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Title: The Life Of Thomas Paine, Vol. 1. (of 2)

Author: Moncure Daniel Conway

Contributor: William Cobbett

Release date: October 10, 2011 [eBook #37701]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by David Widger


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, VOL. 1. (OF 2) ***




Produced by David Widger






THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE

WITH A HISTORY OF HIS LITERARY, POLITICAL

AND RELIGIOUS CAREER IN AMERICA

FRANCE, AND ENGLAND

By Moncure Daniel Conway

To Which Is Added A Sketch Of Paine By William Cobbett

VOLUME I. (of II)

1893




PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.

In the Preface to the first edition of this work, it was my painful duty
to remark with severity on the dissemination of libels on Paine in a
work of such importance as Mr. Leslie Stephen's "History of English
Thought in the Eighteenth Century." The necessity of doing so was
impressed on me by the repetition of some of Mr. Stephen's unfounded
disparagements in Mr. O. B. Frothingham's "Recollections and
Impressions." I have now the satisfaction of introducing this edition
with retractations by both of those authors. Mr. Frothingham, in a
letter which he authorizes me to use, says: "Your charge is true, and I
hasten to say _peccavi_ The truth is that I never made a study of Paine,
but took Stephen's estimates. Now my mistake is clear, and I am willing
to stand in the cold with nothing on but a hair shirt Your vindication
of Paine is complete." Mr. Frothingham adds that in any future edition
of his work the statements shall be altered. The note of Mr. Leslie
Stephen appeared in The National Reformer, September 11, 1892, to which
it was sent by a correspondent, at his desire; for it equally relates
to strictures in a pamphlet by the editor of that journal, Mr. John M.
Robertson.

"The account which I gave of Paine in the book upon the Eighteenth
Century was, I have no doubt, erroneous. My only excuse, if it be an
excuse, was the old one, 'pure ignorance.' I will not ask whether or how
far the ignorance was excusable.

"Mr. Conway pointed out the error in an article contributed, I think, to
the Fortnightly Review at the time. He has, no doubt, added, since then,
to his exposure of my (and other people's) blunders, and I hope to
read his book soon. Meanwhile, I must state that in consequence of the
_Fortnightly_ article, I altered the statements in the second edition
of my book. I have no copy at hand [Mr. S. writes from the country] and
cannot say what alterations precisely I made, though it is very possible
that they were inadequate, as for certain reasons I was unable to attend
properly to the revision. If a third edition should ever be required, I
would go into the question more thoroughly. I have since that time
read some letters upon Paine contributed by Mr. Conway to the _New York
Nation_. I had seen the announcement of his new publication, and had
made up my mind to take the first opportunity of going into the question
again with Mr. Conway's additional information. I hope that I may be
able to write Paine's life for the Dictionary of National Biography, and
if so, shall have the best opportunity for putting on record my final
judgment It will be a great pleasure to me if I find, as I expect to
find, that he was greatly maligned, and to make some redress for my
previous misguided remarks."

It is indeed to be hoped that Mr. Stephen will write the Life in the
Dictionary, whose list of subjects for the coming volume, inserted in
the _Athenæum_ since his above retraction, designates Thomas Paine as
an "infidel" writer. Mr. Stephen can do much to terminate the carefully
fostered ignorance of which he has found himself a victim. In advance of
his further treatment of the subject, and with perfect confidence in his
justice, I here place by the side of my original criticism a retraction
of anything that may seem to include him among authors who have shown a
lack of magnanimity towards Paine.

The general statement (First Preface, p. xvi) must, however, remain; for
recent discussions reveal a few unorthodox writers willing to throw, or
to leave, "a traditionally hated head to the orthodox mob." On the other
hand, some apology is due for this phrase. No orthodox mob is found.
Here and there some halloo of the old Paine hunt is heard dying away
in the distance, but the conservative religious and political press,
American and English, has generally revised the traditional notions, and
estimated the evidence with substantial justice. Nearly all of the
most influential journals have dealt with the evidence submitted; their
articles have been carefully read by me, and in very few are the old
prejudices against Paine discoverable. Were these estimates of Paine
collected with those of former times the volume would measure this
century's advance in political liberty, and religious civilization.

My occasionally polemical treatment of the subject has been regretted
by several reviewers, but its necessity, I submit, is the thing to be
regretted. Being satisfied that Paine was not merely an interesting
figure, but that a faithful investigation of his life would bring to
light important facts of history, I found it impossible to deal with
him as an ordinary subject of inquiry. It were vain to try and persuade
people to take seriously a man tarred, feathered, pilloried, pelted. It
was not whitewashing Paine needed, but removal of the pitch, and release
from the pillory. There must first of all be an appeal against such
sentence. And because the wrongs represented a league of prejudices, the
pleadings had to be in several tribunals--moral, religious, political,
social,--before the man could be seen at all, much less accorded the
attention necessary for disclosure of the history suppressed through his
degradation. Paine's personal vindication would still have required only
a pamphlet, but that it was ancillary to the historic revelations which
constitute the larger part of this work. A wiser writer--unless too wise
to touch Paine at all--might have concealed such sympathies as those
pervading this biography; but where sympathies exist the reader is
entitled to know them, and the author subjects himself to a severer
self-criticism if only in view of the vigilance he must excite. I have
no feeling towards Paine inconsistent with recognition of his faults and
errors. My vindication of him has been the production of evidence that
removed my own early and baseless prejudices, and rendered it possible
for me to study his career genuinely, so that others might do the same.
The phantasmal Paine cleared away, my polemic ends. I have endeavored
to portray the real Paine, and have brought to light some things
unfavorable to him which his enemies had not discovered, and, I believe,
could never have discovered.

The _errata_ in the first edition are few and of slight importance. I
wish to retract a suggestion made in my apology for Washington which I
have discovered to be erroneous. It was suggested (vol. ii., pp. 173
and 382) that Washington's failure to answer Paine's private letter of
September 20,1795, asking an explanation of his neglect while he
(Paine) was in prison and his life in peril, may have been due to its
interception by Pickering (who had by a suppression of documents sealed
the sad fate of his predecessor in office, Edmund Randolph). I have,
however, discovered that Paine's letter did reach Washington.

I would be glad if my own investigations, continued while preparing
an edition of Paine's works, or any of my reviewers, had enabled me
to relieve the shades with which certain famous names are touched by
documentary facts in this history. The publication of those relating to
Gouverneur Morris, while American Minister in France, was for personal
reasons especially painful to myself. Though such publication was not
of any importance to Paine's reputation, it was essential to a fair
judgment of others--especially of Washington,--and to any clear
comprehension of the relations between France and the United States at
that period. As the correspondence between Gouverneur Morris and the
French Minister concerning Paine, after his imprisonment, is in French,
and the originals (in Paris) are not easily accessible to American and
English readers, I have concluded to copy them here.

À Paris le 14 février 1794 26 pluviôse.

Le Ministre plénipotentiaire des États Unis de l'Amérique près la
République française au Ministre des Affaires Étrangères.

Monsieur:

Thomas Paine vient de s'addresser à moi pour que je le reclame comme
Citoyen des États Unis. Voici (je crois) les Faits que le regardent. Il
est né en Angleterre. Devenu ensuite Citoyen des États Unis il s'y
est acquise une grande célébrité par des Écrits révolutionnaires. En
consequence il fut adopté Citoyen français et ensuite élu membre de la
Convention. Sa conduite depuis cette Epoque n'est pas de mon ressort
J'ignore la cause de sa Détention actuelle dans la prison du Luxembourg,
mais je vous prie Monsieur (si des raisons qui ne me sont pas connues
s'opposent à sa liberation) de vouloir bien m'en instruire pour que je
puisse les communiquer au Gouvernement des États Unis.

J'ai l'honneur d'être, Monsieur,

Votre très humble Serviteur,

Gouv. Morris.


Paris, 1 Ventôse l'An 2d. de la Républic une et indivisible.

Le ministre des Affaires Étrangères au Ministre Plénipotentiaire
des-États Unis de l'Amérique près la République Française.

Par votre lettre du 26 du mois dernier, vous réclames la liberté de
Thomas Paine, comme Citoyen américain. Né en Angleterre, cet ex-deputé
est devenu successivement Citoyen Américain et Citoyen français. En
acceptant ce dernier titre et en remplissant une place dans le corps
législatif, il s'est soumis aux lois de la République et il a renoncé de
fait à la protection que le droit des gens et les traités conclus avec
les États Unis auraient pu lui assurer.

J'ignore les motifs de sa détention mais je dois présumer qu'ils sont
bien fondés. Je vais néanmoins soumettre au Comité de Salut public
la demande que vous m'avez adressée et je m'empresserai de vous faire
connaître sa decision.

DEFORGES.

The translations of these letters are on page 120, vol ii., of this
work. No other letters on the subject between these Ministers are
known. The reader may judge whether there is anything in the American
Minister's application to warrant the opening assertion in that of
Deforgues. Morris forwarded the latter to his government, but withheld
his application, of which no copy exists in the State Archives at
Washington.




PREFACE.

At Hornsey, England, I saw a small square mahogany 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 1792 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 government prosecuted
them, they probably contributed largely to make political progress in
England evolutionary instead of revolutionary. On this table he set
forth constitutional reforms that might be peacefully 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
government 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 other, is
got abroad in the world, and cannot be restrained, 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 proscribed 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 covered 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 Unitarian minister, could suggest
that a letter written 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 contrary,
they are strictly inapplicable. They imply that the writer had denied a
"particular providence," 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 religious.
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, having got his notion of Paine's
religion at secondhand, 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 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
convictions. 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 unconscious victim of the Paine mythology to which he added.
His own creed was, in essence, little different 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 unorthodox
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 appearance I recognized the old effigy of Paine elaborately
constructed by Oldys and Cheetham, and while writing a paper on the
subject (Fortnightly 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 presented "is drawn by an enemy," but on this Mr.
Robertson pertinently asks why it was allowed to stand? ("Thomas Paine:
an Investigation," by John M. Robertson, London, 1888). Mr. Stephen,
eminent as an agnostic and editor of a biographical dictionary, is
assumed to be competent, and his disparagements 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 enemies, 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 dealing 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 greatness. 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
Calvinism, and fortieth article of the Church? Large 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 destiny 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 concerning Thomas Paine, who in
most of them is a man-shaped or devil-shaped shuttlecock tossed between
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 "American
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 Washington" (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 history of the "American Revolution" (1891),
by John Fiske, who, while recognizing the effect of "Common Sense,"
reveals his ignorance of that pamphlet, and of all Paine's works, by
describing it as full of scurrilous abuse of the English people,--whom
Paine regarded as fellow-sufferers with the Americans under royal
despotism.

It may be said for these contemporaries that the task of sifting out the
facts about Paine was formidable. 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 disclosed.

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 Jefferson, 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, stating the circumstances under
which each work was written. All of which confirms Yorke's statement,
and shows that Paine had prepared at least two volumes of autobiographic
matter and correspondence. 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
"Biographical Dictionary" states that in 1829 she, as the depositary of
Paine's papers, began "editing" his life. This, which could only have
been the autobiography, was never published. She had become a Roman
Catholic. On returning (1833) to America, 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 prevented 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-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 Redman 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 revolutionary
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, America, France. From this witness
must have come testimonies, facts, anecdotes, not to be derived from
other sources, concerning Franklin, Goldsmith, Ferguson, Rittenhouse,
Rush, Fulton, Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, the Adamses, Lees,
Morrises, Condorcet, Vergennes, Sievès, Lafayette, Danton, Genet,
Brissot, Robespierre, Marat, Burke, Erskine, and a hundred others. All
this, and probably invaluable letters from these men, have been lost
through the timidity of a woman before the theological "boycott" on the
memory of a theist, and the indifference of this country to its most
important materials of History.

When I undertook the biography of Edmund Randolph I found that the great
mass of his correspondence had been similarly destroyed by fire in New
Orleans, and probably a like fate will befall 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
pamphleteers 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
Rickman. The "Life" by Vale, and sketches by Richard Carlile, Blanchard,
and others, belong to the controversial _collectanea_ in which Paine's
posthumous 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 'The Rights of Men,' with a Defence of his
Writings. By Francis Oldys, A.M., of the University of Pennsylvania.
London. Printed for John Stock-dale, Pickadilly." This writer, who
begins his vivisection 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 L500 from Lord Hawksbury, in whose bureau he was a clerk,
for writing the book; but though I can find no denial 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, 1891.) 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 elaborate 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 surrounded by apes.
Cobbett's biographer, Edward Smith, describes the book as "one of the
most horrible 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 will perceive, in the earlier
chapters of this work, that Chalmers tracked Paine in England with
enterprise, 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 Manchester,
England, and would probably have continued 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 writing, 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 betraying the Jeffersonian party while his paper was enjoying
its official patronage. His exposure of the editor was remorseless;
the editor replied with personal vituperation; and Paine was about
instituting a suit for libel when he died. Of Cheetham's ingenuity 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
testimony 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
acknowledge 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 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
conventionalized effigies of the man as evolved by friend and foe in
their long struggle. But that war has ended among educated people.
In the laborious 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 persons of
all beliefs and no beliefs. In no instance have I been impeded by any
prejudice, religious or political. The curators of archives, private
collectors, 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 countless 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.




THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.




CHAPTER I. EARLY INFLUENCES

The history here undertaken is that of an English mechanic, of Quaker
training, caught in political 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 century 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 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 related to these earlier
Paines has not been ascertained, 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, 1651). The author of "The
Rights of Man" may therefore be a confutation of his own dictum: "An
hereditary governor is as inconsistent as an hereditary author." One
Thomas Payne, of the Norfolk County family, was awarded L20 by the
Council of State (1650) "for his sufferings by printing a book for the
cause of Parliament." Among the sequestrators of royalist church livings
was Charles George Cock, "student of Christian Law, of the Society
of the Inner Temple, now (1651) resident of Norwich." In Blomefields
"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--"Freeman'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 were then usually respectable tradesmen. Their
privileges amounted to little more than the right of pasturage on the
commons. The appointment did not imply high position, but popularity and
influence. 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.
1708) 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 character." 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, 1736-7, at Thetford. The plain brick
house was in Bridge Street (now White Hart) and has recently made
way for a pretty garden. I was inclined to adopt a more picturesque
tradition that the birthplace was in old Heathen man Street, as more
appropriate for a _paien_ (no doubt the origin of Paine's name), who
also bore the name of the 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 baptized, 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 remarkable 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 beginning 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 1787, looked into these registers
for his own birth; what he saw, or what he did, we will not conjecture.
They contain the baptism 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 interests. 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 (John Price) died, and his successor (Thomas
Vaughan) appears to have entered on his duties in March, 1737. A little
before and during this interregnum 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, 1738,
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 Thetford'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 artificially raised, either
for some castle or monument, which makes a pretty landscape. As we went
and returned, a tumbler shew'd his extraordinary addresse in the Warren.
I also saw the Decoy, much pleas'd with the stratagem."

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 general 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 a new Mechanics' Institute in the old Guildhall. The
old churches summon their flocks from eccentric 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 historically, 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.

"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 consecrated; 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 preaching, 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 journal, and its license was
necessary for every book. In 1674 Sir Joseph, being Secretary of State
(he bought the office for L5,000), had control of the _Gazette_ and of
literature. In that year, when Milton 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
Fulmerston almshouse wall: "Follow peace and holines with all men
without the which no man shall see the Lord." But many memorials would
remind 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. Having 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,* 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) possessed 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 Parliament (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.

     * "Sir Joseph Williamson, Knt., A.D. 1630-1701. A Page in
     the History of Thetford."   A very valuable contribution to
     local history.

Paine 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 navigable to Lynn, and Paine would probably
go on a barge to that flourishing seaport. Bury St. Edmunds was a
provincial 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, in that region, 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 September, 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;
and his eminent son has repeatedly mentioned his own training in the
principles of that Society. Remembering 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
birthplace. 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 Cage, which
still remains to explain the name "Cage Lane." In its front are two
arches, once iron-grated; at one stood 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 pilloried, 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 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 feeling 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 anything 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 together managed
to make the early years of their famous son miserable. Had there been
no Quakerism there had been no Thomas Paine; his consciousness 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."

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 difficulty 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 mathematics, 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 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 denunciations of the unlovely world.

Paine was not under the master of Thetford School (Colman), who taught
Latin, but under the usher, Mr. 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
seventeenth year. The effect of the paternal remonstrances, 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 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 astronomer."

In 1758 Paine found employment at Dover with a stay-maker named Grace.
In April, 1759, he repaired to Sandwich, Kent, where he established
himself as a master stay-maker. There is a tradition 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.
Richard 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, bachelor, and Mary Lambert, of
the same parish, spinster, 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 Dolphin Key, but Paine's business
did not thrive, and he went to Margate. There, in 1760, his wife died,
Paine then concluded to abandon the stay-making business. His wife's
father had once been an exciseman. 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 guage 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 application to America prepared the way for
independence. 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 promotions few, and the
excise service had fallen into usages of negligence and corruption to
which Paine 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 cannot
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 annum,
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 examining 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 confessed,
Paine was discharged from office, 27 August, 1765.*

     *  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 11th 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 victuallers 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 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 commission was short and unfortunate--an
officer only a single year. No complaint 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 honours' most dutiful humble
servant, Thomas Paine."

Board's minute: "July 4, 1766. Ordered that he be restored on a proper
vacancy."

Mr. S. 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
restoration as creditable to him as to the then Board of Excise."

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 penniless 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 "Forgetfulness." 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 summer 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 hearing of the marriage of one she
supposed her lover, meant to drown herself in a neighboring pond.

That Thomas Paine should sue for an office worth, beyond its
expenses, thirty-two pounds, argues not merely penury, but an amazing
unconsciousness, in his twenty-ninth year, of his powers. 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 teaching English in his
academy in Goodman's Fields. This was the year 1766, for though Paine
was restored to the excise on July 11th 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 remarked:
"Here I derived considerable information; 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 certificate 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 pupils only one trace
remains--a letter in which he introduces one of them to General Knox,
September 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 Quakerism 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
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 tobacconist. The house then adjoined a Quaker meetinghouse, 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 revolution.
And--such are the moral zones and poles in every English town--here in
the graveyard of 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_ Huntington 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 conjecture; 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."

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 brilliant 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
miraculous than the dream that foretold about Lady Huntingdon'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.

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 Thetford Quaker is not
apparent. And, indeed, there are various indications about this time
that some reaction had set in after the preaching phase.

"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 acquaintance, 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 'Headstrong 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 Corrected by 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, 1771, Paine married Elizabeth, 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 daughter.
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, 1771, 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, 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.* 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
originality 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 composition, 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 following
letter:

     * 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 characteristics 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."

"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, amounting 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 approbation while in
manuscript, that I was advised to print 4000 copies; 3000 of which were
subscribed for the officers in general, 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
singularly 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."'


     * Goldsmith responded to Paine's desire for his acquaintance.
     I think Paine may be identified as the friend to whom
     Goldsmith, shortly before his death, gave the epitaph first
     printed in Paine's Pennsylvania Magaritu, 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."

     I am indebted for these records to the Secretary of Inland
     Revenue, England, and to my friend, Charles Macrae, who
     obtained them for me.

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, without 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
accusation. 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,
Ordered that he be again discharged."

In Paine's absence in London, writing his pleas for the excisemen,
laboring with members of Parliament, his tobacco-mill had been still,
his groceries 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 grinding off snuff; and two unopened crates of
cream-coloured stone ware."

This sale was announced by one Whitfield, grocer, and if there were
other creditors they were no doubt paid by the results, for Paine had
no difficulty in returning to Lewes. He once more had to petition
the Board, which shortly before had commended 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 disappointed 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 Elizabeth Ollive held some such
notion, and that this led to dissension ending in separation. Nor is it
inconceivable that Paine himself, finding his excise office no support,
and his shop a failure, resolved that no offspring should suffer his
penury or increase 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 reciting 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 dispose of the same as if she were a Feme.
Sole and unmarried. 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 separate from him the
said Thos. Pain, and never had any issue, and the said Thomas Pain had
many years quitted this kingdom 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 whereabouts in 1800, or whether he were dead or
alive, 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 cherished kindly remembrance of the man who considering 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
member 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 written by Paine's mother to his wife.*

     * "Thetpord, 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 'll 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 affectionate mother,

     "F. Pain.

     "P. S. For God's sake, let me have your answer, as I am
     almost distracted."


The letter may have been manipulated, but it is not improbable that
rumors, "exaggerated by enmity or misstated by malice," as Oldys
confesses, elicited some such outburst from Thetford.* The excisemen,
angry at the failure to get their case before Parliament, and having
fixed on Paine as their scapegoat, 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 feeling, 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
witness 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.

     * 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.

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 Magazine_, 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, 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 motion 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 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 completely 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 work*--which added to Paine's studies of
the Wilkes conflicts a lasting lesson in the conservation of despotic
forces. The barbaric eras of prerogative had returned under the forms of
ministerial government. The Ministry, controlled by the Court, ruled by
corruption of commoners.

     * "The Early History of Charles James Fox," 1880.

It was a _régime_ 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 witness it, and Paine was there to grow
familiar with the facts. To both of them the systematic inhumanity and
injustice were brought home personally. 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.




{1774}




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 Pennsylvania 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 procure 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."




{1775}

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 instruct 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 assistance. He had not above six hundred subscribers when I
first assisted him. We have now upwards of fifteen hundred, and daily
increasing. I have not entered into terms with him This is only the
second number. The first I was not concerned 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 excited 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 March 8, 1775, 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 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 kabitare_. The
future author of the "Rights of Man" and "Age of Reason" admonishes
correspondents that religion and politics are forbidden topics! The
first number contains a portrait of Goldsmith and the picture of a
new electrical machine. 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 occasionally a strangely modern vein of thought.
"Our fancies would be highly diverted could we look back and 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 American
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 inventions not known in the new world--threshing-machine,
spinning-machine, etc.,--such papers being by Paine. These attracted the
members of the Philosophical Society, founded by Franklin, and Paine was
welcomed into their circle by Rittenhouse, Clymer, Rush, Muhlenberg, and
other representatives of the scientific and literary metropolis. 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 communication 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 did. He is now "Atlanticus,"
now "Vox Populi," or "Æsop," and oftener affixes no signature. The
Thetford Quaker is still here in "Reflections on the Death of Lord
Clive" (reprinted as a pamphlet in England), "A New Anecdote of
Alexander 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 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 whose rights Christendom was then not awakened.
His pen is unmistakable in "Reflections on Unhappy Marriages" (June,
1775): "As extasy abates coolness succeeds, which often makes way for
indifference, 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 displease, and yet angry if reproached; with so little 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 earliest American plea for
woman. It is entitled "An Occasional Letter on the Female Sex,"
and unsigned, but certainly by Paine. His trick of introducing a
supposititious address from another person, 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, surrounded 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 degrading 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 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
ourselves. You can only die on the field of battle, but we have the
misfortune to survive those whom we love the most. Alas! 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 condemned 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
welldoing.'"

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, ecclesiastical, 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 nationality 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 divorce; the first to advocate national
and international copyright; the first to plead for the animals; the
first to demand justice for woman: 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
Solomon; "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 aversion 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 1772 "The Case of the
Officers of Excise." 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.*

     * Mr. W. H. Burr maintains that Paine wrote in the English
     Crisis (1775) under the name of "Casca." As Casca's articles
     bear intrinsic evidence 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 letters 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 summary of the facts discoverable concerning
     the personality of Junius, in Macaulay's "Warren Hastings,"
     says: "As to the position, pursuits, and connexions 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 himself 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.

In America Wolfe again rises before Paine's imagination. 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 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 editors 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, military, 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 before 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
settling 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 direction 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." Garrison did characteristic justice to Paine when he had
outgrown early prejudices against him.* On April 12th, thirty-five days
after Paine's plea for emancipation, the first American Antislavery
Society was formed, in Philadelphia.

     * 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, 1845.    The
     Liberator first appeared January 1, 1831.

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 Lexington 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 summary of Chatham's speech, in which he said
the crown would lose its lustre if "robbed of so principal a jewel as
America." Paine adds this footnote: "The principal jewel of the crown
actually dropt out at the coronation." There was probably no earlier
printed suggestion of independence by any American.*

     * 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.

There are three stages in the evolution of the Declaration of
Independence. The colonies reached first the resolution of resistance,
secondly of separation, 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 harbor, then
to Lexington, where seven Massachusetts men fell dead, and seven years
of war followed. But two years before the tea was thrown overboard,
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, magazines, 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 revolution. Before the time of George III.
British governors had repeatedly revived in America prerogatives extinct
in England, but the colonists had generally been successful in their
appeals to the home government. Even in 1774 the old statesmen 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 settle 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 the forests
of Virginia, two hundred years ago, Peter Lynch was appointed judge by
his neighbors because of his wisdom and justice, and his decisions were
enforced by "Regulators." Judge 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
"Regulators," which were civilized organizations, though unauthorized.
For several years before the Revolution lawful and civilized government
in some of the colonies depended on unauthorized administrations. The
authorized powers were the "lynchers," 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
established, "order and harmony were preserved as inviolate as in any
country in Europe."*

     * "The Rights of Man," part ii., chapter i.

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 interrupted his lucrative school, and
the literary opportunities afforded by his magazine. "For my own part,"
he wrote to Franklin, "I thought it very 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."* Although Paine, as we shall see, had no reverence
for the crown, and already foresaw American independence, he abhorred
the method of war. In the first number of his magazine he writes: "The
speeches of the different governors pathetically lament the present
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."

     * Notes and Queries (Eng.), series 3 and 5. See also in
     Lippincotts Maga-rine, May, 1889, my paper embodying the
     correspondence of Washington and Boucher.

But on April 19th came the "massacre at Lexington," 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
advancing 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, Mecklenburg,
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
commission from the crown, or attempt to exercise any such commission
heretofore received, shall be deemed an enemy to his country."*

     * 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 witnesses
     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 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.

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 sometimes produces a great effect; an
insult offered to a man of great talent and unconquerable perseverance
has in many instances 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 the 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 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 position of the abolitionists when the
secession war began. 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 England preserving its political institutions.
The war having begun, and separation become probable, Paine hastened to
connect it with humanity and with republicanism. As the abolitionists
resolved that the secession war should sweep slavery out of the country,
Paine made a brave effort that the Revolution 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.*

     * 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.


"A SERIOUS THOUGHT.

"When I reflect on the horrid cruelties exercised by Britain in the East
Indies--How thousands perished by artificial famine--How religion and
every manly principle of honor and honesty were sacrificed to luxury and
pride--When I read 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 Britain.

"And when I reflect on the use she hath made of the discovery 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 hesitate 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 gratitude 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."




{1776}




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 Philadelphia had it not been for Franklin.
Possibly this suspicion may have arisen from his having, in the
antislavery letter, asked the Americans "to consider with what
consistency or decency they complain so loudly of attempts to enslave
them, while they hold so many thousands in slavery." Perfectly
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. Benjamin 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.* It reached Washington soon after tidings that Norfolk,
Virginia, had been burned (Jan. 1st) by Lord Dunmore, as Falmouth (now
Portland), Maine, had been, Oct 17, 1775, by ships under Admiral Graves.

     * "This day was published, and is now selling by Robert
     Bell, in Third Street, [Phil.] price two shillings, 'Common
     Sense,' addressed to the inhabitants of North America."--
     Pennsylvania Journal, Jan. 10, 1776.

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 propriety of separation."*

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 general 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 without the necessary arguments. Henry
Wisner, however, 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.** Joel Barlow, 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.

     * "The Writings of George Washington." Collected and edited
     by Wotthington Chauncey Ford, vol. iii., p. 396.

     ** 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 postponement being for the purpose of removing
     the restrictions placed by New York 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.

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 Washington."*

     * And yet--such was the power of theological intimidation--
     even heretical Barlow could find no place for Paine in his
     _Columbiad_(1807).

Edmund Randolph, our first Attorney-General, who had been on
Washington's staff in the beginning of the war, and conducted much of
his correspondence, ascribed independence primarily to George III.,
but next to "Thomas Paine, an Englishman by birth, and possessing an
imagination which happily combined political topics, poured forth in a
style hitherto unknown on this side of the Atlantic, from the ease
with which it insinuated itself into the hearts of the people who were
unlearned, or of the learned."* This is from a devout churchman, writing
after Paine's death. Paine's malignant biographer, Cheetham (1809), is
constrained 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."**

     * Randolph's "History" (MS.), a possession of the Virginia
     Historical Society, has been confided to my editorial care
     for publication.

     ** 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).

Let it not be supposed that Washington, Franklin, 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 abjectness of Thetford, its
corporation held in the hollow of Grafton's hand, its members of
Parliament also, the innumerable villages equally helpless, the
unspeakable corruptions of the government, the repeated and always
baffled efforts of the outraged 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 hour for which none had been so exactly and
thoroughly 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 independence
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. Degeneracy is here almost a
useless word. Those who are conversant 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 whole detestable junto, is a
matter unworthy the millions we have expended. A temporary stoppage of
trade was an inconvenience which would have sufficiently balanced 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. Reconciliation 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 represented by Great Britain, and the potential republicanism 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 Revolution 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 beheld the almost
incredible England, against which the colonies contended. And therein
is reflected the moral, even religious, enthusiasm which raised the
struggle above the paltriness of a rebellion against taxation to a great
human movement,--a war for 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 outlines 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, 1802): "In my publications, I follow the rule I began with in 'Common
Sense.' that is, to consult nobody, nor to let anybody see what I write
till it appears publicly." This was certainly his rule, but in the case
of "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 contemporary leaflet: "When the work was at a stand for want of a
courageous Typographer, I was then recommended by a gentleman nearly in
the following 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 manuscript 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
publication, 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 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." To which "The
Forester" (Paine) answers: "A freeman, Cato, is a stranger nowhere,--a
slave, everywhere."*

     * "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.

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:

"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 hundred 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."

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 copyright to the
States for the cause of independence. It was sold at two shillings, and
the author thus 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 12s. 1d. 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 distress. 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."

"The Forester" declares his respect for the honest 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 Revolution have never had justice
done them. In another 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.* 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
moderate temper, surrounded "Cato" and "The Forester" 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 distinguished by her contempt for the independents, and her
husband, now near fifty, was led into a false position.**

     * "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 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 following 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.

He held the highest literary position in 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 Scotchman, 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:

"Cato discovers a gross ignorance of the British Constitution 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 Independence: "_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 Pennsylvania into which the college had been absorbed.

On May 8th a fourth letter, signed "The Forester," appeared in the same
paper (_Pennsylvania Journal_), which I at first suspected of not being
from Paine's pen.* This was because of a sentence 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 tendency 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 containing 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 declares 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."

     * 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."

The extracts given from this letter are of historic interest as
reflecting the conflict of opinions in Pennsylvania amid which the
Declaration was passed two months later.

"Whoever will take the trouble of attending to the progress 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
information, 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, especially
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. 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
Principles of the People called Quakers renewed, with respect to the
King and Government; and touching the Commotions now prevailing in these
and other Parts of America; addressed to the People in General." 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
pamphlet, 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 principles! 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
hobbyhorse of your religion, convince the world thereof by proclaiming
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 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."

     * Paine was not then aware of the extent of the intrigues of
     leading Quakers with the enemy. The State archives of
     England and France contain 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 Wentworth, 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 excommunicated;
     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 followed in succession by South Carolina,*
Virginia,** Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire,
Georgia, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Maryland passed
patriotic resolutions, but not sufficiently decisive for its delegates
to act. New York alone forbade its delegates to vote for independence.

     * 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."

     ** 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.

Meanwhile, on June 7th, Richard Henry Lee, in behalf of the Virginians,
had submitted resolutions of independence; but as six States hesitated,
Congress adjourned the decision until July 1st, appointing, however,
(June 11th) 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 humanity." 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
commercial apprehensions of New York and Pennsylvania. "Your dependance
upon the Crown is no advantage, but rather an injury, to the people of
Great Britain, as it increases the power and influence of the King. The
people are benefited only by your trade, and this they may have after
you are independent of the Crown." There is a shrewd prescience of what
actually happened shown in this opportune work. Of course the gallant
ghost remarks 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."

[Illustration: Anti-slavery essay 117-118]


PARAGRAPH STRUCK OUT OF THE DECLARATION.

"He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most
sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people
who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in
another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation
thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is
the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep
open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted
his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or
restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage 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 LIBERTIES of
one people with crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES
of another."


THOMAS PAINE.

"--these inoffensive people are brought into slavery, by stealing them,
tempting kings to sell subjects, which they can have no right to do, and
hiring one tribe to war against another, in order to catch prisoners.
By such wicked and inhuman ways the English, etc.... an hight of outrage
that seems left by Heathen nations to be practised by pretended Chris
Hansr

"--that barbarous and hellish 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."


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 correct in saying that whoever may
have written the Declaration Paine was its author. The world being his
country, and America having founded its independence on such universal
interests, Paine could not hesitate to become a soldier for mankind.*
His Quaker principles, always humanized, were not such as would applaud
a resistance in which he was not prepared to participate. While the
signers of the Declaration of Independence were affixing their names--a
procedure which reached from August 2d into November--Paine resigned his
_Pennsylvania Magazine_, and marched with his musket to the front. He
enlisted in a Pennsylvania division of the Flying Camp of ten thousand
men, who were to be sent wherever needed. He was under General
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 Hudson, and renewed his
enlistment. Fort Lee was under the command of General Nathaniel
Greene who, on or about September 19th, appointed Paine a Volunteer
Aide-de-camp.

     * Professor John Fiske (whose "American Revolution" suffers
     from ignorance 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 the 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 Pennsylvania, and with the Dutch of New York. In replying
     to the "Mother-Country" 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.

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 22d the whole army had retreated to Newark, where Paine began
writing his famous first _Crisis_.*

     * Sec 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."

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 (November 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 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 Brunswick 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 prisoner, and on the 17th
Washington writes to the same relative:

"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 from
disaffection and want of spirit and fortitude, the inhabitants, instead
of resistance, are offering submission and taking protection from Gen.
Howe in Jersey."

The 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, 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
Washington 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 commander, 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,* 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 Colonel Joseph
Reed:

     * The pamphlet was dated December 23rd, but it had appeared
     on the 19th in the Pennsylvania Journal, 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
     exhortation.

"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
President Lincoln at Gettysburg.

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 intervals of unwearied labors. He speaks of
what Joan of Arc did in "the fourteenth century," and exclaims: "Would
that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen,
and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment!" Joan was
born in 1410, but Paine had no cyclopaedia in his knapsack. The literary
musket reaches its mark. The pamphlet was never surpassed 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 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 bounding to the onset,--their watchword:
_These are the times that try men's souls_! /Trenton was won, the
Hessians captured, and a New Year broke for America on the morrow of
that Christmas Day, 1776.*

     * Paine's enemy, Cheetham, durst not, in the face of
     Washington's expression 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,
     cheerfulness to gloom, and firmness to irresolution. To the
     confidence which it inspired may be attributed much of the
     brilliant little affair which in the same month followed at
     Trenton." Even Oldys is somewhat impressed by Paine's
     courage: "The Congress fled.    All were dismayed.   Not so
     our author."

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 confronting this English lord who had offered
the Americans mercy. "Your lordship, I find, has now commenced author,
and published a Proclamation; 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:

"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 sometimes 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
conquer 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 controlled
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 commissioners, with a thousand
dollars' worth of presents, met the Indian chiefs in the German Reformed
Church (built 1776), and, as they reported to Congress, "after shaking
hands, drinking rum, while the organ played, we proceeded to business."*

     * Condit's "History of Easton," pp. 60, 118,

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, afterwards 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 me, 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.




{1777}




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 wielding
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 "instructions or
ordinances" may be published, not warranted 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 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 sentence 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
impossibility 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
preponderantly, "tory," and he deals with them in all their varieties,
not arraigning the Friends as a Society. Having carefully shown that
independence, from 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" endeavoring 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 affirmation" renouncing allegiance to the King, pledging
support to the United States. At the same time let a tax of ten,
fifteen, or twenty per cent be levied on all property. Each who takes
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 Philadelphia, 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 required 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 Pennsylvania
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 unfavorable 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
consistency they could protest against being enslaved while they were
enslaving others. That essay, I have long believed, caused a secret,
silent, hostility to the author by which he suffered much without
suspecting it. But he was an indefatigable secretary. 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 opportunity
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 impracticable, have retreated to Staten
Island seemingly discontented 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 movement in, and retreat
from the Jersies. We are under some apprehensions for Ticonderoga, as
we find the Enemy are unexpectedly come into that Quarter. The Congress
have several 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."'

     * MS., for which I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz, Philadelphia.

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 when the Pennsylvania Assembly
and President (Thomas Wharton, Jr.,) confided to him the delicate 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 proceeding 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."*

     * Pa. Arch., 1779, p. 659.    Paine at once set to work: p.
     693, 694.

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 somewhat obscure point in
our revolutionary history,--the obscurity being due to the evasions of
American historians on an episode of which we have little reason to
be proud. An article of Burgoyne's capitulation (October 17th) 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 22d. 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 recd. 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 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_' England 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_, and 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 authority 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 contrary 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.

"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."'

     * I am indebted for this letter to Dr. John S. H. Fogg of
     Boston. It bears the superscription: "Honbl. Richd. Henry
     Lee Esq. (in Congress) York Town. Forwarded by yr humble
     Servt. T. Matlack, Nov. 1, 1777." Endorsed in handwriting of
     Lee: "Oct: 1777. Mr. Paine, Author of 'Common Sense.'"

Had this proposal of Paine, with regard to Bur-goyne's capitulation,
been followed at once, a blot 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 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 proceed to any act of desperation sooner than submit."

Concerning this ugly business there is a significant 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 American name or
cause could be made out of it.*

     * Professor Fiske ("Am. Revolution," i., 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.

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 1 st 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 unsuccessful
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, commanding 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 shows what a fearless man Mr. Paine was, and
entitles him to the same credit for service in the Revolution as any
Continental could claim."




{1778}

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 Washington's generalship had been at fault
(as Washington himself probably did*), he could utter nothing that
might injure the great cause. He mistrusted the singleness of purpose
of Washington's opponents, 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 121, 1778. Before that time (February 19th)
General Gates had made his peace with Washington, and the intrigue
was breaking up, but gloom and dissatisfaction remained. The contrast
between the luxurious "Tories" surrounding Howe in Philadelphia, 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 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 Washington. The allusions to him are
incidental, there is no accent of advocacy. While mentioning "the
unabated 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 Saratoga. It is easy for modern eulogists
of Washington 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 Pennsylvania Council, and the Secretary of the
Congressional Committee of Foreign Affairs,--Paine's optimistic view of
the situation had immense effect. He hints his official knowledge that
Britain's "reduced 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_."

     * See his letter to the President of Congress. Ford's,
     "Writings of Washington," vol. vi., p. 82.

This fifth _Crisis_ was written mainly at Lancaster, Pa., at the house
of William Henry, Jr., where he several times found shelter while
dividing his time between Washington's head-quarters and York.* 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.** 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 11th writes thence to his friend Henry Laurens,
President of Congress.***

     * 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.

     ** 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.

     *** I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz, of Philadelphia, for
     this and several other letters of Paine to Laurens.

"Lancaster, April 11th, 1778. Sir,--I take the liberty of mentioning
an affair to you which I think deserves the attention of Congress. The
persons who came from Philadelphia 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 yesterday 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 counterfeit the money
_emitted_ by Congress, or to circulate such counterfeits knowing them to
be so. The offenders' Council 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 applied
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
discription of the Money, and not of the Time of striking it, but
includes the Idea of all Time as inseparable from the Continuance of the
authority of Congress. But be this as it may; the offence is Continental
and the consequences of the same extent. 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 circumstance
of it. It is a mere accident and has nothing or very little to do with
the crime itself. I write this hoping the Information will point out the
necessity of the Congress supporting their emissions by claiming every
offender in this line where the present deficiency of the Law or the
Partial Interpretation 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 reprobated 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.

"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 perplexed
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 related 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 forwarded yours to York Town where I
afterwards recd. 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 11th 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, 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 19th about one in the morning 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 particularly 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 Ammunition, besides which, a reinforcement of 1500 men were
marching 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 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 prospect 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
likewise that if two or three thousand men could be mustered up whether
we might depend on him to command them, for without 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 Philadelphia, 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 miles lower down that morning. The next day they made
a movement about the same distance, to the 21 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 deception; 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 concluded to be a good sign; after this I
met a man on horseback who told me he was going to hasten on a supply
of ammunition, 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 themselves. 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 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 disordered is difficult to manage, the
attempt dangerous. To this may be added a prudence in not putting
matters to too hazardous 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 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 Galley, 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 commanded 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 Philadelphia
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 supposed to be
the Signal; but was soon undeceived, there being 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 incessantly. 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
somewhat 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 command 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
avacuated, 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. Kirkbride's till the
latter end of Janay. Commodore Haslewood, who commanded the remains of
the fleet at Trenton, acquainted 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 Batteau 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 Company,
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 published 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 contemptible affair, the threatenings
and seeming fury he sate out with, and haste and Terror the Army
retreated with, make it laughable. 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 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 neighbours 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 Government expenses. Two Millions a year is a
sufficient allowance, 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. 5th, by which you will
know it.*

     * 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.

"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 Philadelphia 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 unsafe, 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.

"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 Affectionate 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 blockade the Delaware. The British apparently in panic, really by
order from England, left Philadelphia, June 18th. This seeming flight
was a great encouragement. Congress was soon comfortably seated in
Philadelphia, where Paine had the pleasure 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 independence. 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
independence). 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 districts."
While Franklin was offered in Paris the bribe of a peerage, and the like
for several revolutionary leaders, similar efforts were made in America
to subdue the "rebellion" by craft. For that purpose had come the Earl
of Carlisle, Sir George Johnstone, and William Eden. Johnstone had
retired from the Commission in disgust. Referring to the invitation of
the Peace Commissioners, that America should join them against France,
he says: "Unless you were capable of such conduct yourselves, 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 mentions Sir H. Clinton with
some significance, 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, discontented 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.

     "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-dedication had to be made.
Paine had held back nothing from the cause. He gave America the
copyrights of his eighteen pamphlets. While they were selling 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 Philadelphia, taken a musket on his Quaker shoulders, shared the
privations of the retreat to the Delaware, 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 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.*

     * "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.

The reader who desires 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, 1775, 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
receipted. 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, Beaumarchais,
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 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
engage 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 important 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 certainty 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 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
(February 29, 1776) 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
according to our forces." Nothing is said by Arthur Lee about other
payments. The Queen had now become 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 10th) Beaumarchais 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 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 friendship of the French government. This Lee was to
report to the Secret Committee of Congress, which would thus be
prepared to agree to any arrangement of Beaumarchais' agent, without
any suspicion 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 received two hundred thousand
pounds sterling of the French administration for the use of Congress,
but Deane believed Beaumarchais, who "constantly and positively denied
having said any such thing." It had been better for Deane if he had
believed Lee.* 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 million was a royal gift.

     * 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.

This claim to generosity, however, or rather the source of it, was a
secret of the negotiation. In October, 1777, the commissioners wrote to
Congress 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 himself (the others Franklin and Lee). But meanwhile
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 complication 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 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 following statement, in Paine's
handwriting, was no doubt prepared for submission to Congress, and
probably was read during one of its secret discussions of the matter. It
is headed "Explanatory Circumstances."

"1st 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 Committee, 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 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 inflamatory 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 Congress--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
_Pennsylvania Packet_ of December 15, 1778. His motives are told in the
following letter addressed to the Hon. Henry Laurens:

"Philadelphia, Dec. 15th, 1778.--Dear Sir.--In this morning'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
Congress in the minds of the people who have been so exceedingly 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."




{1779}

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 considered 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 commissioners' letter,
showing plainly that Deane had nothing to do with obtaining the
supplies, he is not 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, prefaced
that alliance by an early and generous friendship; yet that we might not
attribute too much to human or auxiliary aid, so unfortunate were these
supplies that only one ship out of 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 rôle so Machiavellian as the
forcing of France's hand, by revealing the connection 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 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 acknowledge
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 private, 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 inconveniences
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 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 expectations, 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 unfavorable disposition in them
towards some parts in my late publications. What the parts are against
which they object, or what those objections are, are wholly unknown
to me. If any gentleman 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, 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 personally.

"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 accordingly. 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 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 resignation 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.

"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 possession, 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 pleasure 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 support me in that
Right, so sacred to themselves and to their constituents; 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 November 30,
1777, saying that the supplies from France were "the effects of private
benevolence." On April 21st he reminds Congress that "they began their
hard treatment of me while I was defending their injured and insulted
honor, and which I cannot account for on any other ground than supposing
that a private unwarrantable connection was formed between Mr. Deane
and certain Members of this Honorable House." On April 23d he again
addresses 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 £700 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 accompanied 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
attack on Deane, the Minister appears to have visited Paine. He reports
to Vergennes, January 10th, 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 inconveniences, 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 defiance 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 already begun his functions in declaring in the Gazette that the
affair of the military effects has no reference to the Court and 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 Mr. 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 tarnished 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 relations with Paine,
depended on the unfamiliarity of Vergennes with the Philadelphia
journals. In these Paine had promptly made known the overtures made to
him.

"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 £39, 11, 0 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 compensation 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 employed by
the French Ambassador. This will be seen by reference to their letters
in the _Pennsylvania Gazette_ of June 23d. In June and July Paine
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 Stevens'
_Facsimiles?_) Deane and Gerard 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 curious sequels, some of which
are related in a characteristic 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 matters, 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
Secretary 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
presuming to use the King's name on such an occasion. In the course of
our Revolutionary War, large supplies were sent by M. Beaumarchais under
the name of Roderique Hortalez and Co., a supposed mercantile name. But
the operations were impeded by complaints of the British Ambassador,
Lord Stormont, 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 Foreign Affairs.* 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.**

     * Error.    Paine signed "Common Sense," and in one instance
     "Thomas Paine."

     ** Paine resigned.    Several motions for his dismissal were
     lost.

"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 payment Bills were drawn in his favor on Dr. Franklin, our
Minister 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 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. Beaumarchais 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 satisfied, 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.

     * Gouverneur Morris himself.

     ** This was the receipt dated June 10, 1776, on which the
     King had marked "Bon," and was obtained by Morris in 1794.

"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 fortune 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.'

"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. Rodney'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 Connecticut, 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 the letters meant to be intercepted, printed by
Rivington in 1782. In these letters he urges submission to England.
Franklin took the charitable view that his head had been turned by his
misfortunes. 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 had his treachery, as now revealed in
the letters of George III., been known, there had been no such payment.

     * The documents referred to are no doubt among the Lee
     Papers preserved at the University of Virginia, which I have
     examined.

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 supplies 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 Johnston," 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.* But there was something
more behind the vehemence of Paine's letters.

     * In one of Deane's intercepted letters (May 20, 1781) there
     is an indication that he had found more truth in what Paine
     had said about the gratuitous 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 assistance 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 individuals, 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
     required 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.

This he intimated, but his revelation 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 thoroughly, 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 delusion, or that he appreciated the necessity of
independence. Paine, who conducted the foreign correspondence, knew that
the secrets of the American 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." (Stevens' 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 (January 4, 1778) of the American officials:

"Dr. Franklin is taciturn, deliberate, and cautious; Mr. Deane is vain,
desultory, and subtle; Mr. Arthur Lee, suspicious 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 attachment."

The venal character of Deane's subsequent treason clearly appears in the
correspondence of George III. with Lord North (Donne, pp. 145, 363, 380,
381, 384) It also appears, by a letter of January 9, 1778, that George
III. was aware that the proposal had been sent to his brother-in-law,
Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, to become commander of the American
revolutionists!




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
questionable payment unjustly pressed at a time when it must have
crippled the Revolution, for which the French subsidies were given.
Congress was relieved, and he who relieved it was the sufferer. From the
most important congressional secretaryship 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 articles in favor of maintaining our right
to the Newfoundland 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 negotiations 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 negotiations; 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 of natural laws.
This position Paine combated; he maintained that independence was not a
change of ministry, but a real thing; it should mean prosperity 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 Commerce, 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 happened. '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."

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
inspirations, 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 distinction to myself by way of smoothing over some disagreeable
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 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 believe, 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 publishing 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
Arthur Lee to send over a quantity from France in the Confederacy if she
goes there, and settling for it with his brother. After that work is com
pleated, I intend prosecuting a history of the Revolution by means of a
subscription--but this undertaking will be attended with such an amazing
expense, 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.

"All the histories of ancient wars that are used for this purpose,
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 subscriptions 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 mentioned, 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
publication. 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."*

     * I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia for a
     copy of this letter.

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 he reminded the Executive Council of
Pennsylvania of his needs and his uncompensated services, which, he
declared, he could not afford to continue without 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 minister) had no
objection. On October 11th 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 himself 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."*
On the same date Paine, not having received any reply to his previous
letter, again wrote to the Council.

     * "Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed."   By his
     grandson.    1847.

"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 recd, 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 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 importing 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 consideration 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 republican
constitution, and by its enfranchisement of the people generally
reduced the power enjoyed by the rich and reactionary under the
colonial government In Still's biography of John Dickinson the continued
conflicts concerning this constitution are described. In 1805, when a
constitutional convention was proposed in Pennsylvania, Paine pointed
out the superiority of its constitution of 1776, which "was conformable
to the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Rights, which
the present constitution [framed in 1790] is not".* 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 process 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 particularly 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.

     * 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
     punishments, and in the divine inspiration of the Old and
     New Testaments. This deistical oath, however, was probably
     considered a victory of latitudiarianism, for the members
     of the convention had taken a rigid trinitarian oath on
     admission to their seats.

In 1779 the Assembly got rid of the provost (Smith), and this was done
by the act of November which took away the charter of the University.*
It was while this agitation was going on, and the Philadelphia "Tories"
saw the heads of their chieftains 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 remarking,
"There comes 'Common Sense'"; Matthew Slough said, "Damn him, I shall
common-sense him," and thereupon tripped Paine into the gutter.** But
patriotic America was with Paine, and missed his pen; for no _Crisis_
had appeared for nearly a year. Consequently on November 2, 1779, the
Pennsylvania Assembly elected him its Clerk.

     * See "A Memoir of the Rev. William Smith, D.D.," by Charles
     J. Stille, 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.

     ** 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.




{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.* That this tradition is correct is now
easily proved by a comparison of its sentiments and phraseology with the
antislavery writings 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 1, 1780.

     * "Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed," ii., p. 177;
     North American Review, vol. lvii., No. cxx.

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 deliverances 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 rejoice that it is in our power, to extend a portion of
that freedom 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 prospect of being delivered. It is not
for us to enquire why, in the creation of mankind, the inhabitants of
the several parts of the earth were distinguished by a difference in
feature or complexion. It is sufficient to know that all are the work
of the Almighty Hand. We find in the distribution of the human species,
that the most 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
civilization, 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 of Great Britain, no effectual, legal relief
could be obtained. Weaned, by a long course of experience, from those
narrow prejudices and partialities 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 received, 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 entitled 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 unhappily
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 commemoration 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."


The New Year, 1780, found Washington amid much distress at Morristown.
Besides the published letters which attest this I have found an extract
from one which seems to have escaped the attention of Washington's
editors.* It was written at Morristown, January 5th.

     * It is in the Ward Collection at Lafayette College, Easton,
     Pa., copied by a (probably) contemporary hand.

"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 inclosed copies of Letters from Mr. Flint, the
Assistant Commissary, and from Gen. Irvine, who commands at present our
advanced troops, contain a just Representation of our situation. 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 conceived. Many of the latter have been four or five days
without meat entirely and short of Bread, and none but very scanty
Supplies--Some for their preservation have been compelled 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 inviting them to share the pleasures of New York. Nor were
they entirely unsuccessful. On May 28th was penned the gloomiest
letter Washington ever 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 combination
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 desperation 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 incorporated by Congress on December 21st.

     * The salary was drawn on June 7th, and amounted to $1,699.
     For particulars concerning Paine's connection with the
     Assembly I am indebted to Dr. William H. Egle, State
     Librarian of Pennsylvania.

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 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 1776, had revived 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 postscript 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.

"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 foresight of their own
interest or danger, they will promote a subscription either of money or
articles, and appoint a committee 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 expeditious 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 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 Philadelphia 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 heading the subscription, and the inspiriting effect of his pamphlets
of March and June, 1780. The University of the State of Pennsylvania,
as it was now styled, celebrated the Fourth of July by conferring on him
the degree of Master of Arts.* 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 Extraordinary_. 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 publications 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.

     * 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 Bishop), Mr.
     Helmuth, Mr. Wei-borg (minister of the German Calvinist
     Church), Mr. Farmer (Roman Catholic 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.

     ** "In Council. Philadelphia, October 10th, 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."

Although the financial emergency had been tided over by patriotic
sacrifices, it had disclosed a chaos.

"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].

Congress, so far from being able to contend with Virginia on a point
of sovereignty, was without power to levy taxes. "One State," writes
Washington (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 advantage." 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 threatened 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 Extraordinary. 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 13s. 4d. per
head. In England the taxation was £2 per head. With independence a peace
establishment in America would cost 5s. per head; with the loss of it
Americans 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 increase to three-and-threepence
per month. He points out that the Pennsylvanians were then paying 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 £60,000 over, shall be raised by a tax of 7s. 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 charter 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 company'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 due west line from the northern point, thus forming 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 eternity 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 remarked here
that though the Attorney-General of Virginia, Edmund Randolph, had to
vindicate his State's claim, he used a similar argument in defeating
Lord Fairfax's claim to lands in Virginia which had not been discovered
when his grant was issued.* 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 territory. It was an early
cropping up of the question of State sovereignty. By royal proclamation
of 1763 the province of Virginia was defined so as not to extend beyond
heads of rivers emptying in the Atlantic.

     * "Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and
     Papers of Edmund Randolph," pp. 47, 60.

Paine contended that to the sovereignty of the Crown over all
territories beyond limits of the thirteen provinces the United States
had succeeded. This early assertion of the federal doctrine, 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 proposal in the Virginia Legislature to
present Paine with something for his services, was lost on account of
this pamphlet.*

     * 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 I, 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 acceptance did not imply endorsement of
     Virginia's claim was lost, but the contrary 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.

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 contributions 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
had good ground for resisting even the semblance of an assertion of
sovereignty by a Congress representing only a military treaty between
the colonies; and that Paine's doctrine confesses itself too idealistic
and premature by the plea, with which his pamphlet closes, for the
summoning of a "continental 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 forgotten 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 Revolution. 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, 1780) setting forth his
intention of collecting materials for a history of the Revolution, and
saying that he could not fulfil the duties of Clerk if re-elected.*

     * 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. j. 6, (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, apparently
     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."

This and another letter (September 14, 1780), addressed 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, 1780) 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
impossible to continue the war, and asking that France should supply
America with a million sterling per annum, as subsidy or loan. This
letter was shown to M. Marbois, Secretary of the French Legation, who
spoke discouragingly. But the Hon. Ralph Izard showed the letter to some
members 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 situation. 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.

"Sir,--Last spring I mentioned to you a wish I had to take a passage
for Europe, and endeavour to go privately to England. You pointed
out several difficulties in the way, respecting 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 suppose
that the acknowledgment of Independence is at this time a more
unpopular doctrine in England than the declaration of it was in America
immediately before the publication 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 fall into their hands; but,
could I escape in safety, till I could get out a publication in England,
my apprehensions would be 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 Congress 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 conversation 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."




{1781}

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 "confided 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 everything ready. I understand that
you have expressed a desire 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."*

     * 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."

They sailed from Brest on the French frigate _Resolve_ June 1st,
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 Washington, 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 starting of convoys from France could not
escape English vigilance, and that their arrival was uncertain; so he
passed near three months in preparations, reconnoitrings, discussions.
By menacing the British in New York he made them draw away some of the
forces of Cornwallis from Virginia, where he meant to strike; but
his delay in marching south brought on him complaints from Governor
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, Washington 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. The plan of obtaining 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 captured he could have hoped for little
mercy from the British. Laurens, who had nearly upset the business,
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 nothing.
But it was a rôle he was used to. The young Colonel hastened to resume
his place in Washington'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 Quarters, 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 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 time, to the opening it,
and if it cannot, 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 inform you of it.

"I am with every wish for your happiness and success, &c.

"Please to present my Compts. and best wishes to the General. 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."'

     * The original is in Mr. W. F. Haveraeyer's collection.

It will be seen by the following letter to Franklin's nephew that Paine
was now on good terms 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 letters) 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 nAbbéd nicely in the
Cheasepeake, which I presume you have heard 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 'll 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 Virginia, 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 (September 20th) proposed to Robert Morris the plan of "empowering
the tenant to pay into the Treasury 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 independence of a nation, he
found himself in a state of dependence. He fairly pointed the moral of
Solomon's fable: By his wisdom he had saved the besieged land, yet none
remembered that poor man, so far as his needs were concerned. If in his
confidential letter to Washington, given below, Paine seems egotistical,
it should be borne in mind that his estimate of his services falls short
of their appreciation by the national leaders. It should not have been
left to Paine to call attention to his sacrifices for his country's
cause, and the want in which it had left him. He knew also that plain
speaking was necessary with Washington.

"Second Street, opposite the Quaker Meetinghouse, Nov. 30th, 1781.

"Sir,--As soon as I can suppose you to be a little at leisure from
business and visits, I shall, with much pleasure, wait on you, to
pay you my respects and congratulate you on the success you have most
deservedly been blest with.

"I hope nothing in the perusal of this letter will add a care to the
many that employ your mind; but as there is a satisfaction in speaking
where one can be conceived and understood, I divulge to you the secret
of my own situation; because I would wish to tell it to somebody, and as
I do not want to make it public, I may not have a fairer opportunity.

"It is seven years, this day, since I arrived in America, and tho'
I consider them as the most honorary time of my life, they have
nevertheless been the most inconvenient and even distressing. From an
anxiety to support, as far as laid in my power, the reputation of the
Cause of America, as well as the Cause itself, I declined the customary
profits which authors are entitled to, and I have always continued to do
so; yet I never thought (if I thought at all on the matter,) but that as
I dealt generously and honorably by America, she would deal the same by
me. But I have experienced the contrary--and it gives me much concern,
not only on account of the inconvenience it has occasioned to me, but
because it unpleasantly 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 established 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
distresses 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 cannot 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 considerable 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, 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 Abbé Raynal's 'History 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.*

"His Excellency General Washington."

     * I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia for a
     copy of this letter.




{1782}

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 what
Paine had intended for the nation. After he had left Bell for Bradford,
the former not only published 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 sensitiveness, 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 consider his
case. In the diary of Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance, there is
an entry of January 26, 1782, in which he mentions that Washington had
twice expressed to him a desire that some provision should be made for
Paine.*

     * Sparks' "Diplomatic Correspondence," xii., p. 95.

Morris sent for Paine and, in the course of a long conversation,
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 promoting measures necessary
to draw out the resources 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 particular 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
subject, 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; considering 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 mentioned. 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 purpose 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 boyhood at Thetford, was
an effective comment on the King's expression of his desire "to restore
the public tranquillity," though poor George III., 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 individual 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 United States of
America' will sound as pompously in the world or in history as 'the
kingdom of Great Britain.'"

     * Almon's Remembrancer 1778-9, p. 38a.

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.* 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.
England was now making efforts to detach America and France from each
other by large inducements. In France Paine was shown by Franklin and
Vergennes 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 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, concerning 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
capitulated with Cornwallis, though they were expressly relieved from
liability to reprisals (Article 14). The lot fell upon one of these,
young Captain Asgill (May 27th). It sufficiently proves the formidable
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 general appears to have warned him of the wrong he was about
to commit.* But Paine, with well-weighed words, gently withstood the
commander, prudently ignoring the legal point, if aware of it.

     * 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
     distressed 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."

     "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 measures 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 sensations 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 Congress, for the first time intimates a desire that
Asgill shall be released by that body.

In October came from Vergennes a letter, inspired 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, 1782) 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 "History 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
importance, notably as regards the retreat across the Delaware, the
affairs at Trenton and Princeton, and the skirmishes near Philadelphia
following the British occupation of that city. The latter are vividly
described in his letter to Franklin (p. 104), and the former in his
review of the Abbé' Raynal.

In his letter to Washington, of November 30, 1781, Paine mentioned that
he had begun "some remarks" on the Abbé'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 passages
concerning the military events of 1776, lies in its reflections of
events in the nine months during 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 Abbé'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 Abbé'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 originated in the
question "whether the mother country had, or had not, a right to lay,
directly or indirectly, 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
"to bind America in all cases whatever," and that claim was resisted in
the first stage of its execution. Secondly, the Abbé suffers for having
described the affair at Trenton as accidental. Paine's answer is
an admirable piece of history. Thirdly, the Abbé 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
22d, eleven days before news arrived of the French alliance.*

     * 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
     preliminary 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 9th) unconsidered,
     because of its insults to their ally.

The Abbé 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 having 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 dawning era of international affection. All
such alliances are republican. The Abbé 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
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 provoked their principle, by the former she wore out their temper;
and it ought to be held out as an example to the world, to show how
necessary it is to conduct the business of government 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 constant 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 Abbé 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 religion, and by
superstition. They serve seven years' apprenticeship--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 matrimony:
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 unsuccessful 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 casts whatsoever_,
or declare him a rebel."

The rest of this letter is the cautious and respectful 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, informing 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 gentlemen
of the army will receive from the perusal of your pamphlets. 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 them
unavoidably into what they will esteem disagreeable and dishonorable
terms of peace,--such, for instance, as an absolute, 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 Abbé 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 without 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 another war. The army, no longer
uplifted by ardors of conflict with a foreign foe, became conscious
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 proposal
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 Holland.
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, appeared 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.*

     * 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 Professor Jamieson of Brown University for
     assistance in this investigation.

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 undergo 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 commerce, 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 1st):

"In the Name of Common Sense, Amen, I, Thomas Paine, having according
to appointment, proceeded with all convenient 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.




{1783}

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 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 "testimonies."

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." Robert 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 approved. 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 postponement of all prospect of paying the soldiers,
had a formidable effect on the army. The anti-republican 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 mutineers against it,
Washington is seen winning his 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 intriguers' 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," included 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 accomplished." 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 condition 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 impossible 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 festivities 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 President 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 contracted, 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
succeeds. On the President observing that in the present situation of
our affairs he believed that Mr. [Robert] Morris had his 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 constitution 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 Borden town, 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 mechanical 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 Congress to various unremunerated
services. His 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 economy, 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 rendered cheerfully by one who
entertains a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who, with
much pleasure, subscribes himself,

"Your sincere friend,

"G. Washington."

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.* 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
rendering 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.

     * See page 182.

     ** This had been Washington's suggestion.

"By the advice of Mr. Morris I presented a letter to Congress 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 report 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 committee 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.

"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
condemnation, 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 headquarters, 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 picture
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!*

     * See Paine's essay on "The Cause of the Yellow Fever."
     These experiments on the river at Rocky Hill were followed
     by others in Philadelphia, with Rittenhouse.

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 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 prevent injury to the one or insult to the other."




{1784}

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, however, New York presented
Paine with "two hundred 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."* With such cheerful prospects, national
and personal, Paine rose into song, as appears by the following letter
("New York, April 28th") to Washington:

     * The indenture, made June 16, 1784, is in the Register's
     Office of Westchester 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.

"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 Philadelphia, 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 Members of Congress, I felt an exceeding
unwillingness that your friendship to me should be put to further
tryals, or that you should experience the mortification of having your
wishes disappointed, 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), proposed 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 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.* 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 principles 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 be 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 themselves.

"If you have a convenient opportunity I should be much obliged to you to
mention this subject to Mr. President Dickinson. 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.

     * 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.

"As I see by the papers you are settling a tract of land, I 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 Jays), and Paine received distinguished
welcome when he went to take possession. This he reciprocated, but he
did not remain long at New Rochelle.* 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 appreciated this motive appears by
letters to Richard Henry Lee and James Madison.

     *"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.

"Mount Vernon, 12 June.--Unsolicited 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 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 be, DSir,

"Yr. Most Obedt. Humble Servt,

"G. Washington."

"James Madison, Esq."

     *I found this letter (to Lee) among the Franklin MSS. in the
     Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

     ** I am indebted for this letter to Mr. Frederick McGuire,
     of Washington.

A similar letter was written to Patrick Henry and perhaps to others. A
bill introduced into the 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:

     * "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 Deane."--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.

"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 probably 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 suddenly 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 contributed 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 22d):

"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 consequence 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 Washington. But his powerful friend did not relax
his efforts, and he consulted honest John Dickinson, President of
Pennsylvania. Under date of November 27th, the following was written by
Paine to General Irwin, Vice-President of Pennsylvania:

"The President has made me acquainted with a Conversation 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
Assembly, 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.

"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 contest, that those persons whose own merits in
the course of it have been the most distinguished concur with a highly
honorable unanimity in entertaining sentiments of esteem for him, and
interesting themselves in his deserts. It is unnecessary for us to
enlarge on this subject. If the General Assembly 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 provision 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 independent Meanwhile Congress also was willing to remunerate
him, but he had put difficulties in 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 underpaid 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 interfered, and wrote to
Congress, now sitting in New 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 without it. The case is, there are some motions on
the journals of Congress for censuring you, with respect to Deane's
affair, which cannot now be recalled, because they have been printed.
Therefore [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 approbation of Congress; and that in consideration of these
services, and the benefits produced thereby, Mr. Paine is entitled to a
liberal gratification from the United States."

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 considerations 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 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.




{1785}




CHAPTER XV. PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS

Paine was the literary lion in New York--where Congress sat in 1785--and
was especially intimate with the Nicholsons, whose house was the social
_salon_ of leading republicans.* 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:

     * "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
     Clintons, 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 [née
     Nicholson]; its address is to: 'Miss Hannah N., at the Lord
     knows where.--You Mistress Hannah if you don't come home, I
     'll come and fetch you.   T. Paine.'"--Adams' "Life of
     Gallatin."

"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 heartfelt 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 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 Philadelphia, September 24th:

"Dear Sir,--'I have just received your friendly congratulations 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 politeness, 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. Parties still run very high--Common Sense
would unite them. It is to be hoped therefore it has not abandoned us
forever."*

     * 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"

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 invention to lay before Franklin, to whom he hastened 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 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."




{1786}

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 Washington's suffering army. It had
been incorporated by Congress, and ultimately by Pennsylvania, 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
recess of the Assembly." This was between December 22d and February
26th.

The first fourteen pages of the work are devoted to a consideration
of general principles. Englishmen who receive their constitutional
instruction from Walter Bagehot and Albert Dicey will find in this
introduction by Paine the foundation of their Republic. In discussing
"sovereignty" he points out that the term, when applied to a people, has
a different meaning from the arbitrariness it signifies 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 individual 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 agreement is made
respecting the contract, or the meaning or extent 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 1792, when a State pleaded its sovereign
right to repudiate a contract ("Chisholm vs. Georgia") the Supreme
Court affirmed every contention of Paine's pamphlet, using his ideas and
sometimes his very phrases.

Our first Attorney-General (Edmund Randolph, of Virginia) eloquently
maintained that the inferiority of one party, or dignity of the other,
could not affect the balances of justice. Individuals 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 individuals," 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."* 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 professing civilization, which shields
repudiation under "State sovereignty."

     1 See "Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life
     and Papers of Edmund Randolph," Chap. XVIII., for a full
     history of this subject.

In the strength of these principles Paine was able to overwhelm the
whole brood of heresies,--State privilege, legal tender, repudiation,
retrospective laws. His arguments are too modern to need repetition
here; in fineness and force they are like the ribs of his bridge: as
to-day commerce travels on Paine's iron span, so on his argumentative
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
himself in the spring.

To Franklin, undated.--"I send you the two essays I mentioned. 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
difficulties 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 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 Philadelphia 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, probably in
June.--"Honorable Sir,--I have sent to His Excellency, 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 presenting 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."'

     * This and the two letters preceding are among the Franklin
     MSS. in the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

To the Hon. Thomas Fitzsimmons; addressed "To be left at the Bank,
Philadelphia." Written at Borden town, November 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 moderately
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 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 balance for the present year. There is more to be
said respecting this debt than has yet 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 greediness 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 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."*

     * I am indebted for this letter to Mr. Simon Grata of
     Philadelphia.

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 incorporation for the purpose of erecting a bridge over the
Schuylkill on a model in their possession. I hope this business 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 produce 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."*




{1787}

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 remuneration 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 committee. 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.**
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 engineers in France. In March,
1787, he is in Philadelphia, consulting committees, and on the 31st
writes to Franklin of his prospects and plans:

     * For this letter I am indebted to Mr. Charles Roberts, of
     Philadelphia.

     ** 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.

"I mentioned in one of my essays my design of going this spring to
Europe.--I intend landing in france and from thence England,--and that I
should take the model with me. The time I had fixed with myself was
May, but understanding (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 letter 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 promote 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 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 tomorrow."

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 suggested 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 politicians. He had shown in all his writings, especially 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" on 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."* In setting the nation at once to a discussion
of the principles of such government, he led it to assume the principle
of 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.

     * "The Development of Constitutional Liberty in the English
     Colonies of America," by Eben Greenough Scott, 1890.

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 principles 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
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."* 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.

     * "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.

M. Chanut ("Nouv. Biog. Générale") 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.

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 regarded 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.* He was already a
hero of the progressives, who had relished his artistic dissection of
the Abbé Raynal's disparagement of the American Revolution. Among those
who greeted him was Auberteuil, whose history of the American Revolution
Paine had corrected, an early copy having been sent him (1783) by
Franklin for that purpose.

     * "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.

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
18th 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 Academy 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 opinion, and this embarrasses
them more than the opinion itself. That the model is strong, and that
a bridge constructed 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 Duchâtelet, Cardinal
De Brienne, and, he believes, also Danton, who, like the English
republican, was a freemason.** This intercourse, adds the same author,
enabled him to print in England his remarkable 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 revolutionary
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 bridge of friendship across the
Channel.

     * 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.

     ** "Danton Emigré," p. 7. Paine wrote a brief archaeological
     treatise on freemasonry, but I have not met with the
     statement that he was a freemason except in Dr. Robinet's
     volume,--certainly high authority.

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 proposal 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 engaged, and straightway went to Thetford.* 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 meeting-house, to which she had become
attached in her latter years.

     * 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 manuscript was dated in Paris and forwarded to
     the London printer with the address at which he wished to
     find proof on his arrival.

     ** St. Cuthbert's Register: "Burials, 1786. Joseph Payne (a
     Quaker) aged 78 years. November 14th."

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 spiritual
cradle, he had borne away a beautiful theory, in ignorance of the
contrasted actuality. Theoretically the Society of Friends is a
theocracy; the Spirit alone rules and directs, effacing all distinctions
of rank or sex. As a matter of fact, one old Quaker, or the clerk of
a meeting, often overrules 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 system
is explicable only by his theocratic Quakerism. His first essay, the
plea for negro emancipation, was brought from Thetford meeting-house.
His "Common 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 'll 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 forward 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
remarked 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 principles of the Declaration,
which would have freed every slave,--representation proportionate to
population, so essential to equality, the sovereignty of justice instead
of majorities or of States,--had become "glittering generalities." The
first to affirm the principles of the Declaration, Paine awaited the
unsummoned Convention that would not compromise 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.*

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 American Revolution,
fades; the shudder with which he saw in childhood soldiers reeking
from the massacres of Culloden and Inverness returns; he begins his new
career in the old world with a "testimony" against war.**

     * "In wells where truth in secret lay He saw the midnight
     stars by day."--W. D. Howells.

     ** "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.

"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
hearing 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 unsupposed 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, 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 revolution 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 external 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 important moment for the most effectual consolidation of
national strength and greatness." The government must not be frightened
by disturbances incidental to beneficent changes. "The creation we enjoy
arose out of a chaos."*

     * The pamphlet was reprinted in London in 1793 under the
     title: "Prospects 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."

Paine had seen a good deal of Jefferson in Paris, and no doubt their
conversation often related to struggles in the Constitutional Convention
at Philadelphia. Jefferson wished the Constitution to include 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 government 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 delivered 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 Jefferson's
papers, bears no date, but was no doubt written at Thetford early in the
year 1788.




{1788}

"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 consequence 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 supported only by their own natural
individual power, they would begin by distinguishing between those
rights they could individually 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 acquiring and possessing property,
in the exercise of which the individual 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 compact, 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 individual, 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 purpose 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 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 representative 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 probable 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 company numerous, he delighted
in advancing the most unaccountable, 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 celebrated for acuteness of thought;
but if interrupted by extraneous 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 govern the majority. Peter
smiled. You must grant me, said Uncommon 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
consequently most prone to errour; and if we atchieve the right,
the minority ought in all cases to govern. Peter continued to smile
archly."*

     * "The Algerine Captive," 1797.   (Paine's shoe-buckles in
     the National Museum, Washington, are of the fashionable
     kind.)

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."




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 repressive side had more perhaps to do
with his career. "I had some turn," he said, "and I believe 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
commonwealths. The American Republic having temporarily filled his ideal
horizon in the political direction, the disguised Muse turned his eye
upon the possibilities of nature. Morally utilitarian, he yet rarely
writes about physics without betraying the poetic passion for nature of
a suppressed Wordsworth. 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:

"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
timber 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 literature of mechanical
invention more naively picturesque than this Quaker, passed through
furnaces of two revolutions, trying to humanize gunpowder. 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 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 Quakerism, 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.*

     * 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.

"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, with all its evils, had
some advantages. It energized invention and lessened the catalogue of
impossibilities. At the conclusion 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, navigable. 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 patent, 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.

     * "No. 1667. Specification of Thomas Paine. Constructing
     Arches. Vaulted Roofs, and Ceilings." The specification,
     dated August 28, 1788, declares his invention 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 1779, 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
     remarks that Paine's "daring in engineering does full
     justice to the fervour of his political career."   (Eighth
     edition; it is omitted in the ninth.)

"The idea and construction of this arch is taken from the figure of
a spider's circular web, of which it resembles a section, 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 increasing 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 fortunate 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.* He at once took his place
in England as a sort of institution. While the engineers beheld with
admiration his iron arch clearing the treacherous river-beds, statesmen
saw with delight his prospective bridges spanning the political
"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
stretches his shining arches to France, Holland, Germany,--free commerce
and friendship with all peoples, but no leagues with the sinking piers
called thrones.

     * 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."

At Rotherham, in Yorkshire, where Messrs. Walker fitted up a workshop
for Paine, he was visited by famous engineers and political personages.
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 Staunton, 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 gentlemen 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 Rotherham, 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 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.




{1789}

In truth Paine, who had represented the heart of England, in America,
was now representing the heart of America to England. America was
working 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 Alexanders (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 (afterwards P. R. A.) shows
Paine's pleasant relations with that artist and with Trumbull. It is
dated March 8, 1789.

"I have informed James of the matter which you and I talked of on
Saturday, and he is much rejoiced at an opportunity 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 disposition 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 impressions 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
three 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.** Let those who would know the real Thomas Paine read
this letter!

     * 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.

     ** To a representative of this family I am indebted for the
     letter. Concerning the Nicholsons, see page 212.

"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 dismissed; and if you will excuse a few dull thoughts for obtruding
themselves into a congratulatory letter I will tell you what it is. When
I see my female friends drop off by matrimony 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 knowledge
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 felicities of home depend on good temper as well
as on good sense, 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 wonderfully 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 experienced the fate, I am
describing.* 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 contentedly 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 churlish 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.

     * 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 "common
     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.

"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 mention only one letter, but I
wrote twice; once by Dr. Derby, and another time by the Chevalier St.
Triss--by whom I also 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 happens, 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 inimitable virtue as if it had never been. The ruins
of that liberty which thousands bled for, or suffered to obtain, may
just furnish 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 extinction 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 'll not be dull if I
can help it, so I leave off, and close my letter tomorrow, 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 Philadelphia 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 Philadelphia, I wish you would do
me the favor to present my compliments 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.

"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 conversation. 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--aet. 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. Remember 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
remember 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
memorial 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 patent, 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 information from
that country." Jefferson subscribes his letters--"I am with great
and sincere attachment, 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 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 complaint 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 capital Iron Works in this country, the principal
of which are those in Shropshire, Yorkshire, and Scotland. It was my
intention 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 property. 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 therefore 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 considerable impression here. They
overawe a great deal of the English habitual rashness, and check that
triumph of presumption 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 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 notification 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 advocates. 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 believe 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 secret kept in this country.
Mr. B[urke] tells me that the opposition 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 temporary
destruction of national credit. This is the point on which this country
is most impressible. Wars carried on at a distance, 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 Whiteside'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 undertook 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
subject, 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 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 Parliament 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. [Illegible] 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.*"

     * 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.

"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 ministry, 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 intimacy 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 millions 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 circumstances. 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
---- Janry. came safe to hand,--for which I thank you. I begin this
without knowing of any opportunity 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 perceive 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 Parliament 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 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 wishing 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 Immortalized 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
Domini. 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.

"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 subject, 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 Emperor. 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 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 estimation, 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.* 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 expence 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.

     * On this Blue and Buff Society, Canning wrote some
     satirical verses. He also described "French philanthropy" as
     "Condorcet filtered through the dregs of Paine."

"I believe I am not so much in the good graces of the Marquis of
Landsdowne as I used to be--I do not answer his purpose. 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 thanksgiving, and he is to go in great Parade to
offer up his Devotions at St. Paul's on that day. Those about him have
endeavoured to dissuade him from this ostentatious pilgrimage, 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 apprehension, 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 necessary 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 contracted since, and all
and every mode of payment and remittance under which they _have bein
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 coeval 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 England discount Bills at 5 p cent, but a proposal
is talked of for discounting at 4 1/2; and the reason given is the vast
quantity of money, and that money of the good houses discounts at 4
1/2; 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 excretions is lessened.--If a war should ever break out,
between the countries again, this is the spot where it ought to be
prosecuted, 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 Arbitress 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 be obliged to you to communicate to him any matters
respecting 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 proposed 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.* 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 considered as constituant
parts of the contract."

     * This and other parts of Paine's correspondence were
     forwarded to Washington.

"June 17.--I received your last to the 21st May. I am just now informed
of Messrs. Parker and Cutting setting off tomorrow 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
Commons 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 improvements 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 advantage.' 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 emanations of spirit, which taught you to construct a
Bridge without 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 Cotton Mills,--the Potteries--the Steel
furnaces--Tin plate manufacture--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 conceive 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 13.--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 paying the expences of each party the remainder to be equally
divided--one half theirs, the other mine. My principal object 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, £180 in the hands of General Morris
',£40 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 negotiated, and full sufficient for what
I shall want. On this fund 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
accommodate 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 business, 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 opportunity of acknowledging it. I
wrote you on the 15 th 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 collect, 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 oeconomy 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. Kirkbride. 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
republic, 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 showing 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.*

     * "Memoires concernant Marie-Antoinette," pp. 34-79. 268

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 1789, 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 Washington 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 principles more inveterate than
Adams found himself similarly eclipsed in Paris by the famous author.
Early in 1789 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 imagination of courtiers. At
Jefferson's request Gouverneur Morris posed to Houdon for the bust
of Washington; and when, to Morris' joy, Jefferson departed, he posed
politically as Washington to the eyes of Europe. He was scandalized that
Jefferson should retain recollections of the Declaration of Independence
strong enough to desire for France "a downright republican form of
government"; and how it happened that under Jefferson's secretaryship of
state this man, whom even Hamilton 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. Intimacy 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.




{1790}

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,
1790, 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 excellent 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 enlighten 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 London. Now, in Paris, Morris discovers that Paine has
but an indifferent head to think.*

Gouverneur Morris was a fascinating man. His diary and letters,
always entertaining, reveal the secret of his success in twisting the
Constitution and Jefferson and Washington around his fingers in several
important junctures. To Paine also he was irresistible. His cordial
manners disarm suspicion, and we presently 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 Philadelphia 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."**

     * "Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris." Edited by Anne
     Cary Morris. i., p. 286.

     ** 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 Revolution, had a slave in his
     house at Challiot. Paine was not of the philanthropic 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."

On his arrival in London he has the happiness of meeting his old friend
General Morris of Morrisania, and his wife. Gouverneur is presently
over there, to see his brother; and in the intervals of dancing
attendance at the opera on titled ladies--among them Lady Dunmore, whose
husband desolated the Virginia coast,--he gets Paine's confidences.*
Poor Paine was an easy victim of any show of personal kindness,
especially when it seemed like the magnanimity 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
Washington. In the series of intellectual and moral movements which
culminated in the French Revolution, 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 Abbés, 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.'" **

     * "Diary," etc., i., pp. 339, 341.

     ** "L'Esprit revolutionaire avant la Revolution." A good
     service has just been done by Miss Hunting in translating
     and condensing the admirable historical treatise of M. Felix
     Rocquain on "The Revolutionary Spirit Preceding the
     Revolution," for which Professor Huxley has written a
     preface.

The coming Key was announced to Washington with the following letters:

"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 Excellency, 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 illustrate 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, and 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 permitted 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 procession. 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 hundred and ten
feet span, and five feet high from the cord of the arch. It is now
on board a vessel coming from Yorkshire to London, where it is to
be erected. I see nothing yet to disappoint 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
return 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 freedom, but conquest. They
already talk of sending some of the 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 repeated
opportunities, that our new government answers its purposes 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. Gouverneur Morris reports interviews with him August 8th and
15th, in London. The beautiful iron bridge, 110 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."* It was a brief visit,
however, 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 American
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 deposited 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 negotiations for utilizing the
invention. The snug copyright fortune which the author had sacrificed to
the American cause seemed about to be recovered by the inventor.

     * "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.

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 Bastille, whose walls he sees steadily
closing around the people.




CHAPTER XX. "THE RIGHTS OF MAN"

Edmund Burke's "Reflexions on the Revolution in France" appeared about
November 1, 1790 Paine was staying at the Angel inn, Islington, and
there immediately began his reply. With his sentiment 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 misgivings of that kind haunted him. For his eyes
the omens hung over the dark Past; on the horizon 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.

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 Burke, who
appeared with all the seductive brilliancy of a fallen Lucifer. No man
had been more idealized by Paine than Burke. Not only because of
his magnificent defence of American patriots, but because of 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 out that "the power of the crown, almost dead and
rotten as prerogative, has grown up anew, with much more strength and
far 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 friend of 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 remarked 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 preparing
the attack on France, delivered early in the Parliament of 1790. When,
soon after his return from Paris, Paine mingled with the mourners for
their lost leader, he was informed that Burke had 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 without 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 himself 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 had been familiarized beyond all men with every deep and
by-way of the subject on which Burke had ventured. Where Burke had
dabbled Paine had dived. Never did man reputed wise go beyond
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 did the seventeenth century secure a monopoly in
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 leave it vacant?

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. To 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 history may find in Burke's
pamphlet the fossilized, and in Paine's (potentially) the living,
Constitution of Great Britain.




{1791}

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 deserved was "that of criminal justice."
There was not the slightest confusion of ideas and aim in this book.
In laying down first principles of human government, Paine imports no
preference of his own 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 the
people. That is, for the people who make it; they have no right, by any
hereditary principle, to bind another people, unborn. His principle of
the rights of man was founded in the religious axiom of his age that
all men derived existence from a divine maker. To say men are born equal
means that they are created equal. Precedent contradicts precedent,
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 cannot be
given him." "God said Let us make man in our own image." No distinction
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 the first man that
existed, and his natural right to it is of the same kind." On these
natural rights Paine founds man's civil rights. To secure his natural
rights the individual deposits some of them--e.g. the right to judge in
his own cause--in the common stock of society.

Paine next proceeds to distinguish governments which have arisen out
of this social compact from those which have not. Governments are
classified as founded on--(1) superstition; (2) power; (3) 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 law it temporarily represents. Pitt's
bill to reform Parliament involves the absurdity of trusting an
admittedly 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
character, and the constitutional method would be by a general
convention elected for the purpose." The 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 surrendered
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 1791. This history, partly that of an eyewitness, 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 narrative. There had been then few serious
outbreaks of 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 1780 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 distortedly
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 aristocracy. 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.* 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 "Jordan
"volumes in the British Museum."**

     * "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 preface, which as you have
     not seen, I send you my copy--Not a single castration (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 1791 earlier than
     April 8th.

     ** 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."

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:

"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 matters 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 imposition 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 certainly 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 I do not believe that a more cordial
and confidential intercourse exists between any two countries than
between America and France.

"When I came to France in the spring of 1787, the Archbishop of
Thoulouse was then Minister, and at that time highly esteemed. I became
much acquainted with the private Secretary 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 misunderstood 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.

"With respect to a paragraph in this work alluding to Mr. Burke's having
a pension, the report has been some time in circulation, 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 he thinks proper."

"The Rights of Man" produced a great impression from the first. It
powerfully reinforced the "Constitutional Society," formed seven years
before, which Paine had joined. The book was adopted as their new _Magna
Charta_. Their enthusiasm was poured forth on March 23d in resolutions
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 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 book; 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 here. 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 England with him,--for
England was at heart with Fox and the Opposition. When Burke made
his first attack on the French Revolution (February 9, 1790), he
was repeatedly called to order; and Fox--with tears, for their long
friendship was breaking forever--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.

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.*

     * "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 correspondence, 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.

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
containing provisions contrary to Paine's views. It recognized the
reigning house, and made its executive power hereditary. Yet so free was
Paine from pedantry, so anxious for any peaceful advance, that it was at
the expected inauguration of this Constitution 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 French constitution
distinguishes between the king and the sovereign; it considers the
station of the king as official, and places sovereignty in the nation."
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.

A very important part of Paine's answer was that which related to
the United States. Burke, the most famous defender of American
revolutionists, 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 officers 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 grammar of liberty.* He
points out that under this transatlantic influence French liberalism had
deviated from the line of its forerunners,--from Montesquieu, "obliged
to divide himself between principle and prudence"; Voltaire, "both the
flatterer and satirist of despotism"; Rousseau, leaving "the mind in
love with an object without describing the means of possessing it";
Turgot, whose maxims are directed to "reform the administration of
government rather than the government itself." To these high praise is
awarded, but they all had to be filtered through America.

     * 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 constitution of
     Pennsylvania have been the cause of the tyranny of
     Robespierre?"

And it goes without saying that it was not the reactionary America with
which John Adams and Gouverneur Morris had familiarized Burke. "The
Rights of Man" was the first exposition of the republicanism of
Jefferson, Madison, and Edmund Randolph that ever appeared. And as this
republicanism was just then in deadly struggle with reaction, 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.

"After some prefatory remarks the Secretary of State observes:

"' I am 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,* 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 Centinel_ (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 second 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 different 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 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, and pretty certainly under his father's inspiration.

     * "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 benevolence 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."

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. Publicola's
arguments could not get a fair hearing amid surviving animosities
against England and enthusiasm 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 estimate of
the advantages of its unwritten Constitution. America had, too,
an inventor's pride in its written Constitution, as yet untried by
experience. 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. Publicola 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 a legislature without such
constitutional powers would nevertheless exercise them by forced
constructions; and that the difficulty and delay of gathering the people
in convention might conceivably 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 representation at all in two branches of their government.
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 freethinker),--"Does he consider this pamphlet
of Mr. Paine's as the canonical book of political scripture,--hurt
Jefferson so much that he supposed 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 publication.
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, increased 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 "Jeffersonians" 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-enforcement 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 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,
particularly by the King himself? What, in fact, might not the United
States say, when revolutions and democratic Governments 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 their government,
under whose nose it was published, had not said a word. There was,
indeed, one sting in the American edition which was not in the English,
but that does not appear to have been noticed.* The resentment 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 engineering 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. Washington'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 remarks "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 remarked that
he had spoken only as "a private character," and Lear went off to report
the conversation 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.

     * It has already been stated that the volume as printed by
     Jordan (London) 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."

"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 republication, 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
authorize the publication of any part of his note."

These words of Lear to Washington, written no doubt in Randolph's
presence, suggest the delicacy of the situation. Jefferson's anxiety led
him to write Vice-President Adams (July 17th) 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
Publicola, 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 attacking 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 Monroe, on July 10th. It
was important that his lieutenants 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
certainly merit the same, for I profess the same principles; but it
is equally certain I never meant to have entered as a volunteer in the
cause. My occupations 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 firm in their
republicanism, "contrary to the assertions 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.* The enthusiasm for Paine and his
principles elicited by the controversy was so overwhelming that
Edmund Randolph and Jefferson made an effort to secure him a place in
Washington's Cabinet. But, though reinforced by Madison, they failed**

     * "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 something
     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.

     ** 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."

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, 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 objections 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.* It was the deepest desire of Washington to free
America from British garrisons, and his expectation was to secure this
by the bribe of a liberal commercial treaty, as he ultimately did. The
demonstration of the British agents in America against Paine's pamphlet,
their offence at its dedication to the President and sanction 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.

     * "Diary of Gouverneur Morris," i., p. 310.

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 a 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."

"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 subject of Government, and the demand continues.
In Ireland it 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 edition, 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 confined 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 to see errors and abuses and sit down a
senseless spectator. Of this your own mind will interpret mine.

"I have printed sixteen thousand copies; when the whole are gone of
which there remain between three and four thousand I shall then make a
cheap edition, just sufficient to bring in the price of the printing and
paper as I did by Common 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,
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 afterwards 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 Congress 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 answered 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 receipt 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 cordiality, 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 attention, 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 present is a busy moment with me; and to that I am persuaded 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."* 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 royalist.
This misunderstanding was personally distasteful, 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 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 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 l'Angle-terre et
     de l'Amerique,' and expressly ascribed to Mr. Adams, 'the
     celebrated 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
     calibre. 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.


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, perhaps, for he is ominously silent concerning
Mirabeau. 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 but a base
assassination--punishing one crime by another, murder with murder. Since
judges are not infallible they have no right to pronounce irreparable
sentences." He is seconded by the jurist Duport, who says impressively:
"Let us at least make revolutionary scenes as little tragic as possible!
Let us render man honorable to man!" Marat, right man for the role,
answered with the barbaric demand "blood for blood," and prevailed. But
Paine was won over to 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 found
the people in uproar. They were clamoring as if some great loss had
befallen them. At the Hotel deVille 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
governments; here will be a whole nation disturbed by the folly of one
man."*

     * The letter of Christie (Priestley's nephew), written June
     22d, appeared in the London Morning Chronicle, June 29th.

Here was Marat's opportunity. His journal, _L'Ami du Peuple_, clamored
for a dictator, and for the head of Lafayette. Against him rose young
Bonneville, who, in _La Bouche de Fer_ wrote: "No more kings! No
dictator! Assemble the People in the face of the sun; proclaim that
the Law alone shall be sovereign,--the Law, the Law alone, and made for
all!"

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 nation 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 Marat especially--had never
considered a Republic, and did not know what it was.

On June 25th, Paine was a heavy-hearted spectator 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 character 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.

This "Société Républicaine," as yet of five members, 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 prevailed amongst
us, during the time of the late King's escape, the indifference with
which we beheld him return, are unequivocal proofs that the absence of
a King is more desirable than his presence, and that he is not only a
political superfluity, but a grievous burden, pressing hard on the whole
nation.

"Let us not be imposed upon by sophisms; all that concerns this is
reduced to four points.

"He has abdicated the throne in having fled from 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 longer
any authority. We owe him no longer obedience. We see in him no more
than an indifferent person; we can regard him only 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 catalogue 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 deluded
by the sound of words, and let her deliberately examine, if a King,
however insignificant and contemptible in himself, may not at the same
time be extremely dangerous.

"The thirty millions which it costs to support a King in the éclat of
stupid brutal luxury, presents us with an easy method of reducing taxes,
which reduction would at once release the people, and stop the progress
of political corruption. 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 desolated
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 possible to degrade it, and the universal
tranquillity which prevails 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, demanded 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.

     * "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, announcing
     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.) voted the order of the day, affecting, says Henri
Martin, a disdain that hid embarrassment and inquietude.

This document, destined to reappear in a farther crisis, and the
royalist rage, raised Paine's Republican Club to vast importance. Even
the Jacobins, who had formally declined to sanction republicanism, 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 members, and it is still
doubtful who these were. Certainly Paine, Achille Duchatelet, and
Condorcet; probably also Brissot, and Nicolas Bonneville. In order to
avail itself of this tide of fame, the Société Républicaine 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 interesting as showing Paine's perception that the French
required instruction in the alphabet of republicanism; but, amid its
studied moderation, there was a paragraph which the situation rendered
pregnant:

     * "Le Republicain; on le defenseur du gouvernement
     Representatif; par une Société des Républicans.    A Paris.
     July 1791.    No. 1."

"Whenever the French Constitution shall be rendered conformable to its
declaration of rights, we shall then be enabled to give to France, and
with justice, the appellation of a _Civic Empire_; for its government
will be the empire of laws, founded on the great republican principles
of _elective representation_ and the rights of man. But monarchy
and hereditary succession are incompatible with the _basis_ of its
Constitution."

Now this was the very constitution which Paine, in his answer to Burke,
had made comparatively presentable; to this day it survives in human
memory mainly through indulgent citations in "The Rights of Man." Those
angels who, in the celestial war, tried to keep friendly with both
sides, had human counterparts in France, their constitutional oracle
being the Abbé Sievès. He had entered warmly into the Revolution,
invented the name "National Assembly," opposed the veto power,
supported the Declaration of Rights. But he had a superstitious faith in
individual executive, which, as an opportunist, he proposed to vest in
the reigning house. This class of "survivals" in the constitution
were the work of Sieyès, who was the brain of the Jacobins, now led by
Robespierre, and with him ignoring republicanism for no better reason
than that their title was "Société des Amis de la Constitution."* Sieyès
petted his constitution maternally, perhaps because nobody else
loved it, and bristled at Paine's criticism. He wrote a letter to the
_Moniteur_, asserting that there was more liberty under a monarchy than
under a republic He announced his intention of maintaining monarchical
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."** Paine himself was something of an opportunist; as in
America he had favored reconciliation with George III. up to the
Lexington massacre, so had he desired a _modus vivendi_ with Louis XVI.
up to his flight.* But now he unfurls the anti-monarchical flag.

     * 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.

     ** 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. Chargé d'Affaires), he
     mentions the presence of Paine, "inflated to the eyes and
     big with a letter of Revolutions."

     *** In this spirit was written Part I. of "The Rights of
     Man" whose translation by M. Lanthenas, with new preface,
     appeared in May. Sieyès 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.

"I am not the personal enemy of Kings. Quite the contrary. 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, open, and intrepid
enemy of what is called 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 for the dignity and honor of
the human race; by the disgust which I experience when I observe men
directed by children and governed by brutes; 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
exactions, the wars, and the massacres with which monarchy has crushed
mankind: in short, it is against all the hell of monarchy that I have
declared war."

In reply Sieyès used the terms "monarchy" and "republic" in unusual
senses. He defines "republic" as a government in which the executive
power is lodged in more than one person, "monarchy" as one where it is
entrusted to one only. He asserted that while he was in this sense a
monarchist Paine was a "polycrat." In a republic all action must finally
lodge in an executive council deciding by majority, and nominated by the
people or the National Assembly. Sieyès did not, however, care to enter
the lists. "My letter does not announce that I have leisure to enter
into a controversy 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."* 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.

     * "Souvenirs sur Mirabeau." Par Etienne Dumont.

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 about his republican manifesto in France
he concluded that his presence at the meeting might connect 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 destruction of a prison whose horrors
had excited popular indignation, caused general anger. After due
consideration 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 Universal Peace and Liberty," though
preceded by the vigorous "Declaration of the Volunteers of Belfast,"
quoted in its second paragraph, was the earliest warning England
received that the revolution 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 incumbent 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 revolution to us?' we answer as has already
been answered in another place, 'It is much--much to us as men; much
to us as Englishmen. As men, we rejoice in the freedom of twenty-five
millions of men.

"We rejoice in the prospect which such a magnificent example opens to the
world.'

"We congratulate the French nation for having laid the ax; to the root
of tyranny, and for erecting government on the sacred hereditary rights
of man; rights which appertain to all, and not to any one more than
another.

"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. The French therefore, by the revolution
they 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 of the case the French revolution concerns us immediately:
we are oppressed with a heavy national debt, a burthen of taxes, an
expensive administration of government, beyond those of any people in
the world.

"We have also a very numerous poor; and we hold that the moral
obligation of providing for 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 more than one million
families, paying yearly seventeen millions of taxes.

"As it has always been held out by the administrations that 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 consequently the same enormous expences need not
continue to us.

"Thus rejoicing as we sincerely do, both as men and Englishmen, as
lovers of universal peace and freedom, and as friends to our national
prosperity and reduction of our public expences, we cannot but express
our astonishment that any part or any members of our own government
should reprobate the extinction of 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 pretence for new oppressive
taxes, and the occasion for continuing many old 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
taxation, it is high time for the people of every nation to look with
circumspection to their own interest.

"Those who pay the expences, and not those who participate 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
opportunity 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 to express our astonishment that a
government desirous of being called free, should prefer connexion with
the most despotic and arbitrary powers in Europe. We know of 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, we hold it to be nothing more than
a national association; and we hold that to be the best which secures
to every man his rights and promotes the greatest quantity of 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
score of antiquity or other men's authority, the old whigs or the new.

"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 the blessings which the French revolution has produced to that
nation we enumerate the abolition of the feudal system, of injustice,
and of tyranny, on the 4th of August, 1789. Beneath the feudal system
all Europe has long groaned, and from it England is not yet free. Game
laws, borough tenures, and tyrannical monopolies 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 universal 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
interference of certain unnamed and sculking persons with the master of
the tavern, who informed us that on their representation 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 the French revolution opens to the
world an opportunity in which all good citizens must rejoice, that of
promoting the general happiness of man, and that it moreover offers
to this country in particular an opportunity 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 1st, 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 proclamation of
war against all the reforms he had been signing since 1789. The Thatched
House address leaves it open for the King to take the side of
the Republic, and be its chief. The address is simply an applied
"Declaration of Rights." Paine had already maintained, in his reply to
Burke, that the English monarch was an importation 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 aided the American "rebellion" was probably
viewed with satisfaction by the English court, so long as the revolution
confined itself to France. 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 must be isolated. But he had
a hold on the people, including a large number of literary men, and
Nonconformist preachers. The authorities, therefore, 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.
Indeed 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 Centenary (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 publication 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 government; 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 leader. At this juncture Paine held a supremacy in the
constitutional clubs of England and Ireland equal to that of Robespierre
over the Jacobins of Paris. He had the giant's strength, but did not use
it like a giant. He sat himself down in a quiet corner of London, began
another book, and from time to time consulted his Cabinet of Reformers.

His abode was with Thomas Rickman, a bookseller, 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 American 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, beginning 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 philosophical 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.
Wolstonecraft, 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 inmate, 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, dominos, and drafts,
but never at cards; in recitations, singing, music, &c or passed it
in conversation: the part he took in the latter was always enlightened,
full of information, entertainment, 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 affectionate 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 convey the exquisite meaning, was
full, brilliant, and singularly piercing; it had in it the 'muse of
fire.' In his dress and person 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 Washington'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 reflected. In
introducing an English friend to William Short, U. S. Chargé d'Affaires
at Paris, under date of November 2d, Paine reports progress:

"I received your favour conveying a letter from Mr. Jefferson and the
answers to Publicola for which I thank you. I 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 foi. 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 themselves 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.

There was a so-called "Revolution Society" in London, originally formed
by a number of prominent dissenters. The Society had manifested its
existence only by listening to a sermon on the anniversary of the
Revolution of 1688 (November 4th) and thereafter dining together. It had
not been 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 1789 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, 1791, 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 "Constitutionalists" 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."

     "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,
     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.

     "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.




{1792}




CHAPTER XXII. THE RIGHT OF EVOLUTION

The Abbé Sieyès did not escape by declining to stand by his challenge
of the republicans. In the second part of "The Rights of Man" Paine
considers the position of that gentleman, namely, that 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
Antæus touches his mother earth--the theocratic principle--in this way;
the invigoration is recognizable in a religious seriousness, which,
however, makes no allowance for the merely ornamental parts of
government, always so popular. "The splendor of a throne is the
corruption of a state." However, the time was too serious for the
utility of bagatelles to be much considered by any. Paine engages Sieyès
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 defend the method of either of these countries, and clearly
shows that he is, as Sieyès said, a "poly-crat," so far as the numerical
composition of the Executive is concerned.* 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."

     *"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.

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 disappointed, 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 disappointed at not being
arrested for his first pamphlet on "The Rights of Man," and had, "while
fluttering 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.

A publisher (Chapman) offered him a thousand guineas for the manuscript
of Part II. Paine declined; "he wished to reserve it in his own hands."
Facts afterwards appeared which rendered it probable that this was a
ministerial effort to suppress the book.*

     * 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."

Paine's Part Second was to appear about the first of February, or
before the meeting of Parliament But the printer (Chapman) threw up the
publication, alleging its "dangerous tendencies," whereby it was delayed
until February 17th, when it was published by Jordan. 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, however, as it
may, Mr. Pitt's plan, little and diminutive as it is, would have made a
very awkward appearance had this work appeared at the time the printer
had engaged to finish it."

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. Chapman
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 Chapman's hands. Chalmers also displays
intimate knowledge of Chapman's business transactions with Paine.

In the light of Pitt's subsequent career it is a significant fact that,
in the beginning of 1792, he should be suspected of stealing Paine's
thunder! And, indeed, throughout Paine's Part Second the tone towards
Pitt implies some expectation of reform from him. Its severity is
that which English agitators for constitutional reform have for a
half century made familiar and honorable. The historical student finds
mirrored in this work the rosy picture of the United States as seen
at its dawn by the disfranchised people of Europe, and beside that
a burdened England now hardly credible. It includes an historical
statement of the powers claimed by the crown and gradually distributed
among non-elective peers and class-elective commoners, the result being
a combination of all three against admission of the people to any degree
of self-government. Though the arraignment is heavy, the method of
reform is set forth with moderation. Particular burdens are pointed
out, and England is warned to escape violent revolution by accommodating
itself to the new age. It is admitted that no new system need be
constructed. "Mankind (from the long tyranny of assumed power) have
had so few opportunities of making the necessary trials on modes
and principles of government, in order to discover the best, _that
government is but now beginning to be known_, and experience is yet
wanting to determine many particulars." Paine frankly retracts an old
opinion of his own, that the legislature should be unicameral. He now
thinks that, though 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, that they may become hearers of each other, but without
taking any vote; after which the whole representation to assemble, for a
general debate, and determination by vote." The great necessity is that
England shall gather its people, by representation, in convention
and frame a constitution which shall contain the means of peaceful
development in accordance with enlightenment and necessity.

In Part I. Paine stated his general principles with some reservations,
in view of the survival of royalty in the French constitution. In Part
II. his political philosophy is freely and fully developed, and may be
summarized as follows:

1. Government is the organization of the aggregate of those natural
rights which individuals are not competent to secure individually,
and therefore surrender to the control of society in exchange for the
protection of all rights.

2. Republican government is that in which the welfare of the whole
nation is the object.

3. Monarchy is government, more or less arbitrary, in which the
interests of an individual are paramount to those of the people
generally.

4. Aristocracy is government, partially arbitrary, in which the
interests of a class are paramount to those of the people generally.

5. Democracy is the whole people governing themselves without secondary
means.

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 requiring "an assemblage of practical
knowledges which no one individual can possess." "The aristocratical
form has the same vices and defects with the monarchical, 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
nation." In the early days of the American republic, when presidential
electors were independent of the constituents who elected them, the
filtration of democracy was a favorite principle among republicans.
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 constituency is, it is like a seedless plant; it may be
reared when it appears, but it cannot be voluntarily produced. There is
always a sufficiency somewhere 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 Burkes
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 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 following 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 February 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 any occasion to use it.
If, in case there should, you will immediately 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
personally.--Your humble servant,

"Thomas Pain."

"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. _It 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 London, 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 Washington's
birthday:

"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
outrages 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 employed, 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 publish 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 literary lynching in silence. "Nothing can lie
like the truth."*

     * 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."

Chalmers' libels were so ingeniously interwoven with the actual stumbles
and humiliations 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 business 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 concealed 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 favorable
to Paine. After rebuking Paine for personalities towards men whose
station prevents reply, this writer also disagrees with him about the
Constitution. 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 administering that
Constitution_ must shrink from the comparison. And this is the reason,
that foolish Mr. Rose of the Treasury trembles 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 this upstart clerk at the
Cockpit, more hereafter."*

     * "Paine's Political and Moral Maxims, etc. By a Free-Born
     Englishman. London. Printed for H. D. Symonds, Paternoster
     Row, 1792." The introductory letter is dated May 15th.

George Chalmers being mentioned by name in this and other pamphlets, and
nothing like a repudiation coming from him or from "Oldys" in any of
his ten editions, the libel recoiled on the government, 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
"Paineite" 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 maltreating 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 Minister his historic place
as the English Robespierre of counter-revolution.*

     * "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. Britaanica.

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
compromised 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 seditious 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:

"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 dishonour 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 the prosecution
know where to find him; of which there is a 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
instant 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 upright conscience, I have a right to expect that
no act of littleness 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 intention 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 return 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."

The secret negotiations with the publisher being thus discovered, no
more was heard of Jordan, except 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
seditious 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... intituled, '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 government is in its nature tyranny. An heritable crown'
(meaning, 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 property. 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 Holland, 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 easy and simple thing indeed; and
materials fit for all the purposes may be found in every town and
village in England.' In contempt of our said Lord the now King and his
laws, to the evil example of all others in like case offending, and
against the peace of our said Lord the King, his crown and dignity.
Whereupon the said Attorney General of our said Lord the King, who for
our said Lord the King in this behalf, prose-cuteth for our said Lord
the King, prayeth the consideration of the court here in the premises,
and that due process of law may be awarded against him, the said Thomas
Paine, in this behalf, to make him answer to our said Lord the King,
touching and concerning the premises aforesaid.

"To this information the defendant hath appeared, and pleaded Not
Guilty, and thereupon issue is joined."

The specifications and quotations in the Information are reiterated
twice, in one case (Paine's note on William and Mary centenary), three
times.*

     *  "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 appeared 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
     disposed 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 purchased 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."

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
debate on that proclamation (May 25th) Secretary Dundas and Mr. Adam had
arraigned Paine, and he addressed an open letter to the Secretary (June
6th) which was well received. Mr. Adam had said that:

"He had well considered the subject of constitutional publications,
and was by no means ready to say that books of science upon government
though recommending a doctrine or system different from the form of our
constitution were fit objects of prosecution; that if he did, he must
condemn Harrington for his Oceana, Sir Thomas More for his Utopia, and
Hume for his Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth. But 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 something in the room of
hereditary monarchy--not a Utopia, but the representative system of
the United States. He now again compares the governmental 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 shillings 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 encouraging discussion
and rendering the press free upon all subjects of government, that the
principles of government became understood in America, and the people
are now enjoying their present blessings under it. You hear of no riots,
tumults and disorders in that country; because there exists no cause
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 much disappointed by the
postponement of his trial to December. Lord Onslow having summoned
a meeting at Epsom of the gentry in Surrey, to respond to the
proclamation, receives due notice. Paine sends for presentation to the
gentlemen 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 Onslow, 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 circulated.*

     * To this noble pensioner and sinecurist he says: "What
     honour or happiness you can derive from being the principal
     pauper of the neighborhood, 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."

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 pending matter, taunts
them with their meanness in seeking to refute by brute force what forty
pamphlets had failed to refute by argument.

The meeting at Lewes, his old town, to respond to the proclamation
occurred on the fourth of July. That anniversary of his first cause was
celebrated by Paine also. Notified by his publisher that upwards of a
thousand pounds stood to his credit, he directed it to be all sent as a
present to the Society for Constitutional Information.*

A careful tract of 1793 estimates the sales of "The Rights of Man" up to
that year at 200,000 copies.** In the opinion of the famous publisher
of such literature, Richard Carlile, the kings proclamation 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.

     * The Argus, July 6, 1792. See "Biographia Addenda," No.
     Til., London, 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,"
sympathetically 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, framed in immortelles. In this book the
philosophy of visionary reformers took practical shape. From the ashes
of Rousseau's "Contrat Social," burnt in Paris, rose "The Rights of
Man," no phoenix, but an eagle of the new world, with eye not blinded by
any royal sun.*

     * L'Esprit da Contrat Social; suivi de l'Esprit de Sens
     Commun do Thomas Paine. Present a la Convention. Par le
     Citoyen Boinvilliers, Instituteur et ci-devant Membre de
     plusieurs Soci&es Litteraires. L'an second.

It comes to tell how by union of France and America--of Lafayette and
Washington--the "Contrat Social" was framed into the Constitution 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), the idea of a
national convention was made the purpose of the French leaders who were
really inspired by an "enthusiasm of humanity." In December, 1791, when
the legislature sits paralyzed under royal vetoes, Paine's panacea is
proposed.*

On the tenth of August, 1792, after the massacre 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 Franklin's order into French (1783) and
distributed among the monarchs of Europe.**

     * "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.

     ** "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. 390 of this
     volume.

What a contrast 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
government. The old governments had been abolished, and the country was
too much occupied in defence to employ its attention in establishing new
governments; yet, during this interval, order and harmony were preserved
as inviolate as in any country 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 same tenth of August Paine's
two great preliminaries are adopted: the 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 notwithstanding the misrepresentation of that nation by its
surviving courtiers, these French republicans recognized their real
American Minister: Paine is summoned.

     * "Theorie et Pratique des Droits de l'Homme. Par Thomas
     Paine, Secrettaire da Congres au Departement des Affaires
     £trangeres pendant la guerre d'Araenque, auteur du ' Sens
     Commun,' et des Reponses a Burke. Traduit en Francais par F.
     Lanthenas, D.M., et par le Traducteur du "Sens Common." A
     Paris: Chez les Directeurs de l'lmprimerie du Cercle Social,
     rue du Theatre Francais, No. 4. 1792. L'an quatrierae de La
     Liberte."

On August 26, 1792, the National Assembly, on proposal of M. Guadet,
in the name of the "Commission Extraordinaire," conferred the title of
French citizen on "Priestley, Payne, Ben thorn, Wilberforce, Clarkson,
Mackintosh, David Williams, Gorani, Anacharsis Clootz, Campe, Cornielle,
Paw, N. Pestalozzi, Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Klopstoc, Kosciusko,
Gilleers." Schiller was afterwards added, and on September 25 th the
_Patriote_ announces the same title conferred on Thomas Cooper, John
Home Tooke, John Oswald, George Boies, Thomas Christie, Dr. Joseph
Warner, Englishmen, and Joel Barlow, American.*

     * "Life and Letters of Joel Barlow," etc., by Charles Burr
     Todd, New York, 1886, p. 97.

Paine was elected to the French Convention by four different
departments--Oise, Puy-de-Dome, Somme, and Pas-de-Calais. The votes
appear to have been unanimous.

Here is an enthusiastic appeal (Riom, le 8 Septembre) signed by Louvet,
"auteur de la Sentinelle," and thirty-two others, representing nine
communes, to Paine, that day elected representative of Puy-de-Dome:

"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
acceptance. There had been formed a society of the "Friends of Liberty,"
and, at its gathering of September 12th, Paine appears to have poured
forth "inflammatory eloquence." At the house of his friend Johnson,
on the following evening, Paine was reporting what he had said to some
sympathizers, 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."*

     * "Life of William Blake," by Alexander Gilchrist, p. 94.

Before leaving London Paine managed to have an interview with the
American Minister, Pinckney, who thought he could do good service in the
Convention.

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 separation "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 proclamation. 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 informing 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 friendship to me, without
its being subject to be read by a customhouse 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 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 volumes had brought his letter in the nick of
time. The collector quailed before the President's signature. 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 anticipate even from the
cordial, or glowing, letter of Hérault Séchelles summoning him to the
Convention,--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'Egalité (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 addressed. At
the meeting of the Constitutional 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 election, 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 Madonnas 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 greatness, 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 theatrical 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
hovering over his welcome and his triumphal pathway to Paris. For,
besides his fame, there had preceded him to every town rumors of how
this representative of man--of man in America, England, France--had been
hunted by British oppressors down to the very edge of their coast. Those
outwitted 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 September 21 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 "Conventionnels"; on the 21st moves in their
procession to the Tuileries, for verification of credentials by the
expiring Assembly, repairing with them for work in the Salle du Manege.
He was introduced by the Abbé Grégoire, and received with acclamations.

On September 21st, then, the Year One opens. It greets mankind with the
decree: "Royalty is from this day abolished in France."

September 22d, on a petition from Orleans, Dan-ton proposes removal
of the entire administrative corps, municipal and judicial, to prevent
their removal by popular violence. Paine (through Goupilleau) suggests
postponement for more thorough 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 eligibility, fixed
by the Constitution of 1791, are abolished--the judge need not be a
lawyer, nor the municipal officer a proprietor.

On September 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 vegetation." The letter is fairly "floreal" with
optimistic felicities. "An over-ruling Providence is regenerating the
old world by the principles of the new." "It is impossible to conquer
a nation determined to be free." "It is now the cause of all nations
against the cause of all courts." "In entering 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 11th, a committee to frame a constitution is appointed,
consisting of Sieyès, Paine, Bris-sot, Potion, Vergniaud, Gensonne,
Barrere, Danton, Condorcet. Supplementary--Barbaroux, Hérault Séchelles,
Lanthenas, Débry, the Abbé Fauchet, Lavicourterie. Paine was placed
second to his old adversary, Sieyès, only because of his
unfamiliarity with French. At least four of the committee understood
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 emancipation.

On October 25th was written for _Le Patriote Francais_ (edited by
Brissot) an address by Paine arguing carefully the fallacies of
royalism. 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 deceived no one. None supposed that he possessed qualities or a
character. They did not call him Father of his People; and yet it
would have been scarcely more ridiculous than to give such a title to a
blockhead (_un éturdi_) whom the right of succession crowns at eighteen.
A dumb idol is better than one animated."'

In this letter Paine adroitly prepares the way for his purpose of saving
the life of Louis XVI., 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 destructive (_meurtriere_). This is not seen by every
one."

In those who sympathized with the human spirit of his views Paine
inspired deep affection. A volume 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."**

     * "Father of his People" was a title of Geo. III. "Father of
     his Country" 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."

     ** Moore's "Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald."

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.

"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."*

The _Moniteur_, without printing the letter, says that applause followed
the word "_fantome_" 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.** 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
received 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.

     * 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.

     ** In his republican manifesto at the time of the king's
     flight he had deprecated revenge towards the captured
     monarch.

But what has the Convention to do with deciding about Louis XVI., or
about affairs, foreign or domestic? It is there like the Philadelphia
Convention of 1787; its business is to frame a Constitution, 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 phantom 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.*

     * "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 translation of Thomas
     Paine's "Rights of Man," the translator being one of the
     King's secretaries! "--Moniteur Nov. 8, 1792.

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
completed 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.

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
(November 22d): "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."*

     * "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.

Paine was living in the "Passage des Pétites Peres, No. 7." There are
now two narrow passages of that name, uniting near the church "Notre
Dame des Victoires," which still bears the words, "Liberty Egalité,
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
benefits 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
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 Society in Europe, and
written its Declaration on the door of the National Assembly. Sieyès
had denounced him then as a "polyarchist." Now he sat with Sieyès
daily, framing a republican Constitution, having just felicitated the
Convention on the abolition of the phantom--Royalty. And now, on this
terrible night of November 20th, this unmaker of kings finds himself the
solitary deputy ready to risk his life to save the man whose crown 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 follow the execution of
Louis, and from disgrace in America, whose independence owed much to the
fallen monarch.

In his little room, the lonely author, unable to write French, animated
by sentiments which the best of the French revolutionists could not
understand--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 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, November 21st, and is read to that body the same
day.* Louis XVI., 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 pardoned by the nation.
He would, however, consider 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.'"

     * "L' Histoire Parlementaire," xx., p. 367.

     ** 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 "crowned ruffians"
     in America. Both versions are commonplace, and convey 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 Patriot Francois 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 transformed into a hereditary right."

Lamartine, in his history of the Girondists, reproaches Paine for these
words concerning a king-who had shown him friendship during the American
war. But the facts were not well explored in Lamartine's time. Louis
Blanc recognizes Paine's intent.*

     * "Hist, de la Revolution," etc., vol. vii., p. 396.

"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 situation, 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 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. *

     * "Convention Nationale. Opinion de Thomas Payne, Depute"
     du Departement de la Somme, concern ant 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 rimprimerie 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 Convention were usually
     translated into French by the Marchioness of Condorcet.

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 good behavior of Europe. This is
now Paine's idea, and never did man toil more faithfully for another
than he did for that discrowned Louis Capet.




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 pamphlet that
escaped his officers. In humor, freedom, and force this production may
be compared with Carlyle's "Latter Day Pamphlets." Lord Stormont
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 encomiums 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 deal. Having felicitated himself on the circulation of
his opinions by the indictment, and the advertisements 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 prosecution 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.*

     * 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
     subjects of every description, even children's sweetmeats
     being wrapped in it.

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 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 promised
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.* 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.

     * This disclosure, though not disproved, is passed over
     silently by most historians. Nevertheless it was probably
     that which ended Burke's parliamentary 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."

"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 oppression of taxes--to propose
plans for the education of helpless infancy, and the comfortable support
of the aged and distressed--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."

This was the reply of the Addressers, the noblemen 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 more pennies if labelled
"Tom Paine," and that thenceforth 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 account of Thomas Poole,* 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."

     * "Thomas Poole and his Friends." By Mrs. Henry Sandford.
     New York: Macmillan, 1888.

In Richardson's "Borderer's Table Book" is recorded: "1792 (Dec.)--This
month, Thomas Paine, author of the 'Rights of Man,' &c. &c., was burnt
at most of the towns and considerable 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 12th:

"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, 1793:

"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, Guildhall, on Tuesday, December 18, 1792, before Lord
Kenyon.*

     * Special Jury: John Campbell, John Lightfoot, Christopher
     Taddy, Robert Oliphant, Cornelias Donovan, Robert Rolleston,
     John Lubbock, Richard Tuckwell, William Porter, Thomas
     Bruce, Isaac Railton, Henry Evans. Counsel for the Crown:
     Sir Archibald Macdonald (Attorney-General), 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.

The "Painites" had probably little hope of acquittal. In Rickman's
journal (manuscript) 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 gathering such powerful
counsel for defence must have been to obtain from the trial some
definitive adjudication on the legal liabilities of writers and
printers, and at the same time to secure, through the authority
of Erskine, an affirmation of their constitutional 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 11th, to the Attorney-General, stating
that, having been called to the Convention in France, he could not stay
to contest the prosecution, as he wished.

"My necessary absence from your country affords the opportunity 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 however 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 terrible examples that have taken place here
upon men who, less than a year ago, thought themselves as secure as
any prosecuting Judge, Jury, or Attorney-General can do now in England,
ought to have some weight with men in your situation.
That the Government of England is as great, if not the greatest
perfection of fraud and 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 make any other man believe,
that the capacity of such a man as Mr. Guelph, or any of his profligate
sons, is necessary to the government of a nation? 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
believe.... Do not then, Sir, be the instrument of drawing 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--foremost 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 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 youthful errors, from which even
royalty is not exempted, are to be treasured up in a vindictive memory,
and are to receive sentence 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 uttered 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."*

     * 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
     effectively 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
     government 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."

Erskine's powerful defence of the constitutional rights of thought
and speech in England is historical. He built around Paine an enduring
constitutional 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 pregnant 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 acquiescence, 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 countryman, '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 Attorney-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,
September 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 his road to take his seat." On September 22d a despatch
mentions Paine's speech on the judiciary question. "December 17, 1792.
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 1792. One of these alludes to the effect of
Paine's trial and outlawry on the English radicals 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
opposed 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 subject; 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 ambassador of a country which, while affecting grief for Louis XVI.,
was helping on his fate.* 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."




{1793}

The Count and the Spanish Ambassador broached the matter to Pitt, who
refused the money.** 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,*** was intimate with Earl Gower, and no doubt gave him his
information.

     * 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 Talleyrand.    New
     York, 1891, i., p. 168.

     **  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 Abbé Noel,
     a month before the king's death, pointed out to this British
     agent how he might be saved.

     ***  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"!



Morris was clear-headed enough to perceive 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 Convention

"...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 Washington 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 consequence 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 1793 he felt cheerful about the situation. On
January 3d he wrote to John King, a retreating comrade in England, as
follows:

"Dear King,--I don't know anything, these many years, that surprised and
hurt me more than the sentiments you published 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? 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."*

     * "Mr. King's Speech, at Egham, with Thomas Paine's Letter,"
     etc Egham, 1793. In his reply, January 11th, 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 11th, King
     expresses satisfaction at Paine's vote on the King's fate:
     "the imputation of cruelty will not now be added to the
     other censures on your character; but the catastrophe of
     this unhappy Monarch has shewn you the danger of putting a
     nation in ferment."

This last sentence may even now raise a smile. King must subsequently
have reflected with satisfaction 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 17,
1793, in which he says:

"'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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