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

by Moncure Daniel Conway · English · Gutenberg #37701 · 743,803 chars · public domain (US)

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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

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37701

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 _Athenaeum_ 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.

A Paris le 14 fevrier 1794 26 pluviose.

Le Ministre plenipotentiaire des Etats Unis de l'Amerique pres la
Republique francaise au Ministre des Affaires Etrangeres.

Monsieur:

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

J'ai l'honneur d'etre, Monsieur,

Votre tres humble Serviteur,

Gouv. Morris.


Paris, 1 Ventose l'An 2d. de la Republic une et indivisible.

Le ministre des Affaires Etrangeres au Ministre Plenipotentiaire
des-Etats Unis de l'Amerique pres la Republique Francaise.

Par votre lettre du 26 du mois dernier, vous reclames la liberte de
Thomas Paine, comme Citoyen americain. Ne en Angleterre, cet ex-depute
est devenu successivement Citoyen Americain et Citoyen francais. En
acceptant ce dernier titre et en remplissant une place dans le corps
legislatif, il s'est soumis aux lois de la Republique et il a renonce de
fait a la protection que le droit des gens et les traites conclus avec
les Etats Unis auraient pu lui assurer.

J'ignore les motifs de sa detention mais je dois presumer qu'ils sont
bien fondes. Je vais neanmoins soumettre au Comite de Salut public
la demande que vous m'avez adressee et je m'empresserai de vous faire
connaitre 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, Sieves, 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 L1 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 L500,
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 30L.
     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 20L. 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 _regime_ almost incredible to us now, when England is of all
nations most free from corruption and court influence in politics; and
it was little realized in English colonies before the Revolution.
But Franklin was in London to 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 "AEsop," 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 L29 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 L300 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 embark

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