry to see it there ; not from a disavowal
of the approbation which it gave the work, but because it had
been sent to the printer, with the pamphlet for republica
tion, without the most distant idea that he would think of
publishing any part of it. And Mr. Jefferson further added
that he wished it might be understood, that he did not author
ize the publication of any part of his note."
These words of Lear to Washington, written no
doubt in Randolph's presence, suggest the delicacy

298 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
of the situation. Jefferson's anxiety led him to
write Vice-President Adams (July 1 7th) the Beckley-
Smith story.
" I thought [he adds] so little of the note that I did not
even keep a copy of it, nor ever heard a tittle more of it till,
the week following, I was thunderstruck with seeing it come
out at the head of the pamphlet. I hoped that it would not
attract. But I found on my return from a journey of a
month, that a writer came forward under the name of Pub
licola, attacking not only the author and principles of the
pamphlet, but myself as its sponsor by name. Soon after
came hosts of other writers, defending the pamphlet and at
tacking you by name as the writer of Publicola. Thus our
names were thrown on the stage as public antagonists."
Then follows some effusiveness for Adams, and
protestations that he has written none of these
attacks. Jefferson fully believed that Publicola
was the Vice-President, and had so informed Mon
roe, on July 10th. It was important that his lieu
tenants should not suspect their leader of shrinking,
and Jefferson's letters to them are in a different
vein. " Publicola," he tells Monroe, " in attacking
all Paine's principles, is very desirous of involving
me in the same censure with the author. I cer
tainly merit the same, for I profess the same prin
ciples ; but it is equally certain I never meant to
have entered as a volunteer in the cause. My oc
cupations do not permit it." To Paine he writes
(July 29th) : " Indeed I am glad you did not come
away till you had written your Rights of Man.
A writer under the signature of Publicola has
attacked it, and a host of champions has entered
the arena immediately in your defence." It is
added that the controversy has shown the people

I791] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 299
firm in their republicanism, " contrary to the asser
tions of a sect here, high in name but small in
numbers," who were hoping that the masses were
becoming converted " to the doctrine of King,
Lords, and Commons."
In the letter to which this was a reply, Paine had
stated his intention of returning to America in the
spring.1 The enthusiasm for Paine and his princi
ples elicited by the controversy was so overwhelm
ing that Edmund Randolph and Jefferson made an
effort to secure him a place in Washington's Cabi
net. But, though reinforced by Madison, they
failed.3 These statesmen little knew how far
Washington had committed himself to the British
government. In October, 1789, Washington, with
his own hand, had written to Gouverneur Morris,
1 " I enclose you a few observations on the establishment of a Mint. I
have not seen your report on that subject and therefore cannot tell how
nearly our opinions run together ; but as it is by thinking upon and talking
subjects over that we approach towards truth, there may probably be some
thing in the enclosed that may be of use. —As the establishment of a Mint
combines a portion of politics with a knowledge of the Arts, and a variety
of other matters, it is a subject I shall very much like to talk with you
upon. I intend at all events to be in America in the Spring, and it will
please me much to arrive before you have gone thro' the arrangement." —
Paine to Jefferson, dated London, September 28, 1790.
2 Madison to Jefferson, July 13th, — " I wish you success with all my heart
in your efforts for Paine. Besides the advantage to him which he deserves,
an appointment for him at this moment would do public good in various
ways." Edmund Randolph to Madison, July 21st. — " I need not relate to you,
that since the standard of republicanism has been erected, it has been
resorted to by a numerous corps. The newspapers will tell you how much
the crest of aristocracy has fallen. . . . But he [Adams] is impotent, and
something is due to past services. Mr. J. and myself have attempted to
bring Paine forward as * successor to Osgood [Postmaster-General]. It
seems to be a fair opportunity for a declaration of certain sentiments. But
all that I have heard has been that it would be too pointed to keep a
vacancy unfilled until his return from the other side of the water."

300

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791

desiring him in " the capacity of private agent, and
on the authority and credit of this letter, to converse
with His Britannic Majesty's ministers on these
points ; viz., whether there be any, and what objec
tions to performing those articles in the treaty
which remained to be performed on his part, and
whether they incline to a treaty of commerce with
the United States on any, and what terms ? " This
was a secret between Washington, Morris, and the
British Cabinet.1 It was the deepest desire of
Washington to free America from British garri
sons, and his expectation was to secure this by the
bribe of a liberal commercial treaty, as he ulti
mately did. The demonstration of the British
agents in America against Paine's pamphlet, their
offence at its dedication to the President and sanc
tion by the Secretary of State, were well calculated.
That it was all an American coup, unwarranted by
any advice from England, could not occur to
Washington, who was probably surprised when he
presently received a letter from Paine showing
that he was getting along quite comfortably under
the government he was said to have aggrieved.
"London, July 21, 1791 — Dear Sir. — I received your
favor of last August by Col : Humphries since which I have
not written to or heard from you. I mention this that you
may know no letters have miscarried. I took the liberty of
addressing my late work ' Rights of Man,' to you ; but tho'
I left it at that time to find its way to you, I now request
your acceptance of fifty copies as a token of remembrance to
yourself and my Friends. The work has had a run beyond
anything that has been published in this Country on the sub
ject of Government, and the demand continues. In Ireland it
1 " Diary of Gouverneur Morris," i., p. 310.

1791] "THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 301
has had a much greater. A letter I received from Dublin, 10th
of May, mentioned that the fourth edition was then on sale.
I know not what number of copies were printed at each edi
tion, except the second, which was ten thousand. The same
fate follows me here as I at first experienced in America,
strong friends and violent enemies, but as I have got the ear
of the Country, I shall go on, and at least shew them, what is
a novelty here, that there can be a person beyond the reach
of corruption.
" I arrived here from france about ten days ago. M. de la
Fayette is well. The affairs of that Country are verging to a
new crisis, whether the Government shall be Monarchical and
heredetary or wholly representative ? I think the latter
opinion will very generally prevail in the end. On this
question the people are much forwarder than the National
Assembly. " After the establishment of the American Revolution, it
did not appear to me that any object could arise great enough
to engage me a second time. I began to feel myself happy in
being quiet ; but I now experience that principle is not con
fined to Time or place, and that the ardour of seventy-six is
capable of renewing itself. I have another work on hand
which I intend shall be my last, for I long much to return to
America. It is not natural that fame should wish for a rival,
but the case is otherwise with me, for I do most sincerely wish
there was some person in this Country that could usefully and
successfully attract the public attention, and leave me with a
/satisfied mind to the enjoyment of quiet life : but it is painful
f to see errors and abuses and sit down a senseless spectator.
~^l this your own mind will interpret mine.
" I have printed sixteen thousand copies ; when the whole
re gone of which there remain between three and four thou
sand I shall then make a cheap edition, just sufficient to bring
in the price of the printing and paper as I did by Common
l-Sense. " Mr. Green who will present you this, has been very much
my friend. I wanted last October to draw for fifty pounds on
General Lewis Morris who has some money of mine, but as he
is unknown in the Commercial line, and American credit not
very good, and my own expended, I could not succeed,

\

302

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [179 1

especially as Gov'r Morris was then in Holland. Col :
Humphries went with me to your Agent Mr. Walsh, to whom
I stated the case, and took the liberty of saying that I knew
you would not think it a trouble to receive it of Gen. Morris
on Mr. Walsh's account, but he declined it. Mr. Green after
wards supplied me and I have since repaid him. He has a
troublesome affair on his hands here, and is in danger of
losing thirty or forty thousand pounds, embarked under the
flag of the United States in East India property. The persons
who have received it withhold it and shelter themselves under
some law contrivance. He wishes to state the case to Con
gress not only on his own account, but as a matter that may
be nationally interesting.
" The public papers will inform you of the riots and tumults
at Birmingham, and of some disturbances at Paris, and as Mr.
Green can detail them to you more particularly than I can do
in a letter I leave those matters to his information. I am, etc."
Nine months elapsed before Washington an
swered this letter, and although important events
of those months have yet to be related, the answer
may be here put on record.
" Philadelphia, 6 May, 1792. — Dear Sir. — To my friends,
and those who know my occupations, I am sure no apology is
necessary for keeping their letters so much longer unanswered,
than my inclination would lead me to do. I shall therefore
offer no excuse for not having sooner acknowledged the re
ceipt of your letter of the 21st of June [July]. My thanks,
however, for the token of your remembrance, in the fifty
copies of ' The Rights of Man,' are offered with no less cor
diality, than they would have been had I answered your letter
in the first moment of receiving it.
"The duties of my office, which at all times, especially
during the session of Congress, require an unremitting atten
tion, naturally become more pressing towards the close of it ;
and as that body have resolved to rise tomorrow, and as I
have determined, in case they should, to set out for Mount
Vernon on the next day, you will readily conclude that the

1791] " THE RIGHTS OF MAN." 303
present is a busy moment with me ; and to that I am per
suaded your goodness will impute my not entering into the
several points touched upon in your letter. Let it suffice,
therefore, at this time, to say, that I rejoice in the information
of your personal prosperity, and, as no one can feel a greater
interest in the happiness of mankind than I do, that it is the
first wish of my heart, that the enlightened policy of the
present age may diffuse to all men those blessings, to which
they are entitled, and lay the foundation of happiness for
future generations. — With great esteem, I am, dear Sir &c.
" P. S. Since writing the foregoing, I have received your
letter of the 13th of February, with the twelve copies of your
new work, which accompanied it, and for which you must
accept my additional thanks."
There is no lack of personal cordiality in this
letter, but one may recognize in its ingenious
vagueness, in its omission of any acknowledgment
of the dedication of Paine's book, that he mistrusts
the European revolution and its American allies.

CHAPTER XXI.
FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC.
It has already been mentioned that John Adams
had been proclaimed in France the author of
" Common Sense." 1 The true author was now
known, but, as the anti-monarchal parts of his
work were expurgated, Paine, in turn, was supposed
to be a kind of John Adams — a revolutionary roy
alist. This misunderstanding was personally dis
tasteful, but it had the important compensation of
enabling Paine to come before Europe with a work
adapted to its conditions, essentially different from
those of America to which " Common Sense " was
1 ' ' When I arrived in France, the French naturally had a great many
questions to settle. The first was, whether I was the famous Adams. ' Ah,
le fameux Adams.' In order to speculate a little upon this subject, the
pamphlet ' Common Sense ' had been printed in the ' Affaires de KAngle-
terre et de I'Amerique,' and expressly ascribed to Mr. Adams, 'the cele
brated member of Congress.' It must be further known that although the
pamphlet ' Common Sense ' was received in France and in all Europe with
rapture, yet there were certain parts of it that they did not dare to publish
in France. The reasons of this any man may guess. ' Common Sense '
undertakes to prove that monarchy is unlawful by the Old Testament.
They therefore gave the substance of it, as they said ; and paying many
compliments to Mr. Adams, his sense and rich imagination, they were
obliged to ascribe some parts of it to republican zeal. When I arrived at
Bordeaux all that I could say or do would not convince anybody but that I was
the fameux Adams. ' C'est un homme celebre. Votre nom est bien connu
ici.' " — " Works of John Adams," vol. iii., p. 189. This was in 1779, and
when Adams entered on his official duties at Paris the honors thrust upon
him at Bordeaux became burdensome. 304

1791J POUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 305
addressed in 1776. It was a matter of indifference
to him whether the individual executive was called
" King " or " President." He objected to the thing,
not the name, but as republican superstition had
insisted on it in America there was little doubt
that France would follow the example. Under
these circumstances Paine made up his mind that
the republican principle would not be lost by the
harmonizing policy of preserving the nominal and
ornamental king while abolishing his sovereignty.
The erection of a tremendous presidential power
in the United States might well suggest to so
staunch a supporter of ministerial government that
this substance might be secured under a show of
royalty. Dr. Robinet considers it a remarkable
" prophecy " that Paine should have written in 1787
of an approaching alliance of " the Majesty of
the Sovereign with the Majesty of the Nation " in
France. This was opposed to the theories of
Jefferson, but it was the scheme of Mirabeau, the
hope of Lafayette, and had not the throne been
rotten this prudent policy might have succeeded.
It was with an eye to France as well as to England
that Paine, in his reply to Burke, had so carefully
distinguished between executive sovereignty subject
to law and personal monarchy.
When the last proof of his book was revised
Paine sped to Paris, and placed it in the hand of
his friend M. Lanthenas for translation. Mirabeau
was on his death-bed, and Paine witnessed that
historic procession, four miles long, which bore the
orator to his shrine. Witnessed it with relief, per
haps, for he is ominously silent concerning Mira-
VOL. I. — 20

306 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l79x
beau. With others he strained his eyes to see the
Coming Man ; with others he sees formidable
Danton glaring at Lafayette ; and presently sees
advancing softly between them the sentimental,
philanthropic — Robespierre.
It was a happy hour for Paine when, on a day in
May, he saw Robespierre rise in the National
Assembly to propose abolition of the death penalty^
"How sweet this echo of the old " testimonies " of
Thetford Quaker meetings. " Capital punishment"
Cries Robespierre, "is hut a LasP assassinarinn-l
punishing one crime by another, murder with mur-
derr"~"Since judges are not infallible they have no
right^tfl prononnrf irr°pnrnkla rf"itnn''M " He is
seconded by the jurist Duport, who says impress
sively : " Let us at least make revolutionary scenes
as little tragic as possible ! Let us render man hon
orable to man ! " Marat, right man for the role,,
answered with the barbaric demand " blood for.
blood," and prevailed. P>nt Pajn^ was won over td
Robespierre by this humane enthusiasm. The day
was to come when he must confront Robespierre
with a memory of this scene.
That Robespierre would supersede Lafayette
Paine could little imagine. The King was in the
charge of the great friend of America, and never
had country a fairer prospect than France in those
beautiful spring days. But the royal family fled.
In the early morning of June 21st Lafayette burst
into Paine's bedroom, before he was up, and cried :
" The birds are flown ! " " It is well," said Paine ;
" I hope there will be no attempt to recall them."
Hastily dressing, he rushed out into the street, and

1791] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 307
found the people in uproar. They were clamoring
as if some 'great loss had befallen them. At the
Hotel de Ville Lafayette was menaced by the crowd,
which accused him of having assisted the King's
flight, and could only answer them : " What are
you complaining of? Each of you saves twenty
sous tax by suppression of the Civil List." Paine
encounters his friend Thomas Christie. " You
see," he said, " the absurdity of monarchical govern
ments ; here will be a whole nation disturbed by
the folly of one man." x
Here was Marat's opportunity. His journal,
LAmi du Peuple, clamored for a dictator, and for
the head of Lafayette. Against him rose young
Pgnnpvi1L>i who, in La Bouche de Fer, wrote : " N»
more kings.!  NU djf t^fnr '  Assemble the People
in the face of the sun : proclaim that the Law alone
<jV.aH frg r-mrnrninm — fhf ] aw, the Law alone, and
jnadp for all I"
Bonneville's words in his journal about that time
were apt to be translations from the works of his
friend Paine, with whom his life was afterwards so
closely interwoven. The little group of men who
had studied Paine, ardent republicans, beheld a na
tion suddenly become frantic to recover a king who
could not be of the slightest value to any party in
the state. The miserable man had left a letter
denouncing all the liberal measures he had signed
since October, 1789, which sealed his doom as a
monarch. The appalling fact was revealed that
the most powerful revolutionists — Robespierre and
1 The letter of Christie (Priestley's nephew), written June 22d, appeared in
the London Morning Chronicle, June 29th.

308 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
Marat especially — had never considered a Repub
lic, and did not know what it was. •
On June 25th, Paine was a heavy-hearted spec
tator of the return of the arrested king. He had
personal realization that day of the folly of a people
in bringing back a king who had relieved them of.
his presence. He had omitted to decorate his hat
with a cockade, and the mob fell on him with cries
of " Aristocrat ! a la lanterne ! " After some rough
handling he was rescued by a Frenchman who
spoke English, and explained the accidental char
acter of the offence. Poor Paine's Quaker training
had not included the importance of badges, else the
incident had revealed to him that even the popular
rage against Louis was superstitious homage to a
cockade. Never did friend of the people have
severer proofs that they are generally wrong. In
America, while writing as with his heart's blood the
first plea for its independence, he was " shadowed "
as a British spy ; and in France he narrowly escapes
the aristocrat's lantern, at the very moment when
he was founding the first republican society, and
writing its declaration.
TJiis "Snciete R.opublicaino," as yet of five mem
bers, inaugurated itself on July 1st, by placarding
Paris with its manifesto, which was even nailed on
the door of the National Assembly.
" Brethren and fellow citizens :
" The serene tranquillity, the mutual confidence which pre
vailed amongst us, during the time of the late King's escape.
Jhe indifference with whirr. We beheld hirn rp^urn, are unfr-
^uivocal proofs that the absence of a King is more desirable
than his nrr-renre ind thnt he is nnf »nly a political super
fluity, but a grievous burden, pre^;^ hard on the whole nation.

179'] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 309
" Let us not be imposed upon by sophisms ; all that con
cerns this is reduced to four points.
"He has abdicatpH *•*"• t1""'"' ;" *--"""g fl°d frnm his post
Abdication and desertion are not characterized by the length
of absence ; but by the single act of flight. In the present
instance, the act is everything, and the time nothing.
" The nation can never give back its confidence to a man who
false to his trust, perjured to his oath, conspires a clandestine
flight, obtains a fraudulent passport, conceals a King of France
under the disguise of a valet, directs his course towards a frontier
covered with traitors and deserters, and evidently meditates a
return into our country, with a force capable of imposing his
own despotic laws.
" Whether ought his flight to be considered as his own act,
or the act of those who fled with him ? Was it a spontaneous
resolution of his own, or was it inspired into him by others ?
The alternative is immaterial ; whether fool or hypocrite,
idiot or traitor, he has proved himself equally unworthy of the
important functions that had been delegated to him.
" In every sense that the question can be considered, the
reciprocal obligation which subsisted between us is dissolved.
He holds no Jogger any authority. We ow£him no longer
obedience. We see in him no more than an indifferent person ;
""• run r*«fA hi'"i priiy as Louis Capet.
" The history of France presents little else than a long
series of public calamity, which takes its source from the vices
of the Kings ; we have been the wretched victims that have
never ceased to suffer either for them or by them. The cata
logue of their oppressions was complete, but to complete the
sum of their crimes, treason yet was wanting. Now the only
vacancy is filled up, the dreadful list is full ; the system is
exhausted ; there are no remaining errors for them to commit,
their reign is consequently at an end.
" What kind of office must that be in a government which
requires neither experience nor ability to execute ? that may
be abandoned to the desperate chance of birth, that may be
filled with an idiot, a madman, a tyrant, with equal effect as
by the good, the virtuous, and the wise ? An office of this
nature is a mere nonentity : it is a place of show, not of use.
Let France then, arrived at the age of reason, no longer be

310 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
deluded by the sound of words, and let her deliberately exam
ine, if a King, however insignificant and contemptible in him
self, may not at the same time be extremely dangerous.
" The thirty millions -which it costs to support a King in th^
eclat of stupid brutal luxury, presents us with an easy method
*" of reducing taxes, which reduction would at once release the
people, and stop the prog"pg "f p^liffrP1 ""rniprinn The
grandeur of nations consists, not, as Kings pretend, in the
splendor of thrones, but in a conspicuous sense of their own
dignity, and in a just disdain of those barbarous follies and
crimes, which, under the sanction of royalty have hitherto des
olated Europe.
" As to the personal safety of Louis Capet, it is so much the
more confirmed, as France will not stoop to degrade herself
by a spirit of revenge against a wretch who has dishonored
himself. In defending a just and glorious cause, it is not pos
sible to degrade it, and the universal tranquillity which pre
vails is an undeniable proof, that a free people know how to
respect themselves." '
Malouet, a leading royalist member, tore down
the handbill, and, having ascertained its author, de
manded the prosecution of Thomas Paine and
Achille Duchatelet. He was vehemently supported
by Martineau^deputy of Paris, and for a time there
was a tremendous agitation. The majority, not
prepared to commit themselves to anything at all,
1 "How great is a calm, couchant people ! On the morrow men will say
to one another, ' We have no king, yet we slept sound enough.' On the
morrow Achille Duchatelet, and Thomas Paine, the rebellious needleman,
shall have the walls of Paris profusely plastered with their placard, announ
cing that there must be a republic." — Carlyle.
Dumont (" Recollections of Mirabeau ") gives a particular account of this
paper, which Duchatelet wished him to translate. " Paine and. he, the one
an American, the other a young thoughtless member of the French nobility,
put themselves forward to change the whole system of government in
France." Lafayette had been sounded, but said it would take twenty years
to bring freedom to maturity in France. ' ' But some of the seed thrown out
by the audacious hand of Paine began to bud forth in the minds of many
leading individuals." (E.g., Condorcet, Brissot, Petion, Claviere.)

1791] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 311
voted the order of the day, affecting, says Henri
Martin, a disdain that hid embarrassment and in
quietude. This document, destined to reappear in a farther
crisis, and the rovalist rage, raised Paine's Repub
lican Hub to vast importance. Even the Jacobins,
who had formally declined to sanction republican
ism, were troubled by the discovery of a society
more radical than themselves. It was only some
years later that it was made known (by Paine) that
this formidable association consisted of five mem
bers, and it is still doubtful who these were. Cer
tainly Paine, Achille Duchatelet, and Condorcet ;
probably also Brissot, and Nicolas Bonneville. In
order to avail itself of this tide of fame, the Societe
Republicaine started a journal, — The Republican}
The time was not ripe, however ; only one copy
appeared ; that, however, contained a letter by
Paine, written in June, which excited considerable
flutter. To the reader of to-day it is mainly inter
esting as showing Paine's perception that the French
required instruction in the alphabet of republican
ism ; but, amid its studied moderation, there was a
paragraph which the situation rendered pregnant :
" Whenever the French Constitution shall be rendered con
formable to its declaration of rights, we shall then be enabled
to give to France, and with justice, the appellation of a Civic
Empire j for its government will be the empire of laws, found
ed on the great republican prirjriplpq nf dutiM. zzpixsaLLatim
and the rights of man. But monarchy and hereditary succes
sion are incompatible with the basis of its Constitution."
1 " Le Republican ; on le defenseur du gouvernement Representatif ; par
une Societe des Republicans. A Paris. July 1791. No. 1."

312 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. ['79r
Now this was the very constitution which Paine,
in his answer to Burke, had made comparatively
presentable ; to this day it survives in human mem
ory mainly through indulgent citations in "The
Rights of Man." Those angels who, in the celes
tial war, tried to keep friendly with both sides, had
human counterparts in France, their constitutional
oracle being the Abbe Sieves. Jje had entered
wanniy. inrn tr|P Revolution, invented the nRrn~
" National Assembly," opposed the veto p"WrTi
supported the Declaration of Rights. But hft had
a superstitious faith in individual executive, jyhich.
"as an opportunist, he proposedjo vest in the reign
ing house. This class of " survivals " in the consti
tution were the work of Sieyes, who was the brain
of the Jacobins, now led by Robespierre, arid with
him ignoring republicanism for no better reason
than that their title was " Societe des Amis de la
Constitution."1 ^ieyes. petted his constitution
maternally, perhaps because nobody else loved it,
and bristled at Paine's criticism. TJp wmt^ a Wtqr
to the Moniteur. asserting that there, was more
.'liberty ""der a mnnnwntiy »U n n nnd^r n rfpnhlir
He announced his intention of maintaining monarch
ical executive against the new party started into life
by the King's flight. In the same journal (July 8th,)
Paine accepts the challenge " with pleasure." 2 Paine
himself was something of an opportunist ; as in
1 The club, founded in 1789, was called "Jacobin," because they met in
the hall of the Dominicans, who had been called Jacobins from the street
St. Jacques in which they were first established, anno 1219.
8 It was probably this letter that Gouverneur Morris alludes to in his
" Diary," when, writing of a Fourth of July dinner given by Mr. Short (U.
S. Charge d' Affaires), he mentions the presence of Paine, " inflated to the
eyes and big with a letter of Revolutions."

1791] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 313
America he had favored reconciliation with George
III. up to the Lexington massacre, so had he de
sired a modus vivendi with Louis XVI. up to his
flight.1 But now he unfurls the anti-monarchical
Sag- "I am not the personal enemy of Kings. Quite the con
trary! No man wishes more heartily than myself to see them
all in the happy and honorable state of private individuals ;
but I am the avowed, nppr orirl m±cepi«i eaetrry of "l1"" '•*
nailed monarchy ; and I am such by principles which nothing
can either alter or corrupt — by my attachment to humanity ;
by the anxiety which I feel within myself tor the. dignify anrl
nonor of the human_race ; b^_the disgust which I experience
when I observe men directed by children and governed by
bjiites ; by the horror which all the evils that monarchy has
spread over the earth excite within my breast ; and by those
sentiments which make me shudder at the calamities, the exac
tions, the wars, and the massacres with which monarchy has
crushed mankind : in short, it is against all the hell of monar
chy that I have declared war." ~ "~ ~"
In reply Sieves used the terms " monarchy " and
"republic" in unusual senses. He defines lire-
public " as a government in which the executive
power is lodged in more than one personT "mon
archy " as one where it is entrusted to one only.
He asserted that while Kewas in this sense a mon
archist Paine was a "polycrat." In a republic all
action must finally lodge in an executive council
deciding by majority, and nominated by thepeople
1 In this spirit was written Part I. of "The Rights of Man" whose
translation by M. Lanthenas, with new preface, appeared in May. Sieyes
agreed that " hereditaryship " was theoretically wrong, "but," he said,
' ' refer to the histories of all elective monarchies and principalities : is there
one in which the elective mode is not worse than the hereditary succession ? "
For notes on this incident see Professor F. A. Aulard's important work,
"Les Orateurs de l'Assemblee Constituante," p. 411. Also Henri Martin's
" Histoire de France," i., p. 193.

314 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
lE-ft" N?finnal Assembly. Sieyes did not, how
ever, care to enter the lists. " My letter does not
announce that I have leisure to enter into a contro
versy with republican polycrats."
Paine now set out for London. He travelled
with Lord Daer and Etienne Dumont, Mirabeau's
secretary. Dumont had a pique against Paine,
whose republican manifesto had upset a literary
scheme of his, — to evoke Mirabeau from the tomb
and make him explain to the National Assembly
that the King's flight was a court plot, that they
should free Louis XVI. from aristocratic captivity,
and support him. But on reading the Paine placard,
" I determined," says Dumont, " for fear of evil
consequences to myself, to make Mirabeau return
to his tomb."1 Dumont protests that Paine was
fully convinced that the world would be benefited
if all other books were burned except " The Rights
of Man," and no doubt the republican apostle had
a sublime faith in the sacred character of his
" testimonies " against kings. Without attempting
to determine whether this was the self-reliance of
humility or egoism, it may be safely affirmed that
it was that which made Paine's strokes so effective.
It may also be remarked again that Paine showed
a prudence with which he has not been credited.
Thus, there is little doubt that this return to
London was in pursuance of an invitation to
attend a celebration of the second anniversary
of the fall of the Bastille. He arrived at the
White Bear, Piccadilly, the day before (July 13th),
but on finding that there was much excitement
' " Souvenirs sur Mirabeau." Par Etienne Dumont.

1791] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 315
about his republican manifesto in France he con
cluded that his presence at the meeting might con
nect it with movements across the Channel, and did
not attend. Equal prudence was not, however,
displayed by his opponents, who induced the
landlord of the Crown and Anchor to close his
doors against the advertised meeting. This effort
to prevent the free assemblage of Englishmen, and
for the humane purpose of celebrating the destruc
tion of a prison whose horrors had excited popular
indignation, caused general anger. After due con
sideration it was deemed opportune for those who
sympathized with the movement in France to issue
a manifesto on the subject. It was written by
Paine, and adopted by a meeting held at the
Thatched House Tavern, August 20th, being
signed by John Home Tooke, as Chairman. This
"Address and Declaration of the Friends of Uni-
yerspl Penre nnd T iberty," though preceded by the
vigorous " Declaration of The Volunteers of Bel
fast," quoted in its second paragraph, was "the
earliest warning England received that the revolu
tion was now its grim guest.
" Friends and Fellow Citizens : At a moment like the
present, when wilful misrepresentations are industriously
spread by partizans of arbitrary power and the advocates
of passive obedience and court government,- we think it in
cumbent upon us to declare to the world our principles, and
the motives of our conduct.
" We rejoice at the glorious event of the French revolution.
If it be asked, ' What is the French rpvnlntinn to us ? ' we
answer as has already been answered in another place, ' Itjs
much — much to us as men ;' much to us as Englishmen  &&.
men, we rejoice in the freedom of twpnty-five millions of men.

316 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
We rejoice in the prospect which such a magnificent example
opens to the world.'
" w0 /-r.r.jTrpt-uhtft the Fr")?*1 n"*™" fnr hayinp; laid the axe
to the root of tyranny, and for erecting government on the
sacred hereditary rights nf man : rights. which appertain to all.
anrl nnt tn anyntip mnrp than ¦jr.r.tKer
" We know of no human authority superior to that of a whole
nation ; and we profess and claim it as our principle that every
nation has at all times an inherent and indefeasable right to
constitute and establish such government for itself as best
accords with, its disposition, interest, and happiness.
" As Englishmen we also rejoice, because we are immediately
interested in the French Revolution.
"Without inquiring into the justice, on either side, of the
reproachful charges of intrigue and ambition which the English
and French courts have constantly made on each other, we
confine ourselves to this observation, — that if the court of
France only was in fault, and the numerous wars which have
distressed both countries are chargeable to her alone, that court
now exists no longer, and the cause and the consequence must
cease together. Thp FlTTT^ +*"»rf»f<w'j Ky tV>a '-"•""biti^i th°y
have made, have conquered for us as well as for themselves, if
it be true that this court only was in fault, and ours never.
"On this side ofjhe case the French revnlnrinn ^pnrprns
jisjtnmediately : we are oppressed with a heavy national debt,
a burthen of taxes, an expensive administration "f fmvprn-
ment, beyonq those ot any people in thp,j»rnrlH
" We have also a very numerous poor ; and we hold that the
moraTobligkllOll Of providing tor old age, helpless infancy,
and poverty, is far superior to that of supplying the invented •
wants of courtly extravagance, ambition, and intrigue. -
" We believe there is no instance to be produced but in
England, of seven millions of inhabitants, which make but
" little mQr^Jhan^onejnillion families, paying yearly seventeen"
millions of taxes.
•"'- "As it has' always been held out by the administrations that
r'the restless ambition of the court of France rendered this ex-
pences necessary to us for our own defence, we consequently
rejoice, as men deeply interested in the French revolution.; for
that court, as we have already said, exists no longer, and

1791] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 317
consequently the s;xme enormous expences need not continue
to us.
" Thus rejoicing as we sincerely do, both as men and Eng
lishman, as lover?, ol universal peace and fieedom, and as
friends to our national prosperity and reductidri ot our public
expences, we caniipt but express our astonishment that any
part or any members Of our own government should reprobate
the extinction ot that very power in France, or wish^to see it~
restored, to whose influence they formerly attributed-( whilst
they appeared to lament) the enormous increase of our own
burthens and taxes. What, then, are they sorry that the pre
tence for new oppressivefaxes, and the occasion for continuing
many nld taxes, will be at an end. ? If so, and if it is the
policy of courts and court government *to prefer enemies to
friends, and a system of war to that of peace, as affording
more pretences for places, offices, pensions, revenue and tax
ation, j[t_jsjnghtime for the people of every nation to look
with circumspection to their own interest.
" Those who pay the expences, and not those who partici
pate in the emoluments arising from them, are the persons
immediately interested in inquiries of this kind. We are a
part of that national body on whom this annual expence of
seventeen millions falls ; and we consider the present oppor
tunity of the French revolution as a most happy one for
lessening the enormous load under which this nation groans.
If this be not done we shall then have reason to conclude that
the cry of intrigue and ambition against other courts is no
more than the common cant of all courts.
"We think it also necessary f" pvpwss "l1r astonishment
^jthat a government desirous of heing called free, should prefer
connexion with the most despotic and arbitrary powers in
Eftrope._ We know ot none more deserving this description
than those of Turkey and Prussia, and the whole combination
of German despots.
" Separated as we happily are by nature from the tumults of
the continent, we reprobate all systems and intrigues which
sacrifice (and that too at a great expence) the blessings of our
natural situation. Such systems cannot have a natural origin.
" If we are asked what government is aw Vir.M if tn h" '"'th
ing more than a national association : and we hold that to he.

318 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
the best which secures to every man his rights and promotes
tforgrgTggTV^ipnriry Qf_happiness~with the least expence. We
live to improve, or we live in vain ; and therefore we admit of
no maxims of government or policy on the mere scorcof1
antiquity or other men's authority, the olci'whigs or the new.
u We will exercise the reason with which we are endued, or
we possess it unworthily. As reason is given at all times, it is
for the purpose of being used at all times.
" Among tnp hlpssings which the French revolution Has
produced to that nation we enumerate the abolition of the
feudal system, of injustice, and of tyranny, on the j.th oL
Aligns^ 1780 Beneath the feudal system all Europe has long
groaned, and from it England is not yet free. Game laws,
Thorough tenures, and tyrannical moflbpolies of numerous
kinds still remain amongst us ; but rejoicing as we sincerely
do in the freedom of others till we shall haply accomplish our
own, we intended to commemorate this prelude to the uni
versal extirpation of the feudal system by meeting on the
anniversary of that day (the 4th of August) at the Crown and
Anchor : from this meeting we were prevented by the inter
ference of certain unnamed and sculking persons with the
master of the tavern, who informed us that on their repre
sentation he would not receive us. Let those who live by or
countenance feudal oppressions take the reproach of this
ineffectual meanness and cowardice to themselves : they
cannot stifle the public declaration of our honest, open, and
avowed opinions. These are our principles, and these our
sentiments ; they embrace the interest and happiness of the
great body of the nation of which we are a part. As to
riots and tumults, let those answer for them who by wilful
misrepresentations endeavour to excite and promote them ; or
who seek to stun the sense of the nation, and lose the great
cause of public good in the outrages of a mis-informed mob.
We take our ground on principles that require no such
riotous aid.
" We have nothing to apprehend from the poor for we are
pleading their cause ; and we fear not proud oppression for
we have truth on our side.
" We say and we repeat it that thp Fr^nrh iv>v»ii,ti™ r^^
Jo the, world an opportunity in which all good citizens must

1791] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 319
J
rejoice. tb,at of promoting the general happiness of rnan anH
tih^| it moreover offers to this country in particular an oppor-
tunify"of reducing our enormous taxes : these are our objects,
and we will pursue them. " "
A comparative study of Paine's two republican
manifestos — that placarded in Paris July ist, and
this of August 20th to the English — reveals the
difference between the two nations at that period.
*No break with the~throne in England is suggested,
as none had been declared in France until the
King had fled, leaving behind him a virtual proc
lamation of war against all the relorms he had
Jbeen signing since 1789. The Tria<rhpd Honse
address leaves it open for the King to take the
side of the Republic, and be its chief. The address
113 simply an applied " Declaration of Rights."
Paine had already maintained, in his reply to
Burke, that the English monarch was an importa
tion unrelated to the real nation, " which is left to
govern itself, and does govern itself, by magistrates
and juries, almost on its own charge, on republican*
principles." His chief complaint is that royalty is
an expensive "sinecure." So far had George III.
withdrawn from his attempt to govern as well as
reign, which had ended so disastrously in America.
The fall of the French King who had aid^d the
American " rebellion " was probably viewed with
satisfaction by the English court, so/ long as the
revolution confined itself to FranceT But now it
had raised its head in England/and the alarm of
aristocracy was as if it were .threatened with an
invasion of political cholera. (
The disease was brought/over by Paine. He

320 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [179X
must be isolated. But he had a hold or/ the peo
ple, including a large number of literary men, and
Nonconformist preachers. The authorities, there
fore, began working cautiously, privately inducing
the landlords of the Crown and Anchor and the
Thatched House to refuse their rooms to the
" Painites," as they were beginning to be called.
But this was a confession of Paine's power. In
deed all opposition at that time was favorable to
Paine. Publicola' s reply to " The Rights of
Man," attributed to Vice-President Adams, could
only heighten Paine's fame ; for John Adams'
blazing court-dress, which amused us at the Cen
tenary (1889), was not forgotten in England ; and
while his influence was limited to court circles, the
entrance of so high an official into the arena was
accepted as homage to the author. The publi
cation at the same time of the endorsement of
Paine's " Rights of Man " by the Secretary of State,
the great Jefferson, completed the triumph. The
English government now had Paine on its hands,
and must deal with him in one way or another.
The closing of one door after another of the
usual places of assembly to sympathizers with the
republican movement in France, being by hidden
hands, could not be charged upon Pitt's govern
ment ; It was, however, a plain indication that a
free expression through public meetings could not
be secured without risk of riots. And probably
there would have been violent scenes in London
had it not been for the moderation of the Quaker
\er ^r. At this juncture Paine held a supremacy
in the constitutional clubs of England and Ireland

1791] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. $21
/equal to that of Robespierre over the Jacobins of
/ /Paris. He had the giant's strength, but did not
| I use it like a giant. He sat himself down in a
| 1 quiet corner of London, began another book,
and from time to time consulted his Cabinet of
Reformers. His abode was with Thomas Rickman, a book
seller, his devoted friend. He had known Rickman
at Lewes, as a youthful musical genius of the club
there, hence called " Clio." He had then set some
song of Paine's to music, and afterwards his Ameri
can patriotic songs, as well as many of his own.
He now lived in London with wife and children —
these bearing names of the great republicans, be
ginning with Thomas Paine, — and with them the
author resided for a time. A particular value,
therefore, attaches to the following passages in
Rickman's book :
" Mr. Paine's life in London was a quiet round of philo
sophical leisure and enjoyment. It was occupied in writing,
in a small epistolary correspondence, in walking about with me
to visit different friends, occasionally lounging at coffee-houses
and public places, or being visited by a select few. Lord
Edward Fitzgerald, the French and American ambassadors,
Mr. Sharp the engraver, Romney the painter, Mrs. Wolstone-
craft, Joel Barlow, Mr. Hull, Mr. Christie, Dr. Priestley, Dr.
Towers, Col. Oswald, the walking Stewart, Captain Sampson
Perry, Mr. Tuffin, Mr. William Choppin, Captain De Stark,
Mr. Home Tooke, &c. &c. were among the number of his
friends and acquaintance ; and of course, as he was my in
mate, the most of my associates were frequently his. At this
time he read but little, took his nap after dinner, and played
with my family at some game in the evening, as chess, domi-
nos, and drafts, but never at cards ; in recitations, singing,
music, &c ; or passed it in conversation : the part he took in

VOL. 1. — 21

322 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
the latter was always enlightened, full of information, enter
tainment, and anecdote. Occasionally we visited enlightened
friends, indulged in domestic jaunts and recreations from
home, frequently lounging at the White Bear, Picadilly, with
his old friend the walking Stewart, and other clever travellers
from France, and different parts of Europe and America.
When by ourselves we sat very late, and often broke in on the
morning hours, indulging the reciprocal interchange of affec
tionate and confidential intercourse. ' Warm from the heart
and faithful to its fires ' was that intercourse, and gave to us
the ' feast of reason and the flow of soul.' "
" Mr. Paine in his person was about five feet ten inches high,
and rather athletic ; he was broad shouldered, and latterly
stooped a little. His eye, of which the painter could not con
vey the exquisite meaning, was full, brilliant, and singularly
piercing ; it had in it the ' muse of fire.' In his dress and per
son he was generally very cleanly, and wore his hair cued, with
side curls, and powdered, so that he looked altogether like a
gentleman of the old French school. His manners were easy
and gracious ; his knowledge was universal and boundless ;
in private company and among his friends his conversation
had every fascination that anecdote, novelty and truth could
give it. In mixt company and among strangers he said little,
and was no public speaker."
Paine does not appear to have ever learned that
his name had been pressed for a place in Washing
ton's Cabinet, and apparently he did not know
until long after it was over what a tempest in
Jefferson's teapot his book had innocently caused.
The facts came to him while he was engaged on
his next work, in which they are occasionally re
flected. In introducing an English friend to Wil
liam Short, U. S. Charge d' Affaires at Paris, under
date of November 2d, Paine reports progress :
" I received your favour conveying a letter from Mr. Jeffer
son and the answers to Publicola for which I thank you. I

1791] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 323
had John Adams in my mind when I wrote the pamphlet and
it has hit as I expected.
" M. Lenobia who presents you this is come to pass a few
days at Paris. He is a bon republicain and you will oblige me
much by introducing him among our friends of bon f oi. I am
again in the press but shall not be out till about Christmas,
when the Town will begin to fill. By what I can find, the
Government Gentry begin to threaten. They have already
tried all the under-plots of abuse and scurrility without effect ;
and have managed those in general so badly as to make the
work and the author the more famous ; several answers also
have been written against it which did not excite reading
enough to pay the expence of printing.
" I have but one way to be secure in my next work which
is, to go further than in my first. I see that great rogues escape
by the excess of their crimes, and, perhaps, it may be the same
in honest cases. However, I shall make a pretty large division
in the public opinion, probably too much so to encourage the
Government to put it to issue, for it will be rather like begging
them than me.
" By all the accounts we have here, the french emigrants are
in a hopeless condition abroad ; for my own part I never saw
anything to fear from foreign courts — they are more afraid of
the french Revolution than the revolution needs to be of
them ; and the same caution which they take to prevent the
french principles getting among their armies, will prevent their
sending armies among the principles.
" We have distressing accounts here from St. Domingo. It
is the natural consequence of Slavery and must be expected
every where. The Negroes are enraged at the opposition
made to their relief and are determined, if not to relieve them
selves to punish their enemies. We have no new accounts
from the East Indies, and people are in much doubt. I am,
affectionately yours, Thomas Paine."
The " scurrility " referred to may have been that
of George Chalmers, elsewhere mentioned. Two
days after this letter to Short was written Paine
received a notable ovation.

324 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
There was a so-called " Revolution Society " in
London, originally formed by a number of promi
nent dissenters. The Society had manifested its
existence only by listening to a sermon on the anni
versary of the Revolution of 1688 (November 4th)
and thereafter dining together. It had not been t
supposed to interest itself in any later revolution
until 1789. In that year the annual sermon was
delivered by Dr. Richard Price, the Unitarian whose
defence of the American Revolution received the
thanks of Congress. In 1776 Price and Burke
stood shoulder to shoulder, but the sermon of 1 789
sundered them. It was " On the Love of our
Country," and affirmed the constitutional right of
the English people to frame their own government,
to choose their own governors, and to cashier them
for misconduct. This was the " red rag " that drew
Burke into the arena. Dr. Price died April 19,
1 79 1, and his great discourse gathered new force
from the tributes of Priestley and others at his
grave. He had been a staunch friend of Paine,
and at the November festival of this year his place
was accorded to the man on whom the " Constitu
tionalists " beheld the mantle of Price and the
wreath of Washington. The company at this
dinner of 1791, at the London Tavern, included
many eminent men, some of them members of
Parliament. The old Society was transformed —
William and Mary and 1688 passed into oblivion
before Thomas Paine and 1791. It was probably
for this occasion that the song was written (by
whom I know not) — " Paine's Welcome to Great
Britain."

1791] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 325
" He comes — the great Reformer comes !
Cease, cease your trumpets, cease, cease your drums !
Those warlike sounds offend the ear,
Peace and Friendship now appear :
Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome,
Welcome, thou Reformer, here !
" Prepare, prepare, your songs prepare,
Freedom cheers the brow of care ;
The joyful tidings spread around,
Monarchs tremble at the sound !
Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, —
Rights of Man, and Paine resound ! "
.Mr. Dignum sang (to the tune of " The tear that
bedews sensibility's shrine.")
" Unfold, Father Time, thy long records unfold,
Of noble achievements accomplished of old ;
When men, by the standard of Liberty led,
Undauntedly conquered or chearfully bled :
But now 'midst the triumphs these moments reveal,
Their glories all fade and their lustre turns pale,
While France rises up, and proclaims the decree
That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free.
"As spring to the fields, or as dew to the flowers.
To the earth parched with heat, as the soft dropping showers,
As health to the wretch that lies languid and wan,
Or rest to the weary — is Freedom to man !
Where Freedom the light of her countenance gives,
There only he triumphs, there only he lives ;
Then seize the glad moment and hail the decree
That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free.
" Too long had oppression and terror entwined
Those tyrant-formed chains that enslaved the free mind ;
While dark superstition, with nature at strife,
For ages had locked up the fountain of life ;
But the daemon is fled, the delusion is past,

326 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1791
And reason and virtue have triumphed at last ;
Then seize the glad moments, and hail the decree,
That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free.
" France, we share in the rapture thy bosom that fills,
While the Genius of Liberty bounds o'er thy hills :
Redundant henceforth may thy purple juice flow,
Prouder wave thy green woods, and thine olive trees grow !
While the hand of philosophy long shall entwine,
Blest emblems, the laurel, the myrtle and vine,
And heaven through all ages confirm the decree
That tears off their chains, and bids millions be free ! "
Paine gave as his toast, " The Revolution of the
World," and no doubt at this point was sung " A
New Song," as it was then called, written by Paine
himself to the tune of " Rule Britannia" :
" Hail, Great Republic of the world,
The rising empire of the West,
Where famed Columbus, with a mighty mind inspired,
Gave tortured Europe scenes of rest.
Be thou forever, forever great and free,
The Land of Love and Liberty.
" Beneath thy spreading mantling vine,
Beside thy flowery groves and springs,
And on thy lofty, thy lofty mountains' brow,
May all thy sons and fair ones sing. Chorus.
" From thee may rudest nations learn
To prize the cause thy sons began ;
From thee may future, may future tyrants know
That sacred are the Rights of Man.
" From thee may hated discord fly,
With all her dark, her gloomy train ;
And o'er thy fertile, thy fertile wide domain
May everlasting friendship reign.

1791] FOUNDING THE EUROPEAN REPUBLIC. 327
" Of thee may lisping infancy
The pleasing wondrous story tell,
And patriot sages in venerable mood
Instruct the world to govern well.
" Ye guardian angels watch around,
From harm protect the new-born State ;
And all ye friendly, ye friendly nations join,
And thus salute the Child of Fate.
Be thou forever, forever great and free,
The Land of Love and Liberty ! "
Notwithstanding royal tremors these gentlemen
were genuinely loyal in singing the old anthem with
new words :
" God save the Rights of Man !
Give him a heart to scan
Blessings so dear ;
Let them be spread around,
Wherever Man is found,
And with the welcome sound
Ravish his ear ! "
No report is preserved of Paine's speech, but we
may feel sure that in giving his sentiment " The
Revolution of the World " he set forth his favorite
theme — that revolutions of nations should be as
quiet, lawful, and fruitful as the revolutions of the
earth.

CHAPTER XXII.
THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION.
The Abbe Sieyes did not escape by declining to
stand by his challenge of the republicans. In the
second part of "The Rights of Man " Paine con
siders the position of that gentleman, namely, jjiat
hereditary monarchy is an evil, but the elective
mode historically proven worse. That both are
bad Paine agrees, but " such a mode of reasoning
on such a subject is inadmissible, because it finally
amounts to an accusation of providence, as if she
had left to man no other choice with respect to
government than between two evils." Every now
and then this Quaker Antaeus touches his mother
earth — the theocratic principle — in this way ; the
invigoration is recognizable in a religious serious
ness, which, however, makes no allowance for the
merely ornamental parts of government, always so
popular. " The splendor of a throne is the corrup
tion of a state." However, the time was too serious
for the utility of bagatelles to be much considered
by any. Paine engages Sieves on his own ground,
and brings historic evidence to prove that the wars
of succession, civil and foreign, show hereditary a
worse evil than elective headship, as illustrated by
Poland, Holland, and America. But he does not
328

I792] THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION.

329

defend the method of either of these countries, and
clearly shows that he is, as Sieyes said, a " poly-
crat," so far as the numerical composition of the
Executive is concerned.1 He affirms, however, that
governing is no function of a republican Executive.
The law alone governs. " The sovereign authority
in any country is the power of making laws, and
everything else is an official department."
More than fifty thousand copies of the first part of
" The Rights of Man " had been sold, and the public
hungrily awaited the author's next work. But he
kept back his proofs until Burke should fulfil his
promise of returning to the subject and comparing
the English and French constitutions. He was dis
appointed, however, at finding no such comparison
in Burke's "Appeal from the New to the Old
Whigs." It. did, however, contain a menace that
was worth waiting for.
" Oldys " (Chalmers) says that Paine was disap
pointed at not being arrested for his first pamphlet
on " The Rights of Man," and had, " while flutter
ing on the wing for Paris, hovered about London a
whole week waiting to be taken." It is, indeed,
possible that he would have been glad to elicit just
then a fresh decision from the courts in favor of
freedom of speech and of the press, which would
strengthen faint hearts. If he had this desire he
was resolved not to be disappointed a second time.
1 " I have always been opposed to the mode of refining government up to
an individual, or what is called a single Executive. Such a man will always
be the chief of a party. A plurality is far better. It combines the mass of
a nation better together. And besides this, it is necessary to the manly mind
of a republic that it lose the debasing idea of obeying an individual." —
Paine MS.

33°

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1792

A publisher (Chapman) offered him a thousand
guineas for the manuscript of Part II. Paine de
clined ; " he wished to reserve it in his own hands."
Facts afterwards appeared which rendered it prob
able that this was a ministerial effort to suppress
the book.1
Paine's Part Second was to appear about the first
of February, or before the meeting of Parliament.
But the printer (£hj}pma«) threw up the publica
tion, alleging its " dangerous tendencies," whereby
it was delayed until February 17th, when it was
published by -JjQrdan. Meanwhile, his elaborate
scheme for reducing taxes so resembled that which
Pitt had just proposed in Parliament that the author
appended his reasons for believing that his pages
had been read by the government clerk, Chalmers,
and his plan revealed to Pitt. " Be the case, how
ever, as it may, Mr. Pitt's plan, little and diminutive
as it is, would have made a very awkward appear-
1 Paine may, indeed, only have apprehended alterations, which he always
dreaded. His friends, knowing how much his antagonists had made of his
grammatical faults, sometimes suggested expert revision. " He would say,"
says Richard Carlile, ' ' that he only wished to be known as he was, without
being decked with the plumes of another."
At the time (September) when Chapman began printing Paine's Part II.,
George Chalmers brought to the same press his libellous " Life of Pain."
On learning that Chapman was printing Paine, Chalmers took his book
away. As Chalmers was a government employe, and his work larger, Chap
man returned Paine's work to him half printed, and the Chalmers book was
restored to him. As Chapman stated in his testimony, and so wrote to Paine
(January 17, 1792), that he was unwilling to go on with the printing because
of the dangerous tendency of a part of it, his offer of a thousand guineas for
it could only have contemplated its expurgation or total suppression. That
it was the latter, and that the money was to be paid by the government, is
rendered probable by the evidences in Chalmers' book, when it appeared,
that he had been allowed the perusal of Paine's manuscript while in Chap
man's hands. Chalmers also displays intimate knowledge of Chapman's
business transactions with Paine.

1792] THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION. 33 1
ance had this work appeared at the time the printer
had engaged to finish it." f
In the light of Pitt's subsequent career it is a/.
significant fact that, in the "beginning of 1792, he j
should be suspected of stealing Paine's thunde^g
And, indeed, throughout Paine's Part Second / Qf
tone towards Pitt implies some expectatioiw?ng._
reform from him. Its severity is that which / for a
lish agitators for constitutional reform have* q^e
half century made familiar and honorable^Qj-j^ ^g
historical student finds mirrored in t^' Seen at its
rosy picture of the United States -0f J£urope and

dawn by the disfranchised people k

bw hardly credi-

beside that a burdened England ^ fflt of the powers
ble. IrtiacJudes an historical state^ ially distributed
claimed bv the rrown and gra^ ^elective com-
arnono^ non-elective peers and 'xj£e <>n of alljthree
fnoners the result being a comb^ knt any degree of
against admission of the pftopkjjigftment is heavy,
self-government. Though the arri wjth moderation.
the method of reform is set fortlijt, ancj England is
Particular burdens are pointed ol^on by accommo-
warned to escape violent revol;|t is admitted that
dating itself to the new age. IVcted. "Mankind
no new system need be constru^p0wer) have had
(from the long tyranny of assumedL necessary trials
so few opportunities of making tH0pWt, in order to
on modes and principles of goverg a s^w now begin-
discover the best, that governme' £et wanting to
wing to be known, and experienc frankly retracts
determine many particulars." Pis> i,: |the legislature
an old opinion o£gjJus owm_ ^^As that, though
should be unicame o^^-j a sum

332 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1792
there should be but one representation, it might
secure wiser deliberation to divide it, by lot, into
\two or three parts. " Every proposed bill shall
'first be debated in those parts, by succession,
t"|at they may become hearers of each other, but
wl\hout taking any vote ; after which the whole
representation to assemble, for a general debate,
and l determination by vote." The great neces-
sltY % that England shall gather its people, by
repres^ntatiorii m convention and frame a consti
tution wnlu^ shall contain the means of peaceful
development ym accordance with enlightenment
and necessity.
In rart 1. )\ ^ne stated his general principles
with some re^ nations, in view of the survival
y7rench constitution. In Part II.
Vesophy is freely and fully devel
oped, and mayWMBummarized as follows :
i. Governmot^jg the organization of the aggre
gate of those na\raj rights which individuals are
not competent to <Lcure individually, and therefore
surrender to the control of society in exchange for
the protection of alj rights.
2. Republican government is that in which the
welfare of the who/le nation is the object.
3. Monarchy 1S government, more or less arbi
trary, in which lhe interests of an individual are
paramount to £Ke of the people generally.
4. AnstocrLdencv. government, partially arbitrary,
in which theVtemp^ of a dass ^ paramount
to those of the* the e>ie generany>
5. DemocracW th the whok le erning
themselves witr.r!! -i„_7 m^nc.
Vith Paine. <ary means.

of royalty in tdj.
his political pla

1792] THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION. 333
6. Representative government is the control of a
nation by persons elected by the whole nation.
7. The Rights of Man mean the right of all
to representation.
Democracy, simple enough in small and primitive
societies, degenerates into confusion by extension
to large populations. Monarchy, which originated
amid such confusion, degenerates into incapacity
by extension to vast and complex interests requir
ing " an assemblage of practical knowledges which
no one individual can possess." " The aristocratical
form has the same vices and defects with the mon
archical, except that the chance of abilities is better
from the proportion of numbers."
The representative republic advocated by Paine
is different from merely epitomized democracy.
"Representation is the delegated monarchy of ..a
natignj' In the early days of the American repub
lic, when presidential electors were independent of
the constituents who elected them, the filtration of
democracy was a favorite principle among repub
licans. Paine evidently regards the representative
as different from a delegate, or mere commissioner
carrying out instructions. The representatives of
a people are clothed with their sovereignty ; that,
and not opinions or orders, has been transferred
to them by constituencies. Hence we find Paine,
after describing the English people as " fools "
(p. 260), urging representation as a sort of natural
selection of wisdom.
"Whatever wisdom constituently is, it is like a seedless
plant ; it may be reared when it appears, but it cannot be vol
untarily produced. There is always a sufficiency somewhere

334 THE LIFE 0F THOMAS PAINE. [J792
in the general mass of society for all purposes ; but, with
respect to the parts of society, it is continually changing place.
It rises in one today, in another tomorrow, and has most
probably visited in rotation every family of the earth, and
again withdrawn. As this is the order of nature, the order
of government must follow it, or government will, as we see
it does, degenerate into ignorance. The hereditary system
therefore, is as repugnant to human wisdom as to human
rights ; and is as absurd as unjust. As the republic of letters
brings forward the best literary productions, by giving to
genius a fair and universal chance, so the representative system
is calculated to produce the wisest laws, by collecting wisdom
where it can be found."
We have seen that "Publicola" (John Quincy
Adams) in his answer to Paine's Part I. had left
the people no right to alter government but the
right of revolution, by violence ; Erskine pointed
out that Burke's pamphlet had similarly closed
every other means of reform. Paine would civilize
reformation :
" Formerly, when divisions arose respecting governments,
recourse was had to the sword, and civil war ensued. That
savage custom is exploded by the new system, and reference
is had to national conventions. Discussion and the general
will arbitrate the question, private opinion yields with a good
grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted."
Thus he is really trying to supplant the right
of revolution with the right of evolution :
" It is now towards the middle of February. Were I to take
a turn in the country the trees would present a leafless wintery
appearance. As people are apt to pluck twigs as they go
along, I perhaps might do the same, and by chance might
observe that a single bud on that twig had begun to smell. I
should reason very unnaturally, or rather not reason at all to

I792] THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION.

335

suppose this was the only bud in England which had this
appearance. Instead of deciding thus, I should instantly
conclude that the same appearance was beginning, or about
to begin, everywhere ; and though the vegetable sleep will
continue longer on some trees and plants than others, and
though- some of them may not blossom for two or three years,
all will be in leaf in the summer, except those which are rotten.
What pace the political summer may keep with the natural, no
human foresight can determine. It is, however, not difficult
to perceive that the Spring is begun. Thus wishing, as I
sincerely do, freedom and happiness to all nations, I close the
Second Part."
Apparently the publisher expected trouble. In
the Gazetteer, January 25th, had appeared the fol
lowing notice :
" Mr. Paine, it is known, is to produce another book this
season. The composition of this is now past, and it was given
a few weeks since to two printers, whose presses it was to go
through as soon as possible. They printed about half of it,
and then, being alarmed by some intimations, refused to go
further. Some delay has thus occurred, but another printer
has taken it, and in the course of the next month it will appear.
Its title is to be a repetition of the former, ' The Rights of
Man,' of which the words ' Part the Second ' will shew that it
is a continuation."
That the original printer, Chapman, impeded the
publication is suggested by the fact that on Febru
ary 7th, thirteen days after the above announcement,
Paine writes : " Mr. Chapman, please to deliver to
Mr. Jordan the remaining sheets of the Rights of
Man." And that " some intimations" were received
by Jordan also may be inferred from the following
note and enclosure to him :
" February 16, 1792. — For your satisfaction and my own, I
send you the enclosed, tho' I do not apprehend there will be

336 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l792
any occasion to use it. If, in case there should, you will im
mediately send a line for me under cover to Mr. Johnson, St.
Paul's Church-Yard, who will forward it to me, upon which I
shall come and answer personally for the work. Send also to
Mr. Home Tooke.— T. P."
"February 16, 1792. — Sir: Should any person, under the
sanction of any kind of authority, enquire of you respecting
the author and publisher of the Rights of Man, you will please
to mention me as the author and publisher of that work, and
shew to such person this letter. I will, as soon as I am made
acquainted with it, appear and answer for the work person
ally. — Your humble servant,
" Thomas Paine.
" Mr. Jordan,
No. 166 Fleet-street."
Some copies were in Paine's hands three days
before publication, as appears by a note of February
13th to Jefferson, on hearing of Morris' appointment
as Minister to France :
, " Mr. Kennedy, who brings this to New York, is on the
point of setting out. I am therefore confined to time. I have
enclosed six copies of my work for yourself in a parcel
addressed to the President, and three or four for my other
friends, which I wish you to take the trouble of presenting.
" I have just heard of Governeur Morris's appointment. 77
is a most unfortunate one; and, as I shall mention the same
thing to him when I see him, I do not express it to you with
the injunction of confidence. He is just now arrived in Lon
don, and this circumstance has served, as I see by the french
papers, to increase the dislike and suspicion of some of that
nation and the National Assembly against him.
" In the present state of Europe it would be best to make no
appointments." Lafayette wrote Washington a strong private
protest against Morris, but in vain. Paine spoke
frankly to Morris, who mentions him on Washing
ton's birthday :

1792] THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION. 337
"February 22. I read Paine's new publication today, and
tell him that I am really afraid he will be punished. He seems
to laugh at this, and relies on the force he has in the nation.
He seems to become every hour more drunk with self-conceit.
It seems, however, that his work excites but little emotion, and
rather raises indignation. I tell him that the disordered state
of things in France works against all schemes of reformation
both here and elsewhere. He declares that the riots and out
rages in France are nothing at all. It is not worth while to
contest such declarations. I tell him, therefore, that as I am
sure he does not mean what he says, I shall not dispute it.
Visit the Duchess of Gordon, who tells me that she supposes I
give Paine his information about America, and speaks very
slightly of our situation, as being engaged in a civil war with
the Indians. I smile, and tell her that Britain is also at war
with Indians, though in another hemisphere."
In his appendix Paine alludes vaguely to the
book of George Chalmers (" Oldys ").
" A ministerial bookseller in Picadilly, who has been em
ployed, as common report says, by a clerk of one of the boards
closely connected with the Ministry (the board of Trade and
Plantations, of which Lord Hawkesbury is president) to pub
lish what he calls my Life (I wish his own life and that of the
Cabinet were as good,) used to have his books printed at
the same printing office that I employed."
In his fifth edition Chalmers claims that this
notice of his work, unaccompanied by any denial
of its statements, is an admission of their truth.
It looks as if Paine had not then seen the book,
but he never further alluded to it. There was
nothing in Chalmers' political or orthographical
criticisms requiring answer, and its tar and feathers
were so adroitly mixed, and applied with such a
masterly hand, that Paine had to endure his liter
ary lynching in silence. " Nothing can lie like

VOL. 1.— 22

338 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1792
the truth." x Chalmers' libels were so ingeniously
interwoven with the actual stumbles and humili
ations of Paine's early life, that the facts could
not be told without dragging before the public
his mother's corpse, and breaking treaty with his
divorced wife. Chalmers would have been more
successful as a government employe in this busi
ness had he not cared more for himself than for his
party. By advertising, as we have seen (Preface, xv),
his first edition as a "Defence "of Paine's writings he
reaped a pecuniary harvest from the Painites before
the substitution of " Review" tempted the Burkites.
This trick probably enraged more than it converted.
The pompous pseudonym covered a vanity weak
enough to presently drop its lion skin, revealing
ears sufficiently long to expect for a government
clerk the attention accorded to a reverend M.A.
of the University of Pennsylvania. This degree
was not only understood in England with a clerical
connotation, but it competed with Paine's " M.A."
from the same institution. The pseudonym also con
cealed the record of Chalmers as a Tory refugee
from Maryland, and an opponent of Burke, long
enough to sell several editions. But the author
was known early in 1792, and was named in an
important pamphlet by no means altogether favor
able to Paine. After rebuking Paine for personali
ties towards men whose station prevents reply, this
1 Not that Chalmers confines himself to perversions of fact. The book
bore on its title-page five falsehoods: "Pain," instead of "Paine";
" Francis Oldys" ; " A. M." ; " University of Pennsylvania" ; " With a
Defence of his Writings." There is a marked increase of virulence with
the successive editions. The second is in cheap form, and bears at the back
of its title this note: "Read this, and then hand it to others who are
requested to do likewise. "

1792] THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION. 339
writer also disagrees with him about the Constitu
tion. But he declares that Paine has collected the
essence of the most venerated writers of Europe
in the past, and applied the same to the executive
government, which cannot stand the test.
" The Constitution will ; but the present mode of administer
ing that Constitution must shrink from the comparison. And
this is the reason, that foolish Mr. Rose of the Treasury trem
bles on the bench, and the crafty clerk in Lord Hawkesbury's
office, carries on his base attacks against Paine by sap, fights
him under the mask of a Philadelphia parson, fit disguise for
the most impudent falsehoods that ever were published, and
stabs him in the dark. But, of tj»is upstart clerk at the
Cockpit, more hereafter." '
George Chalmers being mentioned by name in
this and other pamphlets, and nothing like a repu
diation coming from him or from " Oldys " in any
of his ten editions, the libel recoiled on the gov
ernment, while it damaged Paine. The meanness
of meeting inconvenient arguments by sniffing
village gossip for private scandals was resented,
and the calumnies were discounted. Nevertheless,
there was probably some weakening in the " Pain-
ite " ranks. Although this " un-English " tracking
of a man from his cradle, and masked assassination
angered the republicans, it could hardly fail to
intimidate some. In every period it has been seen
that the largest interests, even the liberties, of
English peoples may be placed momentarily at the
mercy of any incident strongly exciting the moral
sentiment. A crafty clerk accuses Paine of mal-
1 ' ' Paine's Political and Moral Maxims, etc. By a Free-Born English
man. London. Printed for H. D. Symonds, Paternoster Row, 1792." The
introductory letter is dated May 15th.

340

THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. [l792

treating his wife ; the leader's phalanx of friends is
for one instant disconcerted ; Burke perceives the
opportunity and points it out to the King ; Pitt
must show equal jealousy of royal authority ;
Paine is prosecuted. There is little doubt that
Pitt was forced to this first step which reversed the
traditions of English freedom, and gave that Min
ister his historic place as the English Robespierre
of counter-revolution.1
On May 14th Paine, being at Bromley, Kent,
learned that the government had issued summons
against Jordan, his publisher. He hastened to
London and assumed the expense of Jordan's
defence. Jordan, however, privately conpromised
the affair by agreeing to plead guilty, surrender
his notes relating to Paine, and receive a verdict
to the author's prejudice — that being really the end
of the government's business with the publisher.
On May 21st a summons was left on Paine at his
London lodgings (Rickman's house) to appear at
the Court of King's Bench on June 8th. On the
same day issued a royal proclamation against sedi
tious writings. On May 25th, in the debate on the
Proclamation, Secretary Dundas said in the House
of Commons that the proceedings against Jordan
were instituted because Mr. Paine could not be
found. Thereupon Paine, detecting the unreality
of the prosecution of his publisher, addressed a
letter to the Attorney-General. Alluding to the
remark of Dundas in Parliament, he says :
'"Pitt 'used to say,' according to Lady Hester Stanhope, 'that
Tom Paine was quite in the right, but then he would add, what am I to
do ? As things are, if I were to encourage Tom Paine's opinions we should
have a bloody revolution." — Encyclop. Britannica.

1792] THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION. 341
" Mr. Paine, Sir, so far from secreting himself never went
a step out of his way, nor in the least instance varied from his
usual conduct, to avoid any measure you might choose to
adopt with respect to him. It is on the purity of his heart,
and the universal utility of the principles and plans which his
writings contain, that he rests the issue ; and he will not dis
honour it by any kind of subterfuge. The apartments which
he occupied at the time of writing the work last winter, he has
/continued to occupy to the present hour, and the solicitors of
i the prosecution know where to find him ; of which there is a
i proof in their own office, as far back as the 21st of May, and
'. also in the office of my own attorney. — But admitting, for the
sake of the case, that the reason for proceeding against the
publication was, as Mr. Dundas stated, that Mr. Paine could
not be found, that reason can now exist no longer. The in
stant that I was informed that an information was preparing
to be filed against me as the author of, I believe, one of the
most useful and benevolent books ever offered to mankind, I
directed my attorney to put in an appearance ; and as I shall
meet the prosecution fully and fairly, and with a good and up
right conscience, I have a right to expect that no act of little
ness will be made use of on the part of the prosecution towards
influencing the future issue with respect to the author. This
expression may, perhaps, appear obscure to you, but I am in the
possession of some matters which serve to show that the action
against the publisher is not intended to be a real action."
He then intimates that, if his suspicions should
prove . well-founded, he will withdraw from his in
tention of defending the publisher, and proposes
that the case against Jordan be given up. At the
close of his letter Paine says :
"I believe that Mr. Burke, finding himself defeated, has
been one of the promoters of this prosecution ; and I shall re
turn the compliment by shewing, in a future publication, that
he has been a masked pensioner at ,£1500 per annum for
about ten years. Thus it is that the public money is wasted,
and the dread of public investigation is produced."

342 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l79*
The secret negotiations with the publisher being
thus discovered, no more was heard of Jordan, ex
cept that his papers were brought out at Paine's
trial. The Information against Paine, covering forty-
one pages, octavo, is a curiosity. It recites that
" Thomas Paine, late of London, gentleman, being a wicked,
malicious, seditious, and ill-disposed person, and being greatly
disaffected to our said Sovereign Lord the now King, and to
the happy constitution and government of this kingdom . . .
and to bring them into hatred and contempt, on the sixteenth
day of February, in the thirty-second year of the reign of our
said present Sovereign Lord the King, with force and arms at
London aforesaid, to wit, in the parish of St. Mary le Bone, in
the Ward of Cheap, he, the said Thomas, wickedly, maliciously
and seditiously, did write and publish, and caused to be written
and published, a certain false, scandalous, malicious, and sedi
tious libel, of and concerning the said late happy Revolution,
and the said settlements and limitations of the crown and regal
governments of the said kingdoms and dominions ... in
tituled, ' Rights of Man, Part the Second, Combining principle
and practice.' ... In one part thereof, according to the
tenor and effect following, that is to say, ' All hereditary gov
ernment is in its nature tyranny. An heritable crown ' (mean
ing, amongst others, the crown of this kingdom) ' or an heritable
throne,' (meaning the throne of this kingdom), ' or by what-
other fanciful name such things may be called, have no other
significant explanation than that mankind are heritable prop
erty. To inherit a government is to inherit the people, as if
they were flocks and herds.' . . . ' The time is not very
distant when England will laugh at itself for sending to Hol
land, Hanover, Zell, or Brunswick, for men ' (meaning the said
King William the Third, and King George the First) ' at the
expence of a million a year, who understood neither her laws,
her language, nor her interest, and whose capacities would
scarcely have fitted them for the office of a parish constable.
If government could be trusted to such hands, it must be some

1792] THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION. 343
easy ai \& simple thing indeed ; and materials fit for all the
purposifes may be found in every town and village in England.'
In contempt of our said Lord the now King and his laws, to
the evii 1 example of all others in like case offending, and against
the pes; tee of our said Lord the King, his crown and dignity.
Where upon the said Attorney General of our said Lord the
King, who for our said Lord the King in this behalf, prose-
cuteth jfor our said Lord the King, prayeth the consideration
of the tpourt here in the premises, and that due process of law
may bet awarded against him, the said Thomas Paine, in this
behalf, (to make him answer to our said Lord the King, touch
ing awfl concerning the premises aforesaid.
"T<jo this information the defendant hath appeared, and
plead/ed Not Guilty, and thereupon issue is joined."
The specifications and quotations in the Informa
tion are reiterated twice, in one case (Paine's note
on William and Mary centenary), three times.1 It
is marvellous that such an author, martial with
" force and arms," could still walk freely about
London. But the machinery for suppressing
thought had always a tendency to rust in England ;
it had to be refurbished. To the royal proclamation
against seditious writings corporations and rotten
boroughs responded with loyal addresses. In the
1 " I happened to be in England at the celebration of the centenary of the
Revolution of 1688. The characters of William and Mary have always ap
peared to me detestable ; the one seeking to destroy his uncle, the other her
father, to get possession of power themselves ; yet, as the nation was dis
posed to think something of the event, I felt hurt at seeing it ascribe the
whole reputation of it to a man who had undertaken it as a job ; and who
besides what he otherwise got, charged six hundred thousand pounds for the
expense of the little fleet that brought him from Holland. George the First
acted the same close-fisted part as William had done, and bought the Duchy
of Bremen with the money he got from England, two hundred and fifty
thousand pounds over and above his pay as King ; and, having thus pur
chased it at the expense of England, added it to his Hanoverian dominions
for his own private profit. In fact every nation that does not govern itself
is governed as a job. England has been the prey of jobs ever since the
Revolution."

344

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. I [1792

debate on that proclamation (May 25th) Secretary
Dundas and Mr. Adam had arraigned Pain^JH, and
he addressed an open letter to the Secretary j(June
6th) which was well received. Mr. Adam had! said
that 1
" He had well considered the subject of constitutional! publi
cations, and was by no means ready to say that books) of sci
ence upon government though recommending a doctpne or
system different from the form of our constitution i^ere fit
objects of prosecution ; that if he did, he must condemn Har
rington for his Oceana, Sir Thomas More for his Utopia,
and Hume for his Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth. Bnt the
publication of Mr. Paine reviled what was most sacred in the
Constitution, destroyed every principle of subordination, and
established nothing in their room."
The real difficulty was that Paine had put some
thing in the room of hereditary monarchy — not a
Utopia, but the representative system of the
United States. He now again compares the govern
mental expenses of England and America and their
condition. He shows that the entire government
of the United States costs less than the English
pension list alone.
" Here is a form and system of government that is better
organized than any other government in the world, and that
for less than one hundred thousand pounds, and yet every
member of Congress receives as a compensation for his time
and attendance on public business, one pound seven shilings
per day, which is at the rate of nearly five hundred pounds a
year. This is a government that has nothing to fear. It needs
no proclamations to deter people from writing and reading.
It needs no political superstition to support it. It was by en
couraging discussion and rendering the press free upon all
subjects of government, that the principles of government be
came understood in America, and the people are now enjoying

792]

THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION. 345

their present blessings under it. You hear of no riots,
tumul ts and disorders in that country ; because there exists
no ca use to produce them. Those things are never the
effect of freedom, but of restraint, oppression, and excessive
taxation." On June 8th Paine appeared in court and was
muclla disappointed by the postponement of his
trial l to December. Lord Onslow having sum-
moneld a meeting at Epsom of the gentry in Sur
rey, 'to respond to the proclamation, receives due
notice. Paine sends for presentation to the gentle-
meri one hundred copies of his " Rights of Man,"
one thousand of his " Letter to Dundas." The
bearer is Home Tooke, who opens his speech of
presentation by remarking on the impropriety that
the meeting should be presided over by Lord Ons
low, a bed-chamber lord (sinecure) at ,£1,000, with a
pension of ^3,000. Tooke, being cut short, his
speech was continued by Paine, whose two letters
to Onslow (June 17th and 21st) were widely circu
lated.1 On June 20th was written a respectful letter
to the Sheriff of Sussex, or other presiding officer,
requesting that it be read at a meeting to be held
in Lewes. This interesting letter has already been
quoted in connection with Paine's early residence
at Lewes. In these letters the author reinforces
his accused book, reminds the assemblies of their
illegal conduct in influencing the verdict in a pend
ing matter, taunts them with their meanness in
1 To this noble pensioner and sinecurist he says: "What honour or
happiness you can derive from being the principal pauper of the neighbor
hood, and occasioning a greater expence than the poor, the aged, and the
infirm for ten miles round, I leave you to enjoy. At the same time I can
see that it is no wonder you should be strenuous in suppressing a book which
strikes at the root of these abuses. "

346 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. ([1792
seeking to refute by brute force what forty pamph
lets had failed to refute by argument. |
The meeting at Lewes, his old town, to resjpond
to the proclamation occurred on the fourt|h of
July. That anniversary of his first cause was {cele
brated by Paine also. Notified by his publjisher
that upwards of a thousand pounds stood tfo his
credit, he directed it to be all sent as a present to
the Society for Constitutional Information.1 \
A careful tract of 1793 estimates the sakk of
' The Rights of Man " up to that year at 200,000
copies.2 In the opinion of the famous publisher
of such literature, Richard Carlile, the king's proc
lamation seriously impeded the sale. " One part
of the community is afraid to sell, and another to
purchase, under such conditions. It is not too much
to say that, if ' Rights of Man ' had obtained two
or three years' free circulation in England and
Scotland, it would have produced a similar effect
to that which ' Common Sense ' did in the United
States." However, the. reign of terror had not
yet begun in France, nor the consequent reign of
panic in England.
1 The Argus, July 6, 1792. See " Biographia Addenda," No. vii., Lon
don, 1792. To the same society Paine had given the right to publish his
" Letter to Dundas," "Common Sense,'' and " Letter to Raynal" in new
editions. ! "Impartial Memoirs of the Life of Thomas Paine," London, 1793.
There were numbers of small " Lives " of Paine printed in these years, but
most of them were mere stealings from " Oldys."

CHAPTER XXIII.
THE DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION.
The prosecution of Paine in England had its
counterpart in a shrine across the channel. The
Moniteur, June 17, 1792, announces the burning
of Paine's works at " Excester," and the expulsion
from Manchester of a man pointed out as Paine.
Since April 16th his " Rights of Man," sympatheti
cally translated by M. Lanthenas, had been in
every French home. Paine's portrait, just painted
in England by Romney and engraved by Sharpe,
was in every cottage, iramed in immortelles. In
this book the philosophy of visionary reformers
took practical shape. F^rom thp a^h^ of Rous
seau^ "Contrat Soria1r" burnt in Pan's, rnSp " Thf>„
Rights of Man," no phcenix, but an eagle of J;he
npw^world, with pyp not hlinrlpd hy nny roynl cii.n.1.
It comes to tell how by union of France and
America — of Lafayette and Washington — the
"Contrat Social" was framed into the Constitu
tion of a happy and glorious new earth, over it
a new heaven unclouded by priestly power or
superstitions. By that book of Paine's (Part I),
1 L'Esprit du Contrat Social ; suivi de l'Esprit de Sens Commun de
Thomas Paine. Presente a la Convention. Par le Citoyen Boinvilliers,
Instituteur et ci-devant Membre de plusieurs Societes Litteraires. L'an
second. 347

348 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l792
the idea of a national convention was made the
purpose of the French leaders who were really
inspired by an " enthusiasm ot humanity." In De
cember. 1 701. when the legislature sirs paralyzed
iinderrpyal vetoes, Paine's panacea is proposed.1
On the tenth of August, 1792, after the massa
cre of the Marseillese by the King's Swiss guards,
one book, hurled from the window of the mobbed
palace, felled an American spectator — Robert
Gilmor, of Baltimore — who consoled himself by
carrying it home. The book, now in the collection of
Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, New York, was a copy of
" The Thirteen Constitutions," translated by Frank
lin's order into French (1783) and distributed
among the monarchs of Europe.2 What a con
trast between the peace and order amid which the
thirteen peoples, when the old laws and authorities
were abolished, formed new ones, and these scenes
in France ! " For upwards of two years from the
commencement of the American war," wrote Paine,
" and a longer period, in several of the American
States, there were no established forms of govern
ment. The old governments had been abolished,
and the country was too much occupied in defence
to employ its attention in establishing new govern
ments ; yet, during this interval, order and har
mony were preserved as inviolate as in any coun-
1 ' ' Veto after Veto ; your thumbscrew paralysed ! Gods and men may see
that the Legislature is in a false position. As, alas, who is in a true one ?
Voices already murmur for a National Convention." — Carlyle.
2 " Constitutions des Treize Etats-Unis de l'Amerique." The French
king's arms are on the red morocco binding, and on the title a. shield,
striped and winged ; above this thirteen minute stars shaped into one large
star, six-pointed. For the particulars of Franklin's gift to the monarchs
see Sparks' " Franklin,'' x., p. 39. See also p. 290 of this volume.

1792] DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION. 349
try in Europe." When Burke pointed to the first
riots in France, Paine could make a retort : the
mob is what your cruel governments have made it,
and only proves how necessary the overthrow of
such governments. That French human nature
was different from English nature he could not
admit. Liberty and equality would soon end these
troubles of transition. On that came f-pnrh of An.
gi^jlPainp'q two great preliminaries are adopted :
tjip hereditary representative is superseded and a
national convention is called. The machinery for
such convention, the constituencies, the objects
of it. had been read in " The Rights of Man." as
illustrated in the United States and Pennsylvania,
by every French statesman.1 It was the American
Republic they were about to found ; and notwith
standing the misrepresentation of that nation by
its surviving courtiers, these French republicans
recognized their real American Minister : Paine is
summoned. On August 26, 1792, the National Assembly, on
proposal of M. Guadet, in the name of the " Com
mission Extraordinaire," conferred the .title of
French citizen on " Priestley, Payne, Benthom,
Wilberforce, Clarkson, Mackintosh, David Wil
liams, Gorani, Anacharsis Clootz, Campe, Cor-
melle, Paw, N. Pestalozzi, Washington, Hamilton,
Maddison, Klopstoc, Kosciusko, Gilleers." Schiller
1 " Theorie et Pratique des Droits de l'Homme. Par Thomas Paine, Secre
taire du Congres au Departement des Affaires Etrangeres pendant la guerre
d'Amerique, auteur du ' Sens Commun,' et des Reponses a Burke. Traduit
en Francais par F. Lanthenas, D.M., et par le Traducteur du "Sens
Commun." A Paris : Chez les Directeurs de l'lmprimerie du Cercle
Social, rue du Theatre Francais, No. 4. 1792. L'an quatrieme de La
Liberte."

350 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l79«
was afterwards added, and on September 25th the
Patriote announces the same title conferred on
Thomas Cooper, John Home Tooke, John Oswald,
George Boies, Thomas Christie, Dr. Joseph War
ner, Englishmen, and Joel Barlow, American.1
Paine was elected to the French Convention by
three different departments — Oise, Puy-de-D6me,
and Pas-de-Calais. The votes appear to have been
unanimous. Here is an enthusiastic appeal (Riom, le 8 Sep-
tembre) signed by Louvet, " auteur de la Senti-
nelle," and thirty-two others, representing nine
communes, to Paine, that day elected representa
tive of Puy-de-D6me :

" Your love for humanity, for liberty and equality, the useful
works that have issued from your heart and pen in their
defence, have determined our choice. It has been hailed with
universal and reiterated applause. Come, friend of the people,
to swell the number of patriots in an assembly which will
decide the destiny of a great people, perhaps of the human
race. The happy period you have predicted for the nations
{has arrived. Come ! do not deceive their hope ! "
But already Calais, which elected him September
6th, had sent a municipal officer, Achille Audibert,
to London, to entreat Paine's acceptance. Paine
was so eager to meet the English government in
court, that he delayed his answer. But his friends
had reason to fear that his martyrdom might be
less mild than he anticipated, and urged his accept
ance. There had been formed a society of the
" Friends of Liberty," and, at its gathering of Sep
tember 1 2th, Paine appears to have poured forth
1 " Life and Letters of Joel Barlow," etc., by Charles Burr Todd, New
York, 1886, p. 97.

1792] DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION. 351
"inflammatory eloquence." At the house of his
; friend Johnson, on the following evening, Paine
was reporting what he had said to some sympa
thizers, among them the mystical William Blake,
who was convinced that the speech of the previous
night would be followed by arrest. Gilchrist's
account of what followed is here quoted :
" On Paine's rising to leave, Blake laid his hand on the
orator's shoulder, saying, ' You must not go home, or you are
a dead man,' and hurried him off on his way to France,
whither he was now in any case bound to take his seat as a
legislator. By the time Paine was at Dover, the officers were
in his house, [he was staying at Rickman's, in Marylebone]
and, some twenty minutes after the Custom House officials at
Dover had turned over his slender baggage, narrowly escaped
from the English Tories. Those were hanging days ! Blake,
on the occasion showed greater sagacity than Paine, whom,
indeed, Fuseli affirmed to be more ignorant of the common
affairs of life than himself even. Spite of unworldliness and
visionary faculty, Blake never wanted for prudence and
sagacity in ordinary matters." 1
Before leaving London Paine managed to have
an interview with the American Minister, Pinckney,
who thought he could do good service in the Con
vention. Mr. Frost, who accompanied Paine and Audibert,
.had information of certain plans of the officials.
\He guided them to Dover by a circuitous route —
Rochester, Sandwich, Deal. With what emotions
does our world-wanderer find himself in the old
town where he married and suffered with his first
love, Mary Lambert, whose grave is near ! Nor is
he so far from Cranbrook, where his wife receives
her mysterious remittances, but since their separa-
1 " Life of William Blake," by Alexander Gilchrist, p. 94.

352 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. tJ792
tion " has not heard of " this said Thomas Paine,
as her testimony goes some years later. Paine is
parting from England and its ghosts forever. The
travellers find Dover excited by the royal proclama
tion. The collector of customs has had general
instructions to be vigilant, and searches the three
men, even to their pockets. Frost pretended a
desire to escape, drawing the scent from Paine.
In his report (September 15th) of the search to
Mr. Dundas, Paine says :
" Among the letters which he took out of my trunk were two
sealed letters, given into my charge by the American minister
in London [Pinckney], one of which was addressed to the
American minister at Paris, the other to a private gentleman ;
a letter from the president of the United States, and a letter
from the secretary of State in America, both directed to me,
and which I had received from the American minister, now in
London, and were private letters of friendship ; a letter from
the electoral body of the department of Calais, containing the
notification of my being elected to the National Convention ;
and a letter from the president of the National Assembly in
forming me of my being also elected for the department of the
Oise [Versailles]. . . . When the collector had taken what
papers and letters he pleased out of the trunks, he proposed
to read them. The first letter he took up for this purpose was
that from the president of the United States to me. While he
was doing this I said, that it was very extraordinary that
General Washington could not write a letter of private friend
ship to me, without its being subject to be read by a custom
house officer. Upon this Mr. Frost laid his hand over the
face of the letter, and told the collector that he should not
read it, and took it from him. Mr. Frost then, casting his
eyes on the concluding paragraph of the letter, said, I will read
this part to you, which he did ; of which the following is an
exact transcript — ' And as no one can feel a greater interest
in the happiness of mankind than I do, it is the first wish of
my heart that the enlightened policy of the present age may

1792] DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION. 353
diffuse to all men those blessings to which they are entitled
'and lay the foundation of happiness for future generations.' "
So Washington's nine months' delay (p. 302) in
acknowledging Paine's letter and gift of fifty vol
umes had brought his letter in the nick of time.
The collector quailed before the President's signa
ture. He took away the documents, leaving a list
of them, and they were presently returned. Soon
afterward the packet sailed, and " twenty minutes
later " the order for Paine's arrest reached Dover.
Too late ! Baffled pursuers gnash their teeth, and
Paine passes to his ovation.
What the ovation was to be he could hardly an
ticipate even from the cordial, or glowing, letter of
Herault Sechelles summoning him to the Conven
tion, — a fine translation of which by Cobbett is
given in the Appendix. Ancient Calais, in its time,
had received heroes from across the channel, but
hitherto never with joy. That honor the centuries
reserved for a Thetford Quaker. As the packet
sails in a salute is fired from the battery ; cheers
sound along the shore. As the representative for
Calais steps on French soil soldiers make his
avenue, the officers embrace him, the national
cockade is presented. A beautiful lady advances,
requesting the honor of setting the cockade in his
hat, and makes him a pretty speech, ending with
Liberty, Equality, and France. As they move
along the Rue de l'Egalite (late Rue du Roi) the
air rings with " Vive Thomas Paine ! " At the
town " hall he is presented to the Municipality, by
each member embraced, by the Mayor also ad
dressed. At the meeting of the Constitutional
VOL I—23

354

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l792

Society of Calais, in the Minimes, he sits beside the
president, beneath the bust of Mirabeau and the
united colors of France, England, and America.
There is an official ceremony announcing his elec
tion, and plaudits of the crowd, " Vive la Nation ! "
" Vive Thomas Paine!" The Minimes proving
too small, the meeting next day is held in the
church, where martyred saints and miraculous Ma
donnas look down on this miraculous Quaker,
turned savior of society. In the evening, at the
theatre, a box is decorated " For the Author of
'The Rights of Man.'"
Thus for once our wayfarer, so marked by time
and fate, received such welcome as hitherto had
been accorded only to princes. Alas, that the aged
eyes which watched over his humble cradle could
not linger long enough to see a vision of this great
ness, or that she who bore the name of Elizabeth
Paine was too far out of his world as not even to
know that her husband was in Europe. A theatri
cal La France must be his only bride, and in the
end play the role of a cruel stepmother. When
Washington was on his way to his inauguration in
New York, passing beneath triumphal arches, amid
applauding crowds, a sadness came over him as he
reflected, so he wrote a friend, how easily all this
enthusiasm might be reversed by a failure in the
office for which he felt himself so little competent.
But for Paine on his way to sit in the Convention of
a People's representatives — one summoned by his
own pen for objects to which his life was devoted,
for which he had the training of events as well as
studies, — for him there could be no black star hov-

1792] DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION. 355
ering over his welcome and his triumphal pathway
to Paris. For, besides his fame, there had preced
ed him to every town rumors of how this represen
tative of man — of man in America, England,
France — had been hunted by British oppressors
down to the very edge of their coast. Those out
witted pursuers had made Paine a greater power in
France than he might otherwise have been. The
Moniteur (September 23d) told the story, and adds :
" Probably M. Payne will have been indemnified for
such injustices by the brilliant reception accorded
him on his arrival on French soil."
Other representatives of Calais were Personne,
Carnat, Bollet, Magniez, Varlet, Guffroy, Eulard,
Duquesnoy, Lebas, Daunon. It could hardly be
expected that there should be no jealousy of the
concentration of enthusiasm on the brilliant Anglo-
American. However, none of this yet appeared,
and Paine glided flower-crowned in his beautiful
barge, smoothly toward his Niagara rapids. He
had, indeed, heard the distant roar, in such confused,
hardly credited, rumors of September massacres as
had reached London, but his faith in the National
Convention was devout. All the riots were easily
explained by the absence of that charm. He had
his flask of constitutional oil, other representatives no
doubt had theirs, and when they gathered on Sep
tember 2 1 st, amid equinoctial gales, the troubled
waters would be still.
Paine reached White's Hotel, Paris, September
19th ; on the 20th attends a gathering of the " Con-
ventionnels "; on the 21st moves in their procession
to the Tuileries, for verification of credentials by

356 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l792
the expiring Assembly, repairing with them for
work in the Salle du Manege. He was introduced
by the Abbe Gregoire, and received with acclama
tions. On September 2ISt. then, the Year Onp opens.
It greets mankind with the decree : " Royalty is
from this day abolished in FranceJ'
September ??d, on o petit-ion from Or-lenas Dan-
ton proposes removal of the entire administrative
corps, municipal and ludicial, to prevent their, re
moval by popular violence. Paine (through Gou-
pHleau) suggests postponement for more thnrnurh -
discussion. Having got rid of kings they must be
rid of royal hirelings ; but if partial reforms are
made in the judiciary system those institutions
cannot possess coherence ; for the present persons
might be changed without altering laws ; finally,
justice cannot be administered by men ignorant of
the laws. Danton welcomes Paine's views, and_it
is decreed that the-administrative bodies be renewed
by popular election ; but the limitations on eligi-
bility, fixed by the Constitution of 1791, are abol
ished — the judge need not- he. n. Inwyer. nnr t^»
imunicipal officer a proprietor.
Un beptember 25th appears Paine's letter to his
" Fellow Citizens," expressing his " affectionate
gratitude " for his adoption and his election.
" My felicity is increased by seeing the barrier
broken down that divided patriotism by spots of
earth, and limited citizenship to the soil, like vege
tation." The letter is fairly " floreal " with opti
mistic felicities. "An over-ruling Providence is
regenerating the old world by the principles of the

1792] DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION. 357
new." " It is impossible to conquer a nation deter
mined to be free." " It is now the cause of all
nations against the cause of all courts." " In enter
ing on this great scene, greater than any nation has
been called to act in, let us say to the agitated
mind, be calm ! Let us punish by instruction, rather
than by revenge. Let us begin the new era by a
greatness of friendship, and hail the approach of
union and success."
October nth, a committee to frame ;a constitu
tion is appointed, consisting ot bieyes, jgajfle. Bris-
sot, Petion, Vergniaud, Gensonne, Barrere, Danton,
Condorcet. Supplementary — Barbaroux, H^rault
Sechelles, Lanthenas, Debry, the Abbe Fauchet,
Lavicourterie. Paine was placed second to his old
adversary, Sieyes, only because of his unfamiliarity
with French. At least four of the committee under
stood English — Condorcet, Danton, Barrere, and
Brissot. Paine had known Brissot in America,
their friendship being caused by literary tastes in
common, and the zeal of both for negro emanci
pation. On October 2^th was written for Le PatiHote
Fxa^rrtis (edited by Brissot) an address by Pajne
arguing carefully^thp fa!1^1'nr nf ™y»1igm He
tersely expresses the view now hardly paradoxical,
that " a talented king is worse than a fool."
" We are astonished at reading that the Egyptians set upon
the throne a stone, which they called king. Well ! such a
monarch was less absurd and less mischievous than those
before whom nations prostrate themselves. At least he de
ceived no one. None supposed that he possessed qualities or
a .character. They did not call him lamer ot his""PeoR,le ;
and yet it would have been scarceiy_more ridiculous than to

358 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l792
give such a title to a blockhead (un itourdi ) whom the right of
succession crowns at eighteen. A dumb idol is Detter than
one animated." ' " ~~
In this letter Paine adroitly prepares the way for
his purpose of saving the life of Louis XVL. for
whose blood the thirst is growing. "It is little,"
he says, " to overthrow the idol ; it is the pedestal
which must especially be beaten down. It is the
kingly office, rather than the officer, that is destruc
tive ( meurtriere ) . This is not seen by every one."
In those who sympathized with the human spirit
of his views Paine inspired deep affection. A vol
ume might be filled with the personal tributes to
him. In Paris he was the centre of a loving circle,
from the first. " I lodge," writes Lord Edward
Fitzgerald to his mother (October 30th), " with my
friend Paine — we breakfast, dine, and sup together.
The more I see of his interior, the more I like and
respect him. I cannot express how kind he is to
me ; there is a simplicity of manner, a goodness of
heart, and a strength of mind in him, that I never
knew a man before possess." 2
Paine was chosen by his fellow-deputies of Calais
to offer the Convention the congratulations of their
department on the abolition of monarchy. This
letter, written October 27th, was on that day read
in Convention, in French.
1 " Father of his People " was a title of Geo. III. " Father of his Coun
try " was applied to Peyton Randolph, first president of Congress. Paine's
essay, quoted above, which is not included in the editions of Paine's works,
was printed by James Watson in London, 1843, the translation being by
W. J. Linton, who, while editing the National, also wrote the same year,
and for the same publisher, a small but useful " Life of Paine.''
2 Moore's " Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald."

1792] DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION. 359
" Citizen President : In the name of the deputies of the
department of Pas de Calais, I have the honor of presenting to
the Convention the felicitations of the General Council of the
Commune of Calais on the abolition of royalty.
" Amid the joy inspired by this event, one can not forbear
some pain at the folly of our ancestors, who have placed us
under the necessity of treating seriously ( solennellement ) the
abolition of a phantom. " Thomas Paine, Deputy, etc."1
The Moniteur, without printing the letter, says
that applause followed the word "fantdme." The
use of this word was a resumption of Paine's effort
to save the life of the king, then a prisoner of state,
by a suggestion of his insignificance.2 But he very
soon realizes the power of the phantom, which lies
not only in the monarchical Trade Union of Europe
but in the superstition of monarchy in those who
presently beheaded poor Louis. Paine was always
careful to call him Louis Capet, but the French
deputies took the king seriously to the last. The
king's divine foot was on their necks in the moment
when their axe was on his. But Paine feared a
more terrible form which had arisen in place of the
royal prisoner of the Temple. On the fourth day
of the Convention Marat arose with the words, " It
seems a great many here are my enemies," and re
ceived the shouted answer, " All ! all !" Paine had
seen Marat hypnotize the Convention, and hold
it subdued in the hollow of his hand. Here was
King Stork ready to succeed King Log.
1 This letter I copied and translated in the Historical Exhibition of the
Revolution, in Paris, 1889. This letter of the "philosophe anglais," as he is
described in the catalogue, is in the collection of M. Charavay, and was
framed with the Bonneville portrait of Paine.
2 In his republican manifesto at the time of the king's flight he had depre
cated revenge towards the captured monarch.

360 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1792
But what has the Convention to do with deciding
about Louis XVL, or about affairs, foreign or
domestic ? It is there like the Philadelphia Con
vention of 1787 ; its business is to frame a Consti
tution, then dissolve, and let the organs it created
determine special affairs. So the committee work
hard on the Constitution ; " Deputy Paine and
France generally expect," finds Carlyle, "all
finished in a few months." But, alas, the phan
tom is too strong for the political philosophers.
The crowned heads of Europe are sinking their
differences for a time and consulting about this
imprisoned brother. And at the same time the
subjects of those heads are looking eagerly
towards the Convention.1
The foreign menaces had thus far caused the
ferocities of the revolution, for France knew it was
worm-eaten with enemies of republicanism. But
now the Duke of Brunswick had retreated, the
French arms were victorious everywhere ; and it is
just possible that the suicide of the Republic — the
Reign of Terror — might never have been com-.
pleted but for that discovery (November 20th) of
secret papers walled up in the Tuileries. These
papers compromised many, revealed foreign
schemes, and made all Paris shriek " Treason ! "
The smith (Gamain) who revealed the locality of
that invisible iron press which he had set under
the wainscot, made a good deal of history that day.
1 " That which will astonish posterity is that at Stockholm, five months
after the death of Gustavus, and while the northern Powers are leaguing
themselves against the liberty of France, there has been published a transla
tion of Thomas Paine's " Rights of Man," the translator being one of the
King's secretaries ! " — Monileur, Nov. 8, 1792.

| 1792] DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE COVNENTION. 361
A cry for the king's life was raised, for to France
he was the head and front of all conspiracy.
How everybody bent under the breath of those
days may be seen in the fact that even Gouverneur
Morris is found writing to Lord Wycombe (No
vember 2 2d) : " All who wish to partake thereof
[freedom] will find in us (ye French) a sure and
certain ally. We will chase tyranny, and, above
all, aristocracy, off the theatre of the Universe."1
Paine was living in the " Passage des Petites
Peres, No. 7." There are now two narrow passages
of that name, uniting near the church " Notre Dame
r des Victoires," which still bears the words, " Liberte,
Egalite, Fraternity." No. 7 has disappeared as a
number, but it may have described a part of either
No. 8 or No. 9, — both ancient. Here he was close
to a chapel of the Capucines, unless, indeed, it had
already been replaced by this church, whose interior
walls are covered with tablets set up by individuals
in acknowledgment of the Virgin's miraculous ben
efits to them. Here he might study superstition,
and no doubt did ; but on November 20th he has
to deal with the madness of a populace which has
broken the outer chains of superstition with a
superstition of their own, one without restraints to
replace the chains. Beneath his window the Place
des Victoires will be crowded with revolutionists,
frantic under rumors of the discovered iron press
and its treasonable papers. He could hardly look
out without seeing some poor human scape-goat
1 " Diary and Letters." The letter was probably written with knowledge
of its liability to fall into the hands of the French Committee. It could not
deceive Wycombe.

362 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [*19*
seeking the altar's safety. Our Lady will look on
him from her church the sad-eyed inquiry : " Is this,
then, the new religion of Liberty, with which you
supplant the Mother and Babe ? "
Paine has carried to success his anti-monarchical
faith. He was the first to assail monarchy in
America and in France. A little more than a year
before, he had founded the first Republican Socjety
in Europe, and written its Declaration op tV»Q.-d""r
oi the National Assembly. Sieyes had denounced
him then as a " polyarchist." Now he sat with
Sieyes daily, framing a republican Constitution,
having just felicitated the Convention on the aboli
tion of the phantom — -Royalty. And now, on this
terrible night of November ?nrh. this nnmaker. of
fcipo-S linds himself the solitary deputy rearly. to
risk his life to save the jnap whose rrown he had
destroyed. It is not simply because the old Quaker
""heart in him recoils from bloodshed, but that—he,
would save the Republic from the peril of foreign
invasion, which would surely tollow the_exenrtion
01 Louis, and Irom disgrace jn AmenVT, whr.ce in
dependence Owed much to the fallen monprrh
In his little room, the lonely author, unable to
write French, animated by sentiments which the
best of the French revolutionists could not under
stand — Danton reminding him that " revolutions
are not made of rose-water " — must have before the
morrow's Convention some word that shall control
the fury of the moment. Rose-water will not
answer now. Louis must pass his ordeal ; his
secret schemes have been revealed ; the treachery
of his submissions to the people exposed. He is
guilty, and the alternatives are a calm trial, or

1792] DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION. 363
death by the hands of the mob. What is now
most needed is delay, and, that secured, diversion
of national rage from the individual Louis to
the universal anti-republican Satan inspiring the
crowned heads of Europe. Before the morning
dawns, Paine has written his letter to the president.
It is translated before the Convention meets, No
vember 2 1 st, and is read to that body the same
day.1 Louis XVL, he says, should be tried. The
advice is not suggested by vengeance, but by
justice and policy. If innocent, he may be allowed
to prove it ; if guilty, he must be punished or par
doned by the nation. He would, however, con
sider Louis, individually, beneath the notice of the
republic. The importance of his trial is that there
is a conspiracy of " crowned brigands " against
the liberties not only of France, but of all nations,
and there is ground for suspecting that Louis
XVI. was a partner in it. He should be utilized
to ferret out the whole gang, and reveal to the
various peoples what their monarchs, some of
whom work in secret for fear of their subjects,
are doing. Louis XVI. should not be dealt with
except in the interest of all Europe.
" If, seeing in Louis XVI. only a weak and narrow-minded
man, badly reared, as all like him, subject, it is said, to
intemperance, imprudently re-established by the Constituent
Assembly on a throne for which he was unfit— if we hereafter
show him some compassion, this compassion should be the
effect of national magnanimity, and not a result of the burlesque
notion of pretended inviolability." 2
1 " L' Histoire Parlementaire,'' xx., p. 367.
2 This essay has suffered in the translation found in English and American
editions of Paine. The words "national magnanimity " are omitted. The
phrase ' ' brigands couronnes " becomes ' ' crowned robbers " in England, and

364 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l79*
Lamartine, in his history of the Girondists, re
proaches Paine for these words concerning a king
who had shown him friendship during the Ameri
can war. But the facts were not well explored
in Lamartine's time. Louis Blanc recognizes
Paine's intent. ! "He had learned in England that
killing a monarch does not kill monarchs." This
grand revolutionary proposal to raise the inevitable
trial from the low plane of popular wrath against
a prisoner to the dignity of a process against
European monarchy, would have secured delay
and calmer counsels. If the reader, considering
the newly discovered papers, and the whole situa
tion, will examine critically Paine's words just
quoted, he will find them meriting a judgment
the reverse of Lamartine's. With consummate
art, the hourly imperilled king is shielded from
"crowned ruffians " in America. Both versions are commonplace, and con
vey an impression of haste and mere abuse. But Paine was a slow writer,
and weighed his words even when ' ' quarelling in print. " When this letter
was written to the Convention its members were reading his Essay on
Royalty, which filled seven columns of Brissot's Patriote Francais three
weeks before. In that he had traced royalty to the bandit-chief. ' ' Several
troops of banditti assemble for the purpose of upsetting some country, of
laying contributions over it,- of seizing the landed property, of reducing the
people to thraldom. The expedition being accomplished, the chief of the
gang assumes the title of king or monarch. Such has been the origin of
royalty among all nations who live by the chase, agriculture, or the tending
of flocks. A second chieftain arriving obtains by force what has been
acquired by violence. He despoils his predecessor, loads him with fetters,
puts him to death, and assumes his title. In the course of ages the memory
of the outrage is lost ; his successors establish new forms of government ;
through policy, they become the instruments of a little good ; they invent,
or cause to be invented, false genealogical tables ; they employ every means
to render their race sacred ; the knavery of priests steps in to their assistance ;
for their body-guard they take religion itself ; then it is that Royalty, or
rather Tyranny, becomes immortal. A power unjustly usurped is trans
formed into a hereditary right."
1 " Hist, de la Revolution," etc., vol. vii., p. 396.

179*] DEPUTY FOR CALAIS IN THE CONVENTION. 365
vindictive wrath by the considerations that he is
non compos, not responsible for his bringing up,
was put back on the throne by the Assembly, after
he had left it, acknowledging his unfitness, and that
compassion for him would be becoming to the
magnanimity of France. A plea for the King's
immunity from trial, for his innocence or his virtues,
would at that juncture have been fatal. As it was,
this ingenious document made an impression on the
Convention, which ordered it to be printed. '
The delay which Paine's proposal would involve
was, as Louis Blanc remarks, fatal to it. It
remains now only to work among the members
of the Convention, and secure if possible a majority
that will be content, having killed the king, to save
the man ; and, in saving him, to preserve him as
an imprisoned hostage for the cr-anr] behavior of
*<Europe.> Thjs is now Paine's idea, and never did
man toil more faithfully for another than he did
for that discrowned Louis Capet.
1 " Convention Nationale. Opinion de Thomas Payne, Depute du De
partement de la Somme, concernant le jugement de Louis XVI. Precede
de sa lettre d'envoi au President de la Convention. Imprime par ordre de
la Convention Nationale. A Paris. De l'imprimerie Nationale." It is
very remarkable that, in a State paper, Paine should be described as deputy
for the Somme. His votes in the Convention are all entered under
Calais. Dr. John Moore, who saw much of Paine at this time, says, in his
work on the French Revolution, that his (Paine's) writings for the Conven
tion were usually translated into French by the Marchioness of Condorcet

CHAPTER XXIV.
OUTLAWED IN ENGLAND.
While Paine was thus, towards the close of
1792, doing the work of a humane Englishman in
France, his works were causing a revolution in
England — a revolution the more effectual because
bloodless. In Paine's letter to Secretary Dundas (Calais,
September 15th), describing the examination of his
papers at Dover, a " postscript " states that among
the papers handled was " a printed proof copy of
my Letter to the Addressers, which will soon be
published." This must have been a thumbscrew
for the Secretary when he presently read the pam
phlet that escaped his officers. In humor, free
dom, and force this production may be compared
with Carlyle's " Latter Day Pamphlets." Lord Stor
mont and Lord Grenville having made speeches
about him, their services are returned by a speech
which the author has prepared for them to deliver
in Parliament. This satirical eulogy on the British
constitution set the fashion for other radical enco
miums of the wisdom of the king and of the peers,
the incorruptibility of the commons, beauty of rotten
boroughs, and freedom of the people from taxes,
with which prosecuting attorneys were unable to
366

I792] OUTLAWED IN ENGLAND. 367
deal. Having felicitated himself on the circulation
of his opinions by the indictment, and the adver
tisements of his books by loyal " Addresses," Paine
taunts the government for its method of answering
argument. It had been challenging the world for
a hundred years to admire the perfection of its
institutions. At length the challenge is taken up,
and, lo, its acceptance is turned into a crime, and
the only defence of its perfection is a prosecution !
Paine points out that there was no sign of prosecu
tion until his book was placed within reach of the
poor. When cheap editions were clamored for by
Sheffield, Leicester, Chester, Warwickshire, and
Scotland, he had announced that any one might
freely publish it. About the middle of April he
had himself put a cheap edition in the press. He
knew he would be prosecuted for that, and so
wrote to Thomas Walker.1 It was the common
people the government feared. He remarks that
on the same day (May 21st) the prosecution was
instituted and the royal proclamation issued — the
latter being indictable as an effort to influence the
verdict in a pending case. He calls attention to
the " special jury," before which he was summoned.
It is virtually selected by the Master of the Crown
Office, a dependant on the Civil List assailed in his
book. The special jury is treated to a dinner, and
given two guineas for a conviction, and but one
guinea and no dinner for acquittal. Even a fairly
1 At the trial the Attorney-General admitted that he had not prosecuted
Part I. because it was likely to be confined to judicious readers ; but this
still more reprehensible Part II. was, he said, with an industry incredible,
ushered into the world in all shapes and sizes, thrust into the hands of sub
jects of every description, even children's sweetmeats being wrapped in it.

368 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1792
selected local jury could not justly determine a
constitutional issue affecting every part of the
empire. So Paine brings under scrutiny every
part of the legal machinery sprung on him, adding
new illustrations of his charges against the whole
system. He begins the siege, which Bradlaugh
was to carry forward in a later time, against the
corrupt Pension List, introducing it with his prom
ised exposure of Edmund Burke. "Near the end
of Lord North's administration Burke brought in
a bill by which it was provided that a pension or
annuity might be given without name, if under oath
that it was not for the benefit of a member of the
House of Commons. Burke's pension had been
taken out under the name of another man ; but
being under the necessity of mortgaging it, the
real pensioner had to be disclosed to the mortgagee.1
For the rest, this " Address to the Addressers," as
it was popularly called, — or " Part Third of the
Rights of Man," as one publisher entitled it, — sowed
broadcast through England passages that were
recited in assemblies, and sentences that became
proverbs.
1 This disclosure, though not disproved, is passed over silently by most
historians. Nevertheless it was probably that which ended Burke's parlia
mentary career. Two years later, at the age of sixty-two, he retired with
an accumulation of pensions given\ at the king's request, amounting to
^"3,700 per annum. His reputation had been built up on his supposed
energy in favor of economy. The secret and illegal pension (^1,500) cast
light on his sudden coalition with Lord North, whom he once proposed to
impeach as a traitor. The title of "masked pensioner" given by Paine
branded Burke. Writing in 1819 Cobbett says: "As my Lord Grenville
introduced the name of Burke, suffer me, my Lord, to introduce that of the
man [Paine] who put this Burke to shame, who drove him off the public
stage to seek shelter in the pension list, and who is now named fifty million
times where the name of the pensioned Burke is mentioned once."

179*] OUTLAWED IN ENGLAND. 369
" It is a dangerous attempt in any government to say to a
Nation, Thou shalt not read."
" Thought, by some means or other, is got abroad in the
world, and cannot be restrained, though reading may."
" Whatever the rights of the people are, they have a right to
them, and none have a right either to withhold or to grant
them." "The project of hereditary Governors and Legislatures was
a treasonable usurpation over the rights of posterity."
" Put a country. .right, and it will soon put government right."
" When the rich plunder the poor of his rights, it becomes
an example to the poor to plunder the rich of his property."
" Who are those that are frightened at reform ? Are the
public afraid their taxes should be lessened too much ? Are
they afraid that sinecure places and pensions should be
abolished too fast ? Are the poor afraid that their condition
should be rendered too comfortable ? "
" A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be."
" If to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy, and
every species of hereditary government — to lessen the oppres
sion of taxes — to propose plans for the education of helpless
infancy, and the comfortable support of the aged and dis
tressed — to endeavour to conciliate nations with each other —
to extirpate the horrid practice of war — to promote universal
peace, civilization, and commerce — and to break the chains of
political superstition, and raise degraded man to his proper
rank — if these things be libellous, let me live the life of a
Libeller, and let the name of Libeller be engraven on my
tomb." Two eminent personages were burnt in effigy in
Europe about this time, one in France, the other in
England : Paine and the Pope.
Under date of December 19th, the American
minister (Morris) enters in his diary : " Several
Americans dine with me. Paine looks a little down
at the news from England ; he has been burned in
effigy."

370 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l792
This was the reply of the Addressers, the noble
men and gentry, to Paine's " Letter." It is said
that on the Fifth of November it was hinted to the
boys that their Guy Fawkes would extort m6re
pennies if labelled " Tom Paine," and that thence
forth the new Guy paraded with a pair of stays
under his arm. The holocaust of Paines went on
through December, being timed for the author's
trial, set for the eighteenth. One gets glimpses in
various local records and memoirs of the agitation
in England. Thus in Mrs. Henry Sandford's ac
count of Thomas Poole,1 we read in Charlotte
Poole's journal :
"December 18, 1792. — John dined with Tom Poole, and
from him heard that there was a great bustle at Bridgwater
yesterday — that Tom Paine was burnt in Effigy, and that he
saw Richard Symes sitting on the Cornhill with a table before
him, receiving the oaths of loyalty to the king, and affection
to the present constitution, from the populace. I fancy this
could not have been a very pleasant sight to Tom Poole, for
he has imbibed some of the wild notions of liberty and equality
that at present prevail so much ; and it is but within these two
or three days that a report has been circulated that he has
distributed seditious pamphlets to the common people of
Stowey. But this report is entirely without foundation.
Everybody at this time talks politicks, and is looking with
anxiety for fresh intelligence from France, which is a scene of
guilt and confusion."
In Richardson's " Borderer's Table Book " is re
corded : " 1 792 (Dec.) — This month, Thomas
Paine, author of the ' Rights of Man,' &c. &c, was
burnt at most of the towns and considerable
1 " Thomas Poole and his Friends." By Mrs. Henry Sandford. New
York : Macmillan, 1888.

I792l OUTLAWED IN ENGLAND. 371
villages in Northumberland and Durham." No
doubt, among the Durham towns, Wearmouth saw
at the stake an effigy of the man whose iron bridge,
taken down at Paddington, and sold for other
benefit than Paine's, was used in spanning the
Wear with the arch of his invention ; all amid
shouts of " God save the King," and plaudits for
the various public-spirited gentlemen and architects,
who patriotically appropriated the merits and
patent of the inventor. The Bury Post (published
near Paine's birthplace) says, December 1 2th :
" The populace in different places have been lately amusing
themselves by burning effigies. As the culprit on whom they
meant to execute this punishment was Thomas Paine, they
were not interrupted by any power civil or military. The
ceremony has been at Croydon in Surrey, at Warrington, at
Lymington, and at Plymouth."
January 9, 1 793 :
" On Saturday last the effigy of Thomas Paine was carried
round the town of Swaffham, and afterwards hung on a gibbet,
erected on the market-hill for that purpose. In the evening
his remains were committed to the flames amidst acclamations
of God save the King, etc."
The trial of Paine for high treason was by a
Special Jury in the Court of King's Bench, Guild
hall, on Tuesday, December 18, 1792, before Lord
Kenyon.1 The " Painites " had probably little
1 Special Jury: John Campbell, John Lightfoot, Christopher Taddy,
Robert Oliphant, Cornelius Donovan, Robert Rolleston, John Lubbock,
Richard Tuckwell, William Porter, Thomas Bruce, Isaac Railton, Henry
Evans. Counsel for the Crown : Sir Archibald Macdonald (Attorney-Gen
eral), Solicitor-General, Mr. Bearcroft, Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Wood, Mr. Per-
cival. Counsel for the Defendant: The Hon. Thomas Erskine.Mr. Piggot,
Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. F. Vaughan. Solicitors : For the
Crown, Messrs. Chamberlayne and White ; for Defendant, Mr. Bonney.

372 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [1792
hope of acquittal. In Rickman's journal (manu
script) he says : " C. Lofft told me he knew a
gentleman who tried for five or six years to be on
the special juries, but could not, being known to be
a liberty man. He says special juries are packed
to all intents and purposes." The reason for gath
ering such powerful counsel for defence must have
been to obtain from the trial some definitive adju
dication on the legal liabilities of writers and
printers, and at the same time to secure, through
the authority of Erskine, an affirmation of their con
stitutional rights. Lord Loughborough and others
vainly tried to dissuade Erskine from defending
Paine. For himself, Paine had given up the case
some time before, and had written from Paris,
November nth, to the Attorney-General, stating
that, having been called to the Convention in
France, he could not stay to contest the prosecu
tion, as he wished.
" My necessary absence from your country affords the op
portunity of knowing whether the prosecution was intended
against Thomas Paine, or against the Rights of the People of
England to investigate systems and principles of government ;
for as I cannot now be the object of the prosecution, the going
on with the prosecution will show that something else was the
object, and that something else can be no other than the
People of England. . . . But I have other reasons than
those I have mentioned for writing you this letter ; and how
ever you chuse to interpret them they proceed from a good
heart. The time, Sir, is becoming too serious to play with
Court prosecutions, and sport with national rights. The terri-
rible examples that have taken place here upon men who, less
than a year ago, thought themselves as secure as any prose
cuting Judge, Jury, or Attorney-General can do now in Eng
land, ought to have some weight with men in your situation.

I792J OUTLAWED IN ENGLAND.

373

That the Government of England is as great, if not the
greatest perfection of fraud and corruption that ever took
place since governments began, is what you cannot be a
stranger to ; unless the constant habit of seeing it has blinded
your sense. But though you may not chuse to see it, the
people are seeing it very fast, and the progress is beyond what
you may chuse to believe. Is it possible that you or I can
believe, or that reason can rriake any other man believe, that
the capacity of such a man as Mr. Guelph, or any of his
profligate sons, is necessary to the government of a nation ? I
speak to you as one man ought to speak to another ; and I know
also that I speak what other people are beginning to think.
That you cannot obtain a verdict (and if you do it will signify
nothing) without packing a Jury, and we both know that such
tricks are practised, is what I have very good reason to be
lieve. . . . Do not then, Sir, be the instrument of draw
ing away twelve men into a situation that may be injurious to
them afterwards. I do not speak this from policy, but from
benevolence ; but if you chuse to go on with the process, I
make it my request that you would read this letter in Court,
after which the Judge and the Jury may do what they please.
As I do not consider myself the object of the prosecution,
neither can I be affected by the issue one way or the other, I
shall, though a foreigner in your country, subscribe as much
money as any other man towards supporting the right of the
nation against the prosecution ; and it is for this purpose
only that I shall do it. As I have not time to copy letters,
you will excuse the corrections."
A month after this awful letter was written,
Paine no doubt knew its imprudence. It was
sprung on the Court by the Attorney-General, and
must alone have settled the verdict, had it not been
foregone. Erskine, Paine's leading counsel, was
Attorney-General for. the Prince of Wales — fore
most of " Mr. Guelph's profligate sons," — and he
was compelled to treat as a forgery the letter all
felt to be genuine. He endeavored to prevent the

374

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [!792

reading of it, but Lord Kenyon decided that " in
prosecutions for high treason, where overt acts are
laid, you may prove overt acts not laid to prove
those that are laid. If it [the letter] goes to prove
him the author of the book, I am bound to admit
it." Authorship of the book being admitted, this
was only a pretext. The Attorney-General winced
a good deal at the allusion to the profligate sons,
and asked :
" Is he [Paine] to teach human creatures, whose moments
of existence depend upon the permission of a Being, merciful,
long-suffering, and of great goodness, that those whose youth
ful errors, from which even royalty is not exempted, are to be
treasured up in a vindictive memory, and are to receive sen
tence of irremissible sin at His hands ? "
It may be incidentally remarked here that the
Attorney-General could hardly have failed to retort
with charges against the author, had not Paine's
reputation remained proof against the libellous
" biography " by the government clerk, Chalmers.
The main part of the prosecution was thus ut
tered by Paine himself. While reading the letter
the prosecutor paused to say : "If I succeed in this
prosecution he shall never return to this country
otherwise than in vinculis, for I will outlaw him." x
1 22 Howell's State Trials 357. Other reports are by Joseph Gurney and
" by an eminent advocate. " The brief evidence consisted mainly of the notes
and statements of Paine's publishers already mentioned in connection with
the publication of the indicted work. The Attorney-General cited effec
tively the reply to Paine which he attributed to Vice-President Adams.
Publicola's pamphlet gave great comfort to Paine's prosecutors. Mr. Long
writes to Mr. Miles, agent in Paris (December 1st), about this " book by the
American Adams, which is admirable, proving that the American govern
ment is not founded upon the absurd doctrine of the pretended rights of
man, and that if it had been it could not have stood for a week."

I792] OUTLAWED IN ENGLAND. 375
Erskine's powerful defence of the constitutional
rights of thought and speech in England is histori
cal. He built around Paine an enduring constitu
tional fortress, compelling Burke and Fox to lend
aid from their earlier speeches. The fable with
which he closed was long remembered.
" Constraint is the natural parent of resistance, and a preg
nant proof that reason is not on the side of those who use it.
You must all remember, gentlemen, Lucian's pleasant story :
Jupiter and a countryman were walking together, conversing
with great freedom and familiarity upon the subject of heaven
and earth. The countryman listened with attention and ac
quiescence, while Jupiter strove only to convince him ; but
happening to hint a doubt, Jupiter turned hastily around and
threatened him with his thunder. ' Ah, ha ! ' says the coun
tryman, ' now, Jupiter, I know that you are wrong ; you are
always wrong when you appeal to your thunder.'
" This is the case with me. I can reason with the people of
England, but I cannot fight against the thunder of authority."
Mr. Attorney-General arose immediately to reply
to Mr. Erskine, when Mr. Campbell (the foreman
of the jury) said : " My Lord, I am authorized by
the jury here to inform the Attorney-General that
a reply is not necessary for them, unless the Attor
ney-General wishes to make it, or your Lordship."
Mr. Attorney-General sat down, and the jury gave
in their verdict — Guilty.
Paine was outlawed.
The eye of England followed its outlaw before
and after his trial. In the English state archives
is a note of G. Munro to Lord Grenville, Septem
ber 8th, announcing " Mr. Payne's " election for the
Departement de l'Oise. Earl Gower announces, on
information of Mr. Mason, that " Tom Payne is on

376 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l792
his road to take his seat." On September 22d a
despatch mentions Paine's speech on the judiciary
question. " December 1 7, 1 792. Tom Payne is
in the country unwell, or pretending to be so.'
The most remarkable of the secret despatches,
however, are two sent from Paris on the last day of
the year 1 792. One of these alludes to the effect
of Paine's trial and outlawry on the English radi
cals in Paris :
"Tom Payne's fate and the unanimity of the English has
staggered the boldest of them, and they are now dwindling
into nothing. Another address was, however, proposed for
the National Convention ; this motion, I understand, was
made by Tom Payne and seconded by Mr. Mery ; it was op
posed by Mr. Frost, seconded by Mr. McDonald."
The second allusion to Paine on December 31st
deserves to be pondered by historians :
" Tom Payne has proposed banishing the royal family of
France, and I have heard is writing his opinion on the sub
ject ; his consequence seems daily lessening in this country,
and I should never be surprised if he some day receives the
fate he merits."
It thus seems that whatever good deed Paine
was about, he deserves death. Earl Gower, and
the agents he left on his departure (September) in
Paris, must have known that Paine's proposal was
the only alternative of the king's execution, and
that if his consequence was lessening it was solely
because of labors to save the lives of the royal
family. This humane man has the death-sentence
of Robespierre on him anticipated by the ambassa-

1793] OUTLAWED IN ENGLAND. 377
dor of a country which, while affecting grief for
Louis XVI., was helping on his fate.1
Danton said to Count Theodore de Lameth :
" I am willing to try and save the King, but I must have a
million of money to buy up the necessary votes, and the
money must be on hand in eight days. I warn you that
although I may save his life I shall vote for his death ; I am
quite willing to save his head, but not to lose mine."
The Count and the Spanish Ambassador
broached the matter to Pitt, who refused the
money.2 He was not willing to spend a few
thousands to save the life of America's friend,
though he made his death a pretext for exhausting
his treasury to deluge Europe with blood.
Gouverneur Morris, whose dislike of Paine's
republicanism was equally cynical,3 was intimate
with Earl Gower, and no doubt gave him his infor
mation. Morris was clear-headed enough to per-
1 After September it was, as Talleyrand says, "no longer a question that
the king should reign, but that he himself, the queen, their children, his
sister, should be saved. It might have been done. It was at least a duty
to attempt it. At that time France was only at war with the Emperor
[Austria], the Empire [the German states], and Sardinia. Had all the
other states concerted themselves to offer their mediation by proposing to
recognise whatever form of government France might be pleased to adopt,
with the sole condition that the prisoners in the Temple should be allowed to
leave the country and retire wherever they liked, though such a proposal, as
may be supposed, would not have filled the demagogues with delight, they
would have been powerless to resist it." — Memoirs of the Prince de Tal
leyrand. New York, 1891, i., p. 168.
2 Taine's "French Revolution" (American ed.), iii., p. 135. See also
the " Correspondence of W. A. Miles on the French Revolution," London,
1890, i., p. 398. The Abbe Noel, a month before the king's death, pointed
out to this British agent how he might be saved.
8 In relating to John Randolph of Roanoke Paine's exposure of Silas
Deane, Morris regards it as the prevention of a fraud, but nevertheless thinks
Paine deserved punishment for his "impudence" !

378 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. [l793^
ceive that the massacres in France were mainly
due to the menaces of foreign monarchs, and was
in hearty sympathy with Paine's plan for saving
the life of Louis XVI. On December 28th he
writes to Washington that a majority of the Con
vention "have it in contemplation not only to refer the judgment to
the electors of France, that is, to her people, but also to send
him and his family to America, which Paine is to move for.
He mentioned this to me in confidence, but I have since heard
it from another quarter."
On January 6, 1793, Morris writes to Washing
ton concerning Genet, the new Minister to the
United States, who had been introduced to him by
Paine, and dined with him. At the close he says :
" The King's fate is to be decided next Monday the 14th.
That unhappy man, conversing with one of his council on his
own fate, calmly summed up the motives of every kind, and
concluded that a majority of the Council [Convention] would
vote for referring his case to the people, and that in conse
quence he should be massacred. I think he must die or reign."
Paine also feared that a reference to the populace
meant death. He had counted a majority in the
Convention who were opposed to the execution.
Submission of the question to the masses would
thus, if his majority stood firm, be risking the life
of Louis again. Unfortunately this question had
to be determined before the vote on life or death.
At the opening of the year 1 793 he felt cheerful
about the situation. On January 3d he wrote to
John King, a retreating comrade in England, as
follows :

1793] OUTLAWED IN ENGLAND. 379
" Dear King, — I don't know anything, these many years,
that surprised and hurt me more than the sentiments you pub
lished in the Courtly Herald, the 12th December, signed
John King, Egham Lodge. You have gone back from all you
ever said. When I first knew you in Ailiffe-street, an obscure
part of the city, a child, without fortune or friends, I noticed
you ; because I thought I saw in you, young as you was, a
bluntness of temper, a boldness of opinion, and an originality
of thought, that portended some future good. I was pleased
to discuss with you, under our friend Oliver's lime-tree, those
political notions which I have since given the world in my
' Rights of Man.'
" You used to complain of abuses as well as me. What,
then, means this sudden attachment to Kings i this fondness
of the English Government, and hatred of the French ? If
you mean to curry favour, by aiding your Government, you
are mistaken ; they never recompence those who serve it ;
they buy off those who can annoy it, and let the good that is
rendered it be its own reward. Believe me, King, more is to
be obtained by cherishing the rising spirit of the People, than
by subduing it. Follow my fortunes, and I will be answerable
that you shall make your own. — Thomas Paine." '
This last sentence may even now raise a smile.
King must subsequently have reflected with satis
faction that he did not "follow the fortunes" of
Paine, which led him into prison at the end of the
year. A third letter from him to Paine appeared
in the Morning Herald, April 1 7, 1 793, in which
he says :
1 "Mr. King's Speech, at Egham, with Thomas Paine's Letter," etc.
Egham, 1 793. In his reply, January nth, King says : "Such men as Frost,
Barlow, and others, your associates, show the forlornness of your cause.
Our respectable citizens do not go to you," etc. Writing February nth,
King expresses satisfaction at Paine's vote on the King's fate : "the impu
tation of cruelty will not now be added to the other censures on your charac
ter ; but the catastrophe of this unhappy Monarch has shewn you the danger
of putting a nation in ferment. "

380 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. . [l793
" ' If the French kill their king, it will be a signal for my
departure, for I will not abide among such sanguinary men.'
These, Mr. Paine, were your words at our last meeting ; yet
after this you are not only with them, but the chief modeller
of their new Constitution."
Mr. King might have reflected that the author
of the " Rights of Man," which he had admired,
was personally safer in regicide France than in
liberticide England, which had outlawed him.

END OF VOL. I.

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