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LEST WE FORGET
THE STORY OF THOMAS PAINE
AND THE NATION’S DEBT TO HIS
MEMORY by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
PRICE, TEN CENTS
Published by
THOMAS PAINE
NATIONAL HISTORICAL
ASSOCIATION
W. H. HARVEY, Trea»urer
62 VESEY STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y.
�“The World it
My Country ;
To Do Good My
Religion."
—Thomas Paine.
��THOMAS PAINE
1737—1809
�WE FORGET
By
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
PRINTED
AT THE ROYCROFT SHOP, WHICH
IS IN EAST AURORA, ERIE
COUNTY, N. Y.
��LEST WE FORGET
By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
VERY American
should know the
story of Thomas
Paine’s life. Unfor
tunately, however,
only a comparatively small
number of our immense popu
lation are acquainted with his
remarkable career, and but
few realize the great debt of
gratitude that we all owe this
great libertarian’s memory.
3
�LEST WE FORGET
How many Americans know that
to Thomas Paine’s writings, more
than to any other factor, we owe
our independence as the United
States of America? How many
of us know that the very name,
“ United States of America,”
was coined by Thomas Paine
and first used by him ? All of us
should know it.
Thomas Paine was one of the
founders of the United States of
America ; was, in fact, the prime
mover in the establishment of
4
�LEST WE FORGET
the great American republic.
Had it not been for his great
efforts in liberty’s behalf, it is
quite as likely as not that to this
very day this land would have
remained under British rule.
Thomas Paine wrote and pub
lished in January, Seventeen
Hundred Seventy-six, the earli
est plea for American indepen
dence. This was his pamphlet
entitled, Common Sense. Pre
vious to the appearance of
Paine’s masterly argument urg5
�LEST WE FORGET
ing immediate separation and
resistance, the American Colo
nists, notwithstanding the impo
sitions of Great Britain (unbear
able taxations, etc.), had thought
only of supplications and peti
tions to George the Third for
relief. Despite the British
monarch’s long-continued obdu
racy and the fact that each new
oppression was followed by
another and that he turned a
deaf ear to all appeals, the Colo
nists still hoped on, with never a
6
�LEST WE FORGET
thought of rebellion. Even Wash
ington, at this time, expressed
loyalty to the king.
Like a thunderbolt from the sky
came Paine’s magnificent argu
ment for liberty. It electrified
the people, and its stirring words
swept like wildfire through the
country. No pamphlet ever
written sold in such vast num
bers, nor did any ever before or
since produce such marvelous
results. Paine donated all the
financial proceeds of the pam7
�LEST WE FORGET
phlet to the cause of liberty (as
he did with all of his other works).
C Washington, now converted,
wrote to his friends in praise of
Common Sense, asserting that
Paine’s words were “ sound doc
trine and unanswerable reason
ing.” Jefferson, John Adams,
Franklin, Madison, all the great
statesmen of the time, wrote
praisefully of Paine’s “ flaming
arguments.”
In July, six months after Com
mon Sense had awakened the
8
�LEST WE FORGET
people, the Declaration of Inde
pendence, embracing the chief
arguments of Paine’s great
pamphlet, and much of its actual
wording, was signed by the com
mittee of patriots in Philadel
phia
The great Revolution com
menced at once. The oppressed
Colonists took up arms at a
great disadvantage, by reason
of lack of food, clothes, money
and munitions of war; but,
inspired by the forceful message
9
�LEST WE FORGET
of Common Sense, they fought
bravely and well. When Winter
set in, however, the ill-clad,
poorly-nourished little army had
been greatly reduced in numbers
by desertions from its ranks.
Many of the soldiers were shoe
less and left bloody footprints
on the snow-covered line of
march. All were but half-hearted
at this time and many utterly
discouraged. Washington wrote
most apprehensively concerning
the situation to the Congress
10
�LEST WE FORGET
Paine, in the meantime (himself
a soldier, with General Greene’s
army on the retreat from Fort
Lee, New Jersey, to Newark),
realizing the necessity of at once
instilling renewed hope and cour
age in the soldiers if the cause of
liberty were to be saved, wrote
by campfire at night the first
number of his soul-stirring Crisis,
commencing with the words :
“ These are the times that try
men’s souls. The summer soldier
and the sunshine patriot will, in
11
�LEST WE FORGET
this crisis, shrink from the ser
vice of their 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: it is dearness only that
gives everything its value
Heaven knows how to put a
proper price upon its goods ; and
12
�LEST WE FORGET
it would be strange indeed if so
celestial an article as freedom
should not be highly rated.”
Washington ordered the Crisis
read aloud to every regiment of
the army. The effect was magical.
Hope was renewed in every
breast. Deserters returned to the
ranks. Men who had half-heart
edly withheld from joining the
patriot army took courage from
Paine’s thrilling words and
shouldered muskets with the
rest. The great cause, tottering
13
�LEST WE FORGET
on the brink of dissolution, was
saved. Paine’s Crisis did it
Following the first number of
the Crisis came others—thirteen
in all—the last commencing with
the words:
“ The times that tried men’s
souls are over.”
Paine was not only a great
author and statesman, but he
was distinctly a pioneer, an
originator, an inventor and cre
ator. To him we are indebted for
many of the world’s greatest ideas
14
�LEST WE FORGET
and most important reforms.
It was Paine who first proposed
the abolition of negro slavery;
Paine was the first to suggest
arbitration and international
peace; Paine originally proposed
old-age pensions.
These are a few of the other
great ideas he fathered: He first
suggested international copy
right ; first proposed the educa
tion of children of the poor at
public expense; first suggested a
great republic of all the nations
15
�LEST WE FORGET
of the world; first proposed
“ the land for the people ” ; first
suggested “ the religion of
humanity ” ; first proposed and
first wrote the words “ United
States of America ”; first sug
gested protection for dumb ani
mals ; first suggested justice to
women ; first proposed the pur
chase of the Louisiana territory;
first suggested the Federal Union
of States.
Much, much more might be told
of this wonderful man, but this
16
�LEST WE FORGET
is merely a little booklet, not a
biographical volume.
For a century the world has
ignored this brilliant mind. In
deed, Paine’s name has been
branded by bigots and fanatics
with all imaginable obloquy
He was called an atheist, a FreeThinker, a blasphemer, simply
because he could not believe in
some old traditions which today
are known to be allegorical, and
which few intelligent minds
regard seriously.
17
�LEST WE FORGET
Some of the world’s greatest men
have paid tributes of praise to
Thomas Paine, and their testi
mony is worth recording.
Napoleon said in toasting him at
a banquet, “ Every city in the
world should erect a gold statue
to you.”
General Andrew Jackson, the
“ Hero of New Orleans,” and
the seventh President of the
United States, said to the vener
able philanthropist, Judge Herttell, of New York, upon the
18
�LEST WE FORGET
latter proposing the erection of a
suitable monument to Thomas
Paine:
“ Thomas Paine needs no mon
ument made by hands; he has
erected himself a monument in
the hearts of all lovers of liberty.
The Rights of Man will be more
enduring than all the piles of
marble and granite man can
erect.”
George Washington, first Presi
dent of this great Republic, in a
letter to Thomas Paine, inviting
19
�LEST WE FORGET
that author and patriot to par
take with him, at Rocky-Hill,
wrote:
“ Your presence may remind
Congress of your past services
to this country, and if it is in my
power to impress them, com
mand my best exertions with
freedom, as they will be rendered
cheerfully, by one who enter
tains a lively sense of the impor
tance of your works.”
Major-General Charles Lee, of
the American Revolutionary
20
�LEST WE FORGET
Army, speaking of the wonderful
effects of Paine’s writings, said
that “ he burst forth on the
world like Jove in thunder ! ” ^
John Adams said that Lee used
to speak of Paine as “ the man
with genius in his eyes.”
Joel Barlow, poet, patriot and
statesman, and an intimate
friend of Paine, wrote of him as
follows:
“ He was one of the most benev
olent and disinterested of man
kind, endowed with the clearest
21
�LEST WE FORGET
perception, an uncommon share
of original genius, and the great
est depth of thought.
“ He ought to be ranked among
the brightest and undeviating
luminaries of the age in which he
lived
“Asa visiting acquaintance and
a literary friend, he was one of
the most instructive men I ever
have known. He had a surprising
memory and a brilliant fancy.
His mind was a storehouse of
facts and useful observations.
22
�LEST WE FORGET
He was full of lively anecdote,
and ingenious, original, pertinent
remark upon almost every sub
ject
“ He was always charitable to
the poor beyond his means, a
sure protector and a friend to all
Americans in distress that he
found in foreign countries: and
he had frequent occasion to
exert his influence in protecting
them during the Revolution in
France. His writings will answer
for his patriotism.”
23
�LEST WE FORGET
Thomas Clio Rickman, author,
poet, biographer, writing of
Paine, said:
“Why seek occasions, surly
critics and detractors, to mal
treat and misrepresent Mr.
Paine? He was mild, unoffend
ing, sincere, gentle, humble and
unassuming; his talents were
soaring, acute, profound, exten
sive and original; and he pos
sessed that charity which covers
a multitude of sins.”
Thomas Jefferson, third Presi24
�LEST WE FORGET
dent of the United States and
co-author with Thomas Paine
of the famous Declaration of
Independence, wrote to Paine
in Eighteen Hundred One, ten
dering him a passage to the
United States, from France, in
a national vessel. Jefferson’s
appreciation of Paine may be
noted in this paragraph of his
letter:
“ I am in hopes you will find us
returned generally to sentiments
worthy of former times. In these
25
�LEST WE FORGET
it will be your glory to have
steadily labored, and with as
much effect as any man living.
That you may long live to con
tinue your useful labors, and to
reap the reward of the thankful
ness of nations, is my sincere
prayer.”
sw
James Monroe, fifth President
of the United States, in a letter
to Thomas Paine, wrote as fol
lows :
“It is not necessary for me to
tell you how much all your
26
�LEST WE FORGET
countrymen—I speak of the
great mass of the people—are
interested in your welfare. They
have not forgotten the history
of their own Revolution, and the
difficult scenes through which
they have passed; nor do they
review its several stages without
reviving in their bosoms a due
sensibility of the merits of those
who served them in that great
and arduous conflict. The crime
of ingratitude has not yet stained,
and I hope never will stain, our
27
�LEST WE FORGET
national character. You are con
sidered by them as not only
having rendered important ser
vices in our own Revolution, but
as being, on a more extensive
scale, the friend of human rights,
and a distinguished and able
advocate in favor of public lib
erty. To the welfare of Thomas
Paine the Americans are not,
nor can they be, indifferent.”
Let us reiterate the hope ex
pressed by James Monroe, that
the crime of ingratitude shall
28
�LEST WE FORGET
never stain our national charac
ter. It is time indeed that the
world awakened to the merits of
Thomas Paine.
With the view of spreading the
light concerning Paine, the
Thomas Paine National Histor
ical Association was organized
and incorporated in New York
some years ago. Through the
efforts of this Association Thomas
Paine is at last coming into his
own. The Association intends
that Thomas Paine shall occupy
29
�LEST WE FORGET
that niche in the world’s Temple
of Fame where he properly
belongs, and to that end it bends
its every endeavor.
The Association has established
at New Rochelle, New York, in
the house that Paine built on
the great farm presented to him
by the State of New York in
recognition of his patriotic ser
vices, a Thomas Paine National
Museum. Admission is free. The
Association publishes pamphlets
and other literature from time
30
�LEST WE FORGET
to time on the subject of Thomas
Paine.
In the Thomas Paine National
Museum at New Rochelle are to
be seen relics of the great author,
rare first editions of his chief
works, rare portraits, etc., etc.
On January the Twenty-ninth,
Paine’s birthday, the Associa
tion holds its yearly dinner.
Every year, usually on Memo
rial Day, the Association has a
commemorative meeting in
Paine’s honor at the Paine
31
�LEST WE FORGET
Monument in New Rochelle.
The expenses of the Association
are defrayed by the receipts
from membership dues. The
officers receive no remuneration
for their services. The member
ship dues are only one dollar a
year (no initiation or other fees).
<[ The Association will gladly
send literature concerning the
organization and its work to
any one applying for it. Address :
W. H. Harvey, Treasurer, Sixtytwo Vesey Street, New York.
32
�THE most formidable
Weapon against errors
of every faind is Reason.
I have never used any
other and I trust I never
shall.
—Thomas Paine.
��Thomas Paine
National Historical
Association
W. M. van der WEYDE
President
7 West 103d Street
New York
W. H. HARVEY
Treasurer
62 Vesey Street
New York
EDWARD HENN
Secretary
334 East 51st Street
New York
�Certain I am that
when opinions are
free, either in matters
of government or relig
ion, truth will finally
and powerfully prevail.
—Thomas Paine.
-a
�
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
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Title
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Lest we forget
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler [1850-1919]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: East Aurora, NY
Collation: 32 p. : ill. (front. port.) ; 14 cm.
Notes: Part of the NSS pamphlet collection. Title page printed in red and black. Red decorations at the top of each page. Rubricated letter on p.3. Date of publication from Library of Congress. Cover title: 'Lest we forget : the story of Thomas Paine and the nation's debt to his memory'. Printed at the Roycroft Workshop, East Aurora, N.Y.
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Thomas Paine National Historical Association
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[1914?]
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N695
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Thomas Paine
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Lest we forget), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
NSS
Statesmen-United States
Thomas Paine
-
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417015e612c7ad0ceda46cb8b41eaddb
PDF Text
Text
GUILTY
OR
NOT
GUILTY?
AN OPEN LETTER
TO
The Rev. Dr. R. A. TORREY,
BY
G. W. FOOTE.
“M/ /
PRINTED FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION.
The Pioneer Press, 2 Newcastle Street, London, E.C,
19Q5.
.■iW*’
��GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY?
AN OPEN LETTER
TO
DR. R. A. TORREY.
—♦►—
Sir,—
I write you this open letter as the most
convenient and effective way of addressing you and
others at the same time. The subject it deals with
is a matter of public interest and importance.
You have therefore no reason to complain of in
justice or incivility. I desire to be just to you as
well as to the truth—and to the truth as well as to
you; and if I have occasion to express myself
severely I shall keep well within the limits of
allowable language.
To come to the point then. It is widely known
that a pamphlet of mine, bearing the title of
Dr. Torrey and the Infidels, was distributed outside
the Albert Hall on the opening night of your
Mission there, and continuously afterwards. You
have yourself admitted that this pamphlet was
distributed in tens of thousands. It was also
reprinted in the Clarion, whose editor, Mr. Robert
Blatchford, thought he was performing a public
duty in promoting its circulation. I should add that
it was printed for “ free distribution,” my friends
having subscribed the means for that purpose.
You will thus understand—or at least others will—
that there was a principle involved io its publication
and distribution.
�In that pamphlet I endeavored, and I believe
successfully, to vindicate the characters of Thomas
Paine and Colonel Ingersoll against your slanderous
aspersions. You had represented Paine as having
taken away another man’s wife and lived with her.
I proved that this was an absolute falsehood. You
had represented Ingersoll as having assisted in the
dissemination of obscene literature in America. I
also proved that this was an absolute falsehood.
You entered into conversation with some of those
who gave their evenings to distribute my pamphlet
outside the Albert Hall. This happened on several
occasions. When they asked you why you did not
substantiate or withdraw your charges against Paine
and Ingersoll you gave various replies. You said
that you had something better to do ; you said that
my pamphlet would do you no harm and you did not
care ; you also said that it was anonymous, and that
anonymous attacks were beneath your notice. This
last statement you repeated in letters that came
under my own observation. I therefore thought it
advisable to send you the following letter, which I
registered for security, and with which I enclosed a
copy of my pamphlet for the same reason :—
“ 2 Newcastle-street, Farringdon-street,
London, E.C.,
March 27, 1905.
Dear Sir,—
I understand that you are professing ignorance as
to who is the author of the pamphlet “ Dr. Torrey and
the Infidels,” of which thousands of copies have been
distributed outside the Albert Hall. Indeed, I have seen
letters by you stating that this pamphlet is anonymous.
I have therefore to draw your attention to the fact that
every copy of the pamphlet contains an announcement
at the end that it was written by the editor of the Free
thinker. This is a perfectly sufficient identification of
the author. The editor of the Freethinker is a wellknown person, and his name appears in bold letters
right under the title in every copy of every issue of
that paper. However, in order to destroy that loop
hole of escape, I hereby inform you that I am the
�5
editor of the Freethinker, that I am the author of the
pamphlet “ Dr. Torrey and the Infidels,” and that I am
determined to continue my public exposure of your
infamous libels on Thomas Paine and Colonel Ingersoll
until you have the manliness to retract them as openly
as you made them.
Yours truly,
Dr. R. A. Torrey,
G. W. Foote.”
66 Sinclair-road, W.
This letter elicited from you the following reply,
in which—as I want it to be noted, even now—you
do not challenge any specific allegation in my
pamphlet:—
“ 66 Sinclair-road, London, W.,
March 28, 1905.
Mr. G. W. Foote,
2 Newcastle-street,
Farringdon-street, E.C.
Dear Sir,—
Yours of March 27 received. You say, “ I under
stand that you are professing ignorance as to who is the
author of the pamphlet on ‘ Dr. Torrey and the Infidels.’ ”
In reply would say, I am not professing any ignorance of
the kind. I have referred to the pamphlet as “ anony
mous,” and so it is. After the pamphlet was handed me
I looked at the front to see if the name of the author
was given, and it was not. Then I looked at the end,
and the name was not given there. Thereupon I treated
it with the same silent contempt that I do all anonymous
pamphlets and letters. I had not noticed the little note
at the bottom. I am not in the habit of reading adver
tisements at the end of anonymous pamphlets; but even
since you have called my attention to this advertisement
of your paper, this does not alter the essential fact
at all. The name of the author is not given in this ad, vertisement. I think you are aware that it is not the
usual custom of authors of pamphlets and books to
declare their authorship by advertisements, and then not
to declare it by name. I suppose a great majority of
those to whom the pamphlet was given at the Albert
Hall neither know nor care who the editor of the Free
thinker is. I take it for granted that you know the
meaning of the word “ anonymous,” and the pamphlet
is anonymous.
�6
Now as to the other matter in your letter, permit me
to say that as soon as you or any one else will show me
anything that I have said in any of my books, in any
of my lectures as correctly reported, or in any authentic
letter regarding Mr. Thomas Paine or Col. Ingersoll that
is not strictly true, I shall be more than glad to retract
it. But I am not likely to retract anything that I have
not said, or to retract anything that I have said that is
true. I am not willing to be held responsible for
incorrect reports in papers of what I have said, nor any
mere hearsay reports which are always inaccurate, nor
am I willing to be held responsible for deliberate falsi
fications of my statements.
Sincerely yours,
R. A. Torrey.”
To this letter of yours I returned the following
answer:—
“ 2 Newcastle-street, E.C.,
April 4, 1905.
Dear Sir,—
Yours of March 28, apparently posted later,
reached me safely, and I should have given it an
earlier reply if I had not seen by the newspapers that
several important personages, including the Queen and
yourself, were taking a holiday on the Continent.
You use a great many words to say very little. I
infer rather than perceive from your letter that, in
your opinion, a drama by the author of Hamlet, a
poem by the author of Paradise Lost, or a novel by
the author of David Copperfield, would be anonymous.
Etymologically you may be right, but when such hair
splitting involves a pretence of ignorance, and an evasion
of responsibility, it is more worthy of a prisoner in the
dock than of a public teacher of religion and morality.
However, I will take care that this hole of escape shall
be closed up. Further impressions of my pamphlet
shall state, not only that it is written by the editor of
the Freethinker, but that the name of the editor is
G. W. Foote.
You say that the majority of your auditors who saw
my pamphlet did not know who was the editor of the
Freethinker. Do you really believe this ?
The last part of your letter is the unworthiest of all.
You must know what you have said about Paine and
�7
Ingersoll, and if you were a straightforward person you
would either admit what you did say or deny what you
did not say. Instead of doing this, you stand abso
lutely on the defensive, like a person indicted for a
criminal offence.
You want to know what you have said about Paine or
Ingersoll that is “ not strictly true.” I have told you
in my pamphlet. I shall not waste time in telling you
again. My object now is to place the pamphlet in as
many hands as possible.
When you come to your senses, which will probably
be when your own people are tired of your perpetual
evasions; when you lead the procession to your own
penitent form, and confess your “ sin ” and resolve to
make atonement; I shall rejoice to know that the
revivalist is revived, and that the soul of the soul
saver has found its “ Resurrection.”
Yours truly,
Dr. R. A. Torrey,
G. W. Foote.”
66 Sinclair-road, W.
You know perfectly well, sir, why I did not put
my name on the title-page of the pamphlet. Had I
done so I should have defeated my object. When
you told your friends inside the Albert Hall, with a
meaning smile, that they “ knew what to do ” with
“ those pamphlets,” you only indicated what I had
foreseen. I wished to put the pamphlet into the
hands of your auditors, and I wished it to be read.
For that reason I kept my name off the front. But
I also wished its authorship to be known. For that
reason I had the announcement made at the end
that it was written by the Editor of the Freethinker.
It was honest information for those who had read
the pamphlet through, and for those who had not it
was unnecessary.
My pamphlet has been distributed in tens of
thousands all over Great Britain as well as at your
Mission meetings, and I have not heard of anyone
being in doubt as to its authorship. You yourself
were not in doubt. You cleverly avoided saying that
you were. But even if your ignorance had been so
phenomenal you could easily have enquired of your
�8
English friends, and you would soon have ascertained
my identity. The Freethinker is a paper that every
body affects not to know, and that everybody knows.
Men who have suffered a long imprisonment for
their principles are not so numerous in England
that any one of them can easily be forgotten. It
may be different in America. I do not know. But
I have not heard that you ever suffered for your
convictions, and I do not suppose I shall live to see
your name in any genuine list of martyrs.
So much for the “ anonymous ” character of my
pamphlet, and the technical excuse you pleaded for
not answering it. That excuse was utterly unworthy
of a public teacher, one who sets himself up to save
other people’s souls, and incidentally to elevate
their morals. This is not simply my opinion. It is
the opinion of many of your Christian friends. I
happen to know that some of them have expostu
lated with you on your embarrassing silence. You
begin to feel that you are in a tighter corner than
you thought. You have too much pride to admit a
mistake, and not enough honesty to admit a more
serious offence. Your only possible line of escape,
therefore, is to suggest—for you are too astute to
assert—that you never uttered those slanders against
Paine and Ingersoll. And this is the line you are
taking.
Now I have proved that what I alleged you said
about Paine and Ingersoll was flagrantly false. I
will now prove that you said it. And the fact that
this task is forced upon me will enable candid men,
even of your own party, to understand the kind of
person you are.
To begin with I beg to observe that, so far from
the libels on Paine and Ingersoll being unlike you, as
I hear you are suggesting, they bear all the marks
of your parentage. Specific libels are really no
worse than general libels—although they may prove
more dangerous. You denied, during your Dublin
mission, as reported in the Irish Times, that an
“ infidel ” could “ remain an honest one.” You declared
�9
that “ infidelity and whisky went together,” and that
the “ stronghold of infidelity ” was “the public-house,
the racecourse, the gambling-hell, and the brothel.”
This is general slander, it is true; but a general
slander is a slander by presumption against every
one in the category who is not expressly exempted.
You may reply, as I am told you do reply, that you
will not be responsible for “unauthorised” reports
of your addresses in the newspapers. This is a very
convenient policy when you are challenged. But it
is easy to checkmate you in this instance ; for in
your article in the Daily Chronicle, on the eve of
your London mission, you wrote that “ Infidelity
and immorality are Siamese twins. They always
exist and always grow and always fatten together.”
This covers by implication everything in the Irish
Times report of your speech—and as much more of
the same kind as your own charitable imagination
could possibly invent. I must point out, also, that
I quoted in my pamphlet a passage from your
Hard Problems of Scripttire in which you stated that
“ The unclean classes, both men and women, were
devoted admirers of Colonel Ingersoll ” and that
they “ did frequent his lectures.” This could only
mean that Ingersoll’s audiences were largely com
posed of drunkards, prostitutes, and whoremongers.
And it passes my comprehension how you could say
this, and then expect anyone to believe that the
slanders I confuted as to Paine and Ingersoll are so
unlike you. They are perfectly like you ; they smell
and taste of their natural source. And the source is
unique. You alone, I believe, amongst men of any
considerable position in the Christian world, are
capable of treating the public to such delicacies.
So much for the presumption, and now for the
precise evidence of your guilt.
I lay no stress upon the fact that your reflections
on the characters of Paine and Ingersoll were
reported to me by several correspondents in different
places. Your cue is to dispute everything at a
venture, and to take the chance of what can be
�10
proved, and you are prepared to deny everything that
would not be considered strict evidence in a court
of law. I shall therefore go at once to a particular
speech of yours at Liverpool in the latter part of
1903, and to a correspondence which gathered
round it.
Mr. W. Cain, of Liverpool, wrote me the following
letter, which I published in the Freethinker of
October 11, 1903 (and here let me say, to prevent
misconceptions, that my paper is dated for Sunday,
but is printed on Wednesday, and is on sale all over
the country on Thursday):—
“ Sir,—Dr. Torrey, in his course of evangelistic enter
tainments in this city, included two addresses to business
men, on the causes and cure of “ infidelity.”
I attended at the City Hall, Eberle-street, on Tuesday
and Wednesday last to hear the Yankee savior’s views
on this subject, and learned that almost all cases of
‘ infidelity ’ ought to be attributed to one at least of
the following five causes, viz., misrepresentation (either
of biblical teaching and interpretation, or of true
Christianity by the inconsistent conduct of professed
Christians), ignorance of the Bible, conceit, sin, resist
ance to the spirit of God.
On Tuesday evening I wrote to Dr. Torrey a letter, in
which I gave the names of several men whose life
records I thought would justify us in seeking elsewhere
than in the above list for an explanation of their ‘ infi
delity.’ The names were—John Morley, Charles
Bradlaugh, Professor Haeckel, Charles Darwin, Pro
fessor Huxley, Colonel Ingersoll, and Thomas Paine.
On Wednesday Dr. Torrey read out my letter, and
replying to it, made reference first to Haeckel, whose
writings, he said, indicated the Professor’s complete
ignorance of the Bible. Then of Darwin, he stated
that this great man had declared that at one time he
resisted the spirit of God lest it should interfere with
his scientific labors. Huxley, we were told, was not
remarkable for his candor, as anyone reading his works
would discover. Ingersoll also, was found guilty of
complete ignorance of the Bible, whilst Thomas Paine,
according to the wonderful Doctor, ‘ ran away to Paris
with another man’s wife, and eventually died in America,
leaving her deprived of all hope.’
�11
It is significant that the names of Bradlaugh and
Morley were passed over without any remark, perhaps
because their reputations are too popularly known in
England to be tampered with.
Proceeding with his lecture Dr. Torrey made a further
statement regarding Ingersoll, who, he said, had been
charged with assisting in the dissemination of obscene
literature in America, and having instituted an action
for libel, wished the case to be tried in private. On his
request being refused, said Dr. Torrey, Ingersoll with
drew the case.
It would be a great pleasure and advantage to myself,
and doubtless to others, to read any remarks you may
make upon these utterances, throughout the whole of
which no instance was quoted, nor reference to any
authority given. Simply bald statement and nothing
else. Of the story of Ingersoll and the libel case,
will yon state the true facts of the case, if such
there was ?
Perhaps you will devote at least a good substantial
‘ acid drop ’ to this matter.
William Cain.”
To this letter from Mr. Cain I appended an
editorial note, advising him to write you another
letter and ask you for particzdars. Mr. Cain took
my advice, and received the following letter
from you, which I published in the Freethinker of
November 1, with a long criticism from my own
pen:—
“ Mather’s Hotel, Dundee,
Mr. Wm. Cain,
October 14, 1903.
Liverpool.
Dear Sir :—
Your note of October 8 at hand, and also the
clipping sent me from another source containing your
letter to the ‘ Free Thinker.’ You have quoted me
very inaccurately in this letter, in regard to what I said
about Ingersoll, about Payne, and about Darwin. I
presume this misquotation was unintentional, but it
allows a loophole for one to deny the statement. How
ever, the main facts stand. Does the editor of ‘ The
Free Thinker ’ deny that Thomas Payne took another
man’s wife with him to France and lived with her ? If
this commonly believed outrageous action of Thomas
�Payne’s is not correct history, it should be known and
I certainly for one should be glad to know it, for I believe
in giving any man his due. I did not suppose that
infidels denied the conduct of Thomas Payne. In regard
to the statement about Robert Ingersoll, the alleged
libellous statements about him were made by Dr. A. C.
Dixon at that time of Brooklyn, now of Boston. Dr.
Dixon did not show any disposition to take back his
statements when Col. Ingersoll brought action against
him for libel; on the contrary, he prepared to defend
his statements in court then, had secured considerable
evidence to do it, and Col. Ingersoll requested that the
trial might be in private, but to this Dr. Dixon would
not assent and the action was withdrawn. I am sur
prised that the editor of the “ Truth Seeker” did not
know this, as it is a matter of common knowledge in
America. I am writing to America by this mail for
more details concerning the matter.
I am somewhat surprised at the difference of tone
toward me that you take in your letter to me and in the
public letter that you sent to the editor of the “ Free
Thinker.’
.
Sincerely yours,
R. A. Torrey.”
In the Freethinker of December 6, 1903, there was
an editorial paragraph referring to another letter
you had written to Mr. Cain, in which you said that
you had “ received the facts ” from America, but
that you would not use them “ damaging as they
were to Colonel Ingersoll ” because you had “ no
desire to blacken his reputation, even though it
could be justly done.” You added that you were
“ concerned with principles, not with men.” Which
led me to ask why you advanced grave charges against
leading Freethinkers, and only made “ insolent faces
and cowardly retreats” when “asked for proof.”
Now I ask, in the name of common sense, if it can
be imagined that all that correspondence and com
ment, printed in a public journal eighteen months
ago, was invented ? Is human cleverness equal to
such an amazing feat ? How could Mr. Cain know
that you were staying at Mather’s Hotel in Dun
dee? How could he forge letters bearing the marks
�18
of your composition in every sentence ? How could
they be printed in my paper, which is watched with
cat-like vigilance by its enemies, without provoking
a prompt denial ?
I cannot produce the original of your letter to
Mr. Cain dated October 14, 1903. It was type
written and it went up into the composing room as
copy. But I still have the original of your last
letter to Mr. Cain, which was not printed in the
Freethinker, but only referred to; and this letter proves
the correspondence and establishes its character. I
have also the originals of a correspondence you had
with Mr. James, of Liverpool, at the very same time ;
and in your part of it you refer to your correspondence
with Mr. Cain, and repeat in almost identical words
your ^slander against Thomas Paine.
Your last letter to Mr. Cain ran as follows:—
“ Grand Hotel, Aytoun-street,
Manchester,
Mr. Wm. Cain,
November 19, 1903.
Wavertree, Liverpool.
Dear Sir,—
Yours of November 15th received. In reply
would say I have not seen the article in the ‘ Free Thinker ’
I am not a regular reader of the ‘ Free Thinker.’ I have a
better use for my time. Quite likely I should not have
replied to it if I had seen it, for it is absolutely im
possible to keep up with all the attacks that are made
upon a public man. If I should do this, I could do
nothing else, for everywhere I go these attacks are
made. I have a large and important correspondence
for people who are sincere seekers after truth. I try to
answer their letters as far as possible but in order to do
that, it puts me at the expense of hiring someone to do
this work. If one answers a letter of this kind, it leads
to endless discussion. Your own correspondence is a
case in point. You wrote me apparently an innocent
letter, whieh I thought I ought to answer. It was you
who drove me into making those personal statements.
I seek to avoid them, and you see what a correspondence
it has involved at a tremendous cost of time.
I have received the facts about the Ingersoll case and
have them in my possession, but as damaging as they
�14
are to Col. Ingersoll I have no time to spend in endless
discussion over them. I have no desire to blacken his
reputation, even though it could be justly done. I am
concerned with principles not with men. It was your
letter that forced the personal statement.
Sincerely yours,
R. A. Torrey.”
This letter has your personality written all over it.
You talk of being attacked when you are brought to
book for your own attacks on others ; you doubt Mr.
Cain’s being an “ innocent letter ” because he had
not warned you that he was a Freethinker; and you
speak of being “ forced ” into personalities. You
were evidently feeling uneasy. But the main point
is that you admit having made “ those personal
statements.” And what were they but the libels on
Paine and Ingersoll ? Libels, by the way, which
you did not originate ; for they had done duty in the
gutter-walks of “ Christian Evidence ” long before
you picked them out for your own campaign.
I come now to your letters to Mr. James. Much
in them has no reference to this controversy. I
therefore give only pertinent extracts. In your
letter dated October 14, 1903, from Mather’s Hotel,
Dundee, you write :—
“ Yours of October 8th received. Please let me
thank you for the clipping from the ' Free Thinker ’
that you have sent me. It has been useful to me.
Does the Editor of the ‘ Free Thinker ’ mean to deny
that Thomas Payne went with another man’s wife to
France and lived with her ? Mr. Cain’s quotations of
what I said were not accurate, but if this part of the
statement about Thomas Payne is not true, I should
like to know it. I supposed that this was admitted as
a fact of commonly known history.”
In your next letter to Mr. James, dated October 20,
1903, also from Mather’s Hotel, Dundee, you say
something of still greater importance, while again
referring to your correspondence with Mr. Cain :—
In regard to Thomas Paine’s name being misspelled,
■ I am not responsible for the spelling in my letters. A
�15
person that has oftentimes a hundred letters a day cannot
’ reply to them with his own hand, but has to dictate replies.
I do not think yet that his character has been
cleared. If it can be cleared, I certainly for one,
should be glad, for I like to see any man have justice
done him. You ask why I refer to this moral obloquy
anyway. Simply because a direct question was asked
me by Mr. Cain, which I could not honorably dodge in
answering. I dislike these personalities, but the
question was asked and I had to answer it, which I did
from the facts of history as commonly believed in spite
of admirers and special pleaders to blot the course of
recorded history. I think a man’s character has a
good deal of bearing upon his judgment of the Bible.
Tom Paine attacks the Bible on account of its immor
alities. If he is indulging in immoralities, which he
says are justified by the Bible, he certainly is playing
the part of a hypocrite and his judgment is not of
much account. You ask, ‘ Why should you persist in
attributing wickedness to your antagonists ?’ For the
simple reason, in practical experience by the con
fessions of countless men, I have found that immor
ality lay at the basis of their infidelity and that when
they give up their immorality, they get that clear
vision of truth that enabled them to see there is a God
and that the Bible is His Word.”
Here you defend the wisdom of the very “ person
alities ” you “ dislike.” You explain why you
attacked the character of Thomas Paine. We have
thus the fact and the justification—both from your
own hand.
Your letters to Mr. James, which can all be
produced, refer to your correspondence with Mr.
Cain. They also contain the very libel on Thomas
Paine which you uttered in your first letter to
Mr. Cain, after having uttered it at a public meeting
in Liverpool. Your guilt with respect to Thomas
Paine is thus demonstrated.
Your second letter to Mr. Cain, which can also be
produced, clearly shows that you had been attacking
the character of Colonel Ingersoll; and your state
ment that you had “ received the facts about the
Ingersoll case ” proves the authenticity of the first
�letter in which you said that you were “ writing to
America by this mail for more details concerning
the matter.” Thus your guilt with respect to
Ingersoll is also demonstrated.
Your letters to Mr. Cain and to Mr. James further
show that you were quite aware of what was
appearing in the Freethinker. .And when you said,
in the second of the above letters to Mr. James,
that you did “not think yet that his [Paine’s]
character had been cleared” you were obviously
referring to my vindication of Paine in the Freethvnker, to which Mr. James had drawn your
attention.
-v These patent facts and inevitable conclusions,
together with your present equivocal attempts at
repudiation, make you look odious as a libeller and
contemptible as a coward. I say this with sorrow
as well as disgust, for I do not like to think ill of a
fellow being, I have no delight in any man’s humili
ation, and I would rather hear of your repentance
even at this late hour than see you continue in your
evil courses. You probably entered upon them as
sinners usually do, little by little, a step at a time.
You found that stories about “ wicked infidels ”
tickled the palate of your orthodox audiences, and
you went on from bad to worse, until ease and
impunity made you reckless. You did not count on
a day of reckoning. You overlooked the possibility
of being challenged. You forgot, in defiling the
graves of dead Freethinkers, that a living one might
stride in and arrest you. I have done that. If I
have nothing else I have love for the heroes you
calumniated. And you who libelled them are but as
a grain of sand which the wind lifts to the top of a
P5™mid'
Yours, etc.,
2 Newcastle-street,
G. W. Foote.
London, E. C ,
May 29, 1905.
The Freethinker is published every Thursday, price Twopence,
at 2 Newcastle Street, E.C,
t
�
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Guilty or not guilty? an open letter to the Rev. Dr R.A. Torrey
Creator
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Foote, G. W. (George William) [1850-1915]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 16 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Concerns the publication and distribution of Foote's pamphlet Dr Torrey and the infidels, in which Foote "endeavoured to vindicate the characters of Thomas Paine and Colonel Ingersoll against [Torrey's] slanderous aspersions." -- p.4. Signature at head of cover title: B.G. Ralph-Brown [?], Bristol 1905. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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The Pioneer Press
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1905
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N243
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Free thought
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NSS
R.A. (Reuben Archer) Torrey
Robert Green Ingersoll
Thomas Paine
-
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Text
CT 8V
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
A Fabricated Account of a Scene at the Death
bed of Thomas Paine. Did Bishop
Fenwick Write It?
“I have lived an honest and useful life to mankind; my time
has been spent in doing good, and I die in perfect composure
and resignation to the will of my creator God ” (Will of Thomas
Paine, Jan. 18, 1809).
Several newspapers, religious and secular, have
lately published a long and libelous account of “The
Last Hours of the Great Infidel Thomas Paine,” pur
porting to be a letter signed “ ^Benedict, Bishop of
Boston.” The Bight Bev. Benedict Joseph Fenwick,
D.D., was born in St. Mary’s county, Meh, Sept., 3,
1782, was bishop of Boston in 1825, and died Aug,
11, 1846. The letter, if authentic, was written to his
brother Enoch, who died in 1828. It begins thus,: ?
‘■'A short time before Paine died I was sent for by him. He
was prompted to this by a poor Catholic woman who went to see
him in his sickness, and who told him among other things that
in his wretched condition, if anybody could do him good it would
be a Roman Catholic priest. This woman was an American con
vert (formerly a shaking Quakeress), whom I had received into
the church only a few weeks before. She was the bearer of this
message to me from Paine. I stated the circumstance to
Ffather] Kohlman at breakfast, and requested him to accompany
me. After some solicitation on my part he agreed to do so, at
which I was greatly rejoiced, because I was at the time young
and inexperienced in the ministry, and glad to have his assistance,
as I knew from the great reputation of Paine that I should have
to do with one of the most impious as well as infamous of men.”
Father Fenwick at this time had been a Jesuit priest
about one year, was not yet twenty-seven years.old,
�2
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
and was sent in that very year from Georgetown, D.C.,
with Father Kohlman, another Jesuit, to take charge
of the only Catholic church in New York city. Now
there were two classes of men that Paine hated
above all others, namely, Scotch tories and Catholic
priests. But the writer of this letter tells us unequiv
ocally and repeatedly that Paine sent a poor shaking
Catholic Quakeress to invite a Eomish priest to visit
him, and that she accordingly went and summoned a
young Jesuit father who had just become pastor of
the only Catholic church in New York. Credat Jesuiticus cum pelle caudce /
Arriving at the house where Paine lodged, the two
priests were met at the door by a “decent-looking,
elderly woman,” who inquired if they were the Cath
olic priests. “For,” said she, “Mr. Paine has been so
much annoyed of late by ministers of other denom
inations calling on him that he has left express orders
with me to admit no one to-day except the clergymen
of the Catholic church.”
Poor pestered Paine ! Parsons Milledollar and Cun
ningham had been there, and the latter had said to
him, “ You have now a full view of death ; you cannot
live long, and whosoever does not believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ will assuredly be damned.” And to this
pious and polite address Paine had replied : “ Let me
have none of your popish stuff. Get away with you.
Good morning, good morning.” And when Mr. Mille
dollar attempted to address him he was interrupted
with the same language. And when they were gone
Paine said to Mrs. Heddon, an elderly woman em
ployed to wait on him, “Don’t let’em come here
again; they trouble me” (Sherwin’s Paine, 220).
Other clergymen had spoken to him in a similar man
ner, and were similarly repelled. But after all this we
are told that Paine sent for a Jesuit and gave orders
to his pious Protestant attendant to let in none that
day but Catholics ! Credat holy friar!
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
3
The two priests entered the parlor. Paine was
asleep, and the housekeeper said it wouldn’t do to
wake him, it made him so cross. Mr. Sherwood, a
neighbor, who frequently visited Paine in his illness,
says that old Mrs. Hedden was a religious bigot, and
never let slip an opportunity of teasing Paine with
her clattering tongue, and that she was artfully sent
by priests to attend on him during his illness. She
would frequently read the Bible to him, but to this he
paid no attention (Sherwin’s Paine, 222, 226).
The Jesuits resolved to wait until Paine awoke.
Meanwhile the woman said to them :
“ Gentlemen, I really wish you may succeed with Mr. Paine,
for he is laboring under great distress of mind ever since he was
informed by his physician that he cannot possibly live, and must
die shortly. He sent for you to-day because he was told that if
■any one could do him good you might.”
Credat Joseph Cook !
The next sentence of this woman’s reported conver
sation is remarkable:
“Possibly he may think you know of some remedy which his
^physicians are ignorant of.”
As if Dr. Manley and other regular physicians were
to be superseded by the medical skill of a youthful
priest who had recently arrived from the Jesuit col
lege of Georgetown, D. C. Oredat ex-Surgeon-General
Hammond!
But now comes a sentence for which we happen to
hav a prior parallel in a letter written Sept. 27, 1809,
by Paine’s physician, Dr. Manley, at the request of
the malignant libeler, Cheetham, and published that
same year. Here are the parallel sentences:
From Dr. Manley’s Letter, 1809.
From, the Fenwick Letter, 1819.
He would call out during his
paroxysms of distress, without
intermission, ‘O Lord, help me!
God help me! Jesus Christ
help me!” etc., repeating the
same expressions without the
least variation, in a tone of voice
that would alarm the house.”
“‘0 Lord, help me!” he
will exclaim in his paroxysms of
distress, ‘ God help me ! Jesus
Christ help me ! ” repeating the
same expression without the
least variation, in a tone of
voice that would alarm the
house.”
�4
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
Here is a sentence of thirty-seven words plagiarized
from Dr. Manley’s letter. The only words that differ
from Manley’s are “will exclaim in” for “would call
out during.” Four words are transposed and two
omitted by the literary thief. This evidence alone
stamps the Fenwick letter as a fabrication. Its first
publication was in the United States Catholic Magazine
for 1846, and in the Catholic Herald, Oct. 15, 1846.
That was the year Bishop Fenwick died, and was
eighteen years after the death of the brother to
whom it purports to have been addressed. And now
the question for the Catholic church in America to
answer is, Did Bishop Fenwick write it? Credat Leo
XIII.
But now we propose to prove that Dr. Manley’s
statement is untruthful. It is certainly a gross per
version of the facts. He says he was called upon by
accident to visit the patient on the 25th of February,
1809; that the next day he related his condition to
two of Paine’s friends, one being an executor of his
estate (the will is dated Jan. 18th, and the executors
named are Walter Morton, Thomas Addis Emmett,
and Mrs. Bonneville, all legatees), and being requested
to pay him particular attention, he from that time
considered Paine under his care. It certainly looks
as if Dr. Manley sought to be employed, and his
whole conduct was, to say the least, unfair and de
ceitful. Soon after writing that letter he joined the
church. It was written at the solicitation of Paine’s
enemy and calumniator Cheetham, to be incorporated
into Cheetham’s “Life of Paine,” then preparing for
the press. The author solicited Dr. Manley’s observa
tions on Paine’s “temper and habits, the cause and
nature of his disease, the kind of persons by whom
he was visited during his illness, their general con
versation with him respecting his Deistical works, his
own remarks, opinions, and behavior” (Cheetham’s
Paine, 300). Five days after the date of that re
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
5
quest Dr. Manley has an answer completed, filling
eleven pages of Cheetham’s lying biography. The
doctor says:
“ I hasten, in conformity to your wishes, to communicate the
information I possess respecting its subject. Though my oppor
tunity has been great, you will, no doubt, observe my knowledge
to be very limited ” (Ibid).
The house where Paine died was owned by Amasa
Woodsworth, who was living as late as 1839 in East
Cambridge, Boston. In that year he made an author
ized statement to Gilbert Vale about Paine’s last
days, in which he characterizes Dr. Manley’s pub
lished account as false. He says that he visited
Paine every day for six weeks before his death, fre
quently sat up with him, and did so on the last two
nights of his life. He was always there with Dr.
Manley, assisted him in lifting Paine, and was pres
ent when the doctor asked him if he wished to be
lieve that Jesus Christ was the son of God, and heard
Paine’s emphatic answer, “ I have no wish to believe
on that subject” (Vale’s Paine, 156).
Now at that very time Dr. Manley says he intro
duced the subject to Paine by saying :
“ ‘ Why do you call on Jesus Christ to help you? Do you be
lieve he can help you? Do you believe in the divinity of Jesus
Christ? Come, now, answer me honestly. I want an answer
from the lips of a dying man, for I verily believe that you will not
live twenty-four hours.’ I waited some time at the end of every
question; he did not answer, but ceased to exclaim in the above
manner. Again I addressed him: ‘Mr. Paine, you have not an
swered my questions. Will you answer them? Allow me to ask
again, “ Do you believe, or, let me qualify the question, Do you
wish to believe, that Jesus Christ is the son of God?’” After
a pause of some minutes he answered, ‘ I have no wish to be
lieve on that subject’” (Cheetham’s Paine, 307).
These were Paine’s last words, and were uttered in
the hearing of Dr. Manley and Amasa Woodsworth.
we now quote from the latter’s authorized statement in
1839, made to Paine’s biographer, Vale :
“He informs us that he has openly reproved the doctor for the
falsity contained in the spirit of that letter, boldly declaring before
�6
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
Dr. Manley, who is yet living, that nothing which he saw justi
fied his (the doctor’s) insinuations.”
The fact was, as Woods worth, states, that Paine was
too ill and too much tortured to converse on abstract
subjects. And anyone can see that Dr. Manley was
impertinent and cruel in insisting upon an answer to
such a question from a dying man. And his re
peated . statement about Paine’s calling on Jesus
Christ to help him is a gross perversion. For this
same Woodsworth in 1842 was asked by Philip
Graves. M.D., if Paine recanted and called upon God
to save him. And Woodsworth replied :
“ No. He died as he had taught. He had a sore upon his side,
and when we turned him it was very painful, and he would cry
out, ‘ 0 God!’ or something like that. But that was nothing,
for he believed in a God ” (Ingersoll’s Paine Vindicated, Truth
Seeker Tract No. 123, p. 21).
Another probable source of this perversion of facts
is an extract from the journal of Stephen Grellet, a
Quaker preacher, made in the fall of 1809. He re
cords the falsehoods of Mary Roscoe. We quote
the last few lines:
“ She told him [Paine] that when very young his ‘ Age of
Reason ’ was put into her hands, but that the more she read in it
the more dark and distressed she felt, and she threw the book into
the fire. ‘ I wish I had done as you,’ he replied, ‘ for if the devil
ever had any agency in any work, he has had it in my writing
that book.’ When going to carry him some refreshments, she
repeatedly heard him uttering the language, ‘0 Lord!’ ‘Lord
God!’ or ‘Lord Jesus, hav mercy on me!’” (Ibid, pp. 13, 14).
The reader will now begin to see the probable
source of the Manley inspiration. Cheetham wanted
evidence of Paine’s recantation. The lying Mary
Roscoe, who probably never visited Paine, was re
porting to her Quaker brethren that Paine regretted
his Deistical work and called on Jesus to have mercy
on him.
Ten years later, when Mary Roscoe had become
Mary Hinsdale, another Quaker, Charles Collins, learn
ing that William Cobbett contemplated writing a life
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
7
of Paine, went to him and wanted to persuade him
that Paine had recanted. Cobbett laughed at him,
and sent him away. The wily Quaker came again
and again; he wanted Cobbett to say, “ It was said
that Paine recanted.” “No,” said Cobbett; “but I
will say that you said it, and that you tell a lie, unless
you prove the truth of what you say. Griv me proof,
name persons, state times and precise words, or I will
denounce you as a liar.” Friend Charley was posed,
but something had to be done. He at last brought a
paper cautiously and craftily drawn up and signed
with initials. Cobbett compelled him to give the full
name : it was Mary Hinsdale. As soon as practicable,
Cobbett called on Friend Mary. She shuffled, evaded,
equivocated. It was so long ago she could not speak
positively of anything; she had never seen the paper ;
had never given Friend Charley authority to say any
thing in her name. And finally she said:
“I tell thee that I have no recollection of any person or thing
that I saw at Thomas Paine’s house ” (Vale’s Paine, 183, 184).
The falsehood about Paine’s recantation is now so
apparent that no intelligent and reputable person pre
tends to believe it The following letter, therefore,
from the Rev. A. W. Cornell, of Harpersville, N. Y.,
to the New YoxkWorld in 1877, will be highly amus
ing to those who never read it before:
“I see by your paper that Bob Ingersoll discredits Mary Hins
dale’s story. . . . Ingersoll is right in his conjecture that
Mary Roscoe and Mary Hinsdale was the same person. Her
maiden name was Roscoe. . . . My mother was a Roscoe,
a niece of Mary Roscoe, and lived with her for some time. I
have heard her relate the story of Tom Paine’s dying remorse, as
told her by her aunt, who was a witness to it. She says (in a
letter I have just received from her) ‘he (Tom Paine) suffered
fearfully from remorse, and renounced his Infidel principles,
calling on God to forgive him, and wishing his pamphlets and
books to be burnt, saying he could not die in peace until it
was done’” (Ingersoll’s Paine Vindicated, Truth Seeker Tract
No. 123, p. 57).
Reader, what do you think about the case now ?
The Rev. A. W. Cornell says in another part of his
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A ROMAN
CATHOLIC CANARD.
letter, “ No one who knew that good lady [Mary Ros
coe Hinsdale] would for one moment doubt her ve
racity, or question her testimony.” Credat Cornell!
But let us return to the Fenwick letter. The talk
of the old housekeeper to the Jesuit priests con
tinues ;
“Sometimes he cries, ‘0 God ! what have I done 'to suffer so
much?’ Then shortly after, ‘But there is no God!’ And again
a little after, ‘Yet, if there should be, what will become of me
hereafter ?’ ”
The original of this falsehood will be found in the
journal of the Quaker Greliet in 1809, as quoted
above. Mary Roscoe said that she repeatedly heard
Paine say, “ O Lord I” “ 0 God I” or “ Lord Jesus, have
mercy on me.” And Parson Cornell says her veracity
was beyond question. But it so happens that the
Quaker merchant and preacher Willet Hicks, whose
standing was beyond reproach, discredits Mary’s story
altogether. He was in the habit of visiting Paine,
and sending little delicacies to him by his daughters,
one of whom afterward stated that their hired girl
Mary Roscoe “ once wished to go with her but was
refused” (Vale’s Paine, 177-178).
In 1841 Gilbert Vale interviewed the venerable
Willet Hicks, concerning the last hours of Paine. The
old gentleman said that his servant Mary Hinsdale
never saw Paine to his knowledge. After Paine’s
death, the Friends annoyed and pressed him to say
something detrimental to Paine. He was beset by
them here and in England, where he went soon after.
They wished to convict Paine of calling on Jesus, and
they would say: “Did thee never hear him call on
Christ?” And he added:
“You cannot conceive what a deal of trouble I had; and as for
money, I could have had any sums if I would have said any
thing against Thomas Paine, or if I would even have consented to
remain silent. They informed me that the doctor [Manley !] was
willing to say something that would satisfy them if I would
engage to be silent only. But, they observed, he (the doctor)
knows the standing of Willet Hicks, and that lie knows all about
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
9
Paine, and if he (Hicks) should contradict what I say [i. e., what
the doctor says] he would destroy my [i. e., the doctor’s] tes
timony.”
The reader will perceive from this that Dr. Manley’s
testimony might have been still more false but for the
fear of Willet Hicks.
In conclusion, Mr. Hicks said to Mr. Vale, who took
down the words and published them:
“Thomas Paine was a good man—an honest man.”
And with great indignation he added :
“He was not a man to talk to Mary Hinsdale” (Vale’s Paine,
178, 179).
When Cobbett had got from Mary Hinsdale a re
cantation of the falsehood that Paine had recanted, he
sought to bring Friend Charley’s nose to the grind
stone; but Charley had left town for fear of the yel
low fever, and Cobbett soon returned to England.
Some years afterward this same Collins called at the
house of Gilbert Vale to beg him not to leave the
Beacon at his house. Mr. Vale then asked Collins
what induced him to publish the account of Mary
Hinsdale. Collins said he thought it true ; he believed
she had seen Paine, who might confess to a girl what
he would not to Willet Hicks. He knew that Hicks
and many other respected Friends did not believe it,
but yet it might be true. Vale asked him what he
thought of her character now He replied: “ Some
of our Friends believe she indulges in opiates, and do
not give her credit for truth.” “ Do you believe they
are justified in their opinions?” said Vale. “ Oh, yes,”
said Collins; “ I believe they speak the truth, but this
does not affect her testimony when a young woman ;
she might then have spoken the truth ” (Ibid, 185,186).
No more need be said on the question of the verac
ity of Mary Roscoe Hinsdale, or whether the dying
Deist said in her hearing, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on
me.” Nor will any intelligent reader of Paine’s “Age
of Reason ” believe that he ever cried out in the hear
�10
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
ing of his housekeeper, “ But there is no God ! ” Or
that he ever said in his senses, “Yet if there should
be, what will become of me hereafter? ” Credat Mrs.
Partington !
The old housekeeper continued her talk to the Jes
uits. as reported in the Fenwick letter:
“Thus he will continue some time, when on a sudden he will
scream as if in terror and agony, and call out to me by name.
On one of these occasions, which are very frequent, I went to
him and inquired what he wanted. ‘ Stay with me,’ he replied,
‘for God’s sake, for I cannot bear to be left alone.’ I then ob
served that I could not always be with him, as I had much to at
tend to in the house. ‘ Then,’ said he, ‘send even a child to stay
with me, for it is hell to be alone.’ I never saw, she concluded,
a more unhappy, a more forsaken man; it seems as if he cannot
reconcile himself to die.”
This is borrowed from Dr. Manley, who says :
“He would not be left alone night or day; he not only required
tohave some person with him, but he must see that he or she was
there, and would not allow his curtain to be closed at any time;
and if, as would sometimes unavoidably happen, he was left
alone, he would scream and holla until someperson came to him.”
The doctor had previously said that at first Paine
was satisfied to be left alone during the day, but later
he was afraid he should die when unattended. And
though he professed to be above the fear of death,
some parts of his conduct were with difficulty reconcilable with his belief. But he further states that
Paine’s expressed anxiety was concerning the disposal
of his body, an application being pending for an inter
ment in the Friends’ burying-ground, which was at
last rejected, And in this conversation the doctor re
ports Paine as saying, what one may well imagine
he would, “ I think I can say what they make Jesus
Christ to say—‘My God, my God, why hast thou for
saken me ? ’ ” Such expressions may be used by sick
or distressed people, and it is easy to torture them into
profanity. But Paine was never charged with pro
fanity of speech, and Dr. Manley introduced the sub
ject of religion to him by saying:
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
11
“ You have never been in the habit of mixing in your conver
sation words of coarse meaning; you have never indulged in the
practice of profane swearing.”
We now return to the Fenwick letter. Paine hav
ing awoke, the two Jesuits were conducted into his
room :
“On entering we found him just getting out of his slumber.
A more wretched beingin appearance I never before beheld. He
was lying in a bed, sufficiently decent of itself, but at present
besmeared with filth.”
O holy mother! Did the “decent-looking elderly
woman,” who was expecting the priests to call that
day, introduce them to the dying man in a bed be
smeared with filth ? Why did not Dr. Manley or the
executors discharge such a nasty nurse ? Credat Lord
Dundreary !
“His look was that of a man greatly tortured in mind; his eyes
haggard, his countenance forbidding, and his whole appearance
that of one whose better days had been one continual scene of
debauch.”
Paine was troubled in mind about his burial, just
as Voltaire was before him. Dr. Manley argued with
him that that should be a matter of least concern.
Paine answered “ that he had nothing else to talk
about, and that he would as lief talk of his death as
of anything; but that he was not so indifferent about
his corpse as I appeared to be.” The description of
Paine’s person in the Fenwick letter is borrowed from
various accounts by his lying adversaries in those
times. Credat Dr. Talmage!
“His only nourishment at this time, we are informed, was
nothing more than milk punch, in which he indulged to the full
extent of his weak state.”
Did the scholarly bishop of Boston, ex-president of
Georgetown College, commit the solecism, “ only
nothing more than ? ” Credat Artium Magister !
When Dr. Manley first saw Paine he had been dis
pensing with the usual quantity of stimulus, which
privation seemed to make him worse, and he had just
�12
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
resumed it. And the doctor further says, “ He never
slept without the assistance of an anodyne.”
The Fenwick letter proceeds :
“He had partaken, undoubtedly, but very recently of it, as the
sides and corners of his mouth exhibited very unequivocal traces
of it, as well as of blood which had also followed in the track and
left its mark on the pillow. His face to a certain extent had also
been besmeared with it.”
Shame on such a nurse! At this time Paine’s ex
ecutors were paying $20 a week for the sick man’s
board and attendance. Why didn’t this “decent
looking ” nurse wipe her patient’s face before bring
ingin these two priests ? Credat Mark Twain!
Dr. Manley says that, about a fortnight after his
first attendance on the patient,
“ He became very sore, the water which he passed in bed ex
coriating the parts to which it applied, and this kind of ulcera
tion, which was sometimes very extensive, continued in a greater
or less degree till the time of his death. ... In this deplor
able state, with confirmed dropsy, attended with frequent cough,
vomiting, and hiccough, he continued growing from bad to worse,
till the morning of the 8th of June, when he died. . . . Dur
ing the last three weeks his situation was such that his decease
was confidently expected every day, his ulcers having assumed a
gangrenous appearance, being excessively fetid, and discolored
blisters having taken place on the soles of his feet, without any
ostensible cause, which baffled the usual attempts to arrest their
progress; and when we consider his advanced age, the feebleness
of his constitution, his constant practice of using ardent spirits
ad libitum, till the commencement of his last illness, so far from
wondering that he died so soon, we are constrained to ask, How
did he live so long ?”
Mark the language—“ using ardent spirits ad libitum
till the commencement of his last illness." The doctor is
unwilling to attest the ad libitum indulgence during the
last sickness, and what did he know about prior in
dulgence? It looks as if Cheetham had a hand in the
draft of the Manley letter. The doctor evidently
stopped the diet of milk punch and prescribed mor
phine, for he says the patient never slept without the
assistance of an anodyne.
The stories about Paine’s beastly intemperance are
�A ROMAN
CATHOLIC CANARD.
13
all lies. They were started by Cheetham, the con
victed libeler, and were continued by Grant Thorburn,
who after Paine’s death was compelled by advice of
his counsel, the late Horace Holden, to retract a libel
about Mrs. Bonneville, if we remember rightly, but
incidentally about the deceased Infidel. Perhaps the
most plausible authentic testimony against Paine’s so
briety was given by Carver, who invited him to board
at his house. Nothing was said about charging for
board, and Paine remained with him some months.
While there Paine had a stroke of apoplexy, and
for a while had to have a nurse. Carver got straitened
for money, and sent Paine a bill for board for himself
and nurse. Paine was indignant, and was going to pay
it and cut Carver’s friendship. But his friends said
the charge was exorbitant and persuaded him to resist
payment. Then Carver wrote a scurrilous letter in
which he accused Paine of helping himself too freely
from Carver’s demijohn of brandy, and pretending
that it was a stroke of apoplexy that caused him to
fall down stairs. But that it was apoplexy appears
from Dr. Manley’s letter, who says he found the pa
tient in a “ fever, and very apprehensive of an attack
of apoplexy, as he stated that he had had that disease
before, and at this time felt a degree of vertigo.” And
in August, 1806, Paine wrote to his farm tenant Dean,
saying that he had a stroke of apoplexy, Sunday, Aug.
15th, the fit taking him on the stairs, that he was sup
posed to be dead at first, and had not been able to get
out of bed since. “ I consider the scene I have passed
through,” he writes, “ as an experiment on dying, and
I find that death has no terrors for me.”
For a complete refutation of the libels about Paine’s
intemperance, see Vale’s “ Life of Paine,” and Inger
soll’s “Vindication of Paine,” Truth Seeker Tract No.
123. Paine intended to make Carver one of his lega
tees, but after this affair he renounced him. The bill
was amicably settled by Paine’s friends, and Carver
�14
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
confessed that he wrote in anger. But he was angrier
still some years later to see the correspondence repub
lished by Grant Thorburn, and cut it out of the book.
He said that Cheetham first printed the letter without
his consent for base purposes. And when Paine was
on his death-bed Carver wrote him a tender letter of
apology and sympathy, which is published in the pref
ace of Vale’s “Life of Paine.” Jarvis, the celebrated
portrait painter, with whom Paine lived after leaving
Carver, says that Paine was neither dirty in his habits
nor drunken.
In a compendium of the “Life of Paine” by the
same author (New York, 1837) Mr. Vale says:
“In reply to a query which we recently put to Col. Burr,
as to Mr. Paine’s alleged vulgarity, intemperance, and want of
cleanliness, as disseminated by those who wished it true, he re
marked, with dignity: ‘Sir, he dined at my table!’ Then, am I to
understand that he was a gentleman? ‘Certainly, sir,’replied
Col. Burr; ‘I always considered Mr. Paine a gentleman, a pleas
ant companion, a good-natured and intelligent man, decidedly
temperate, and with a proper regard to his personal appearance,
whenever I saw him.’”
But to return to the Fenwick letter:
“As soon as we had seated ourselves F[ather] Kohlman, in a
very mild tone of voice, informed him that we were Catholic
priests and were come on his invitation to see him. Paine made
no reply.”
They had come on his'invitation, and he had in
structed the housekeeper to admit that day none but
Catholic priests, and yet they said to him : “We are
Catholic priests, come on your invitation!” Credat
tonsured monk !
“After a short pause Ffather] Kohlman proceeded thus, ad
dressing himself to Paine in the French language, thinking that
as Paine had been in France he was probably acquainted with
that language (which however was not the fact) and might better
understand what he said, as he had at that time greater facility,
and could express himself better, in it than in the English.”
Perhaps Father Kohlman, whose name is a German
one, could talk French better than English ; but when
the writer says that Paine, who had lived nine years
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
15
in Paris, was not acquainted with, the French language,
Credat Ollendorf!
The newspaper copy of this letter omits the French.;
we supply it from the lives of “ Deceased Bishops,”
published by O’Shea, New York, 1872.
“‘Mons. Paine, j’ai lu votre livre intitule L’Age de la Raison,
ou vous avez attacque l’ecriture sainte avec une violence, sans
bornes, et d’autres de vos ecrits publies en Prance, et je suis per
suade que’”—•
“Paine here interrupted him abruptly, and in a sharp tone of
voice, ordering him to speak English thus : “ Speak English,
man ; speak English.’ ”
As if Paine could not understand French ! for that
is not only the inference but the fact alleged by the
writer. As if Paine had to wait until forty words of
a foreign language were spoken before he interrupted
the speaker! And as if Father Fenwick many years
afterward could report the very words spoken in
French, and remembered that Father Kohlman was
interrupted at the particle que ! Credat notre Dame I.
The apocryphal character of the Fenwick letter is
now so apparent that perhaps further comment will
be superfluous. The writer translates the beginning
of the sentence, and has Father Kohlman complete it
with variations, thus :
‘“Mr. Paine, I hav read your book entitled, the “Age of Rea
son,” as well as your other writings against the Christian religion,
and am at a loss to imagin how a man of your good sense could
hav employed his talents in attempting to undermine what, to
say nothing of its divine establishment, the wisdom of ages has
deemed most conducive to the happiness of man. The Christian
religion, sir—’ ”
“ ‘That’s enough, sir, that’s enough,’ said Paine, again inter
rupting him. ‘I see what you would be about; I wish to hear no
more from you, sir. My mind is made up on that subject. I
look upon the whole of the Christian scheme to be a tissue of ab
surdities and lies, and J. C. [sic] to be nothing more than a cun
ning knave and an impostor.’ ”
Any one who bas read the “ Age of Reason ” knows
that Paine never could have said that Jesus Christ
was a knave and an impostor. JJredat ignoramus !
The next three paragraphs being omitted in the
�16
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
newspaper copy, we supply them from the book.
canard is incomplete without them:
The
“Ffather] Kohlman here attempted to speak again, when
Paine, with a lowering countenance, ordered him instantly to be
silent, and to trouble him no more. ‘ I hav told you already
that I wish to hear nothing more from you.’
_ “ ‘ The Bible, sir,’ said F. Kohlman, still attempting to speak,
‘ is a sacred and divine book, which has stood the test and criti
cism of abler pens than yours—pens which have at least made
some show of argument, and—’
“‘Your Bible,’ returned Paine, contains nothing but fables;
yes, fables, and I have proved it to a demonstration.’
“All this time I looked upon the monster with pity mingled
with indignation at his blasphemy. [Here the newspaper copy
begins again], I felt a degree of horror at thinking that in a very
short time he would be cited to appear before the tribunal of his
God, whom he so shockingly blasphemed, with all his sins upon
him.. Seeing that F. Kohlman had completely failed in making
any impression upon him, and that Paine would listen to nothing
that came from him, nor would even suffer him to speak, I finally
concluded to try what effect I might have. I accordingly com
menced with observing:
“ ‘ Mr. Paine, you will certainly allow there exists a God, and
that this God cannot be indifferent to the conduct and action of
his creatures.’
“ ‘ I will allow nothing, sir,’ he hastily replied. ‘I shall make
no concessions.’
“ ‘.Well, sir, if you will listen calmly for one moment,’ said I,
‘ I will prove to you that there is such a being, and I will demon
strate from his very nature that he cannot be an idle spectator of
our conduct.’
“ ‘Sir, I wish to hear nothing you have to say. I see your
object, gentlemen, is to trouble me; I wish you to leave the
room.’
“ This he spoke in an exceedingly angry tone, so much that he
foamed at the mouth.
“ ‘Mr. Paine,’ I continued, ‘I assure you our object in coming
hither was purely to do you good. We had no other motive.
We had been given to understand that you wished to see us, and
we are come accordingly, because it is a principle with us never
to refuse our services to a dying man asking for them. But for
this we should not have come, for we never obtrude upon any
individual.’
“ Paine, on hearing this, seemed to relax a little. In a milder
tone than he had hitherto used he replied:
“‘You can do me no good now; it is too late. I have tried
different physicians, but their remedies have all failed. I have
nothing now to expect’ (this he spoke with, a sigh) ‘but a
speedy dissolution. My physicians have indeed told me as much.’
“ ‘You have misunderstood,’ said I, immediately, to him; ‘we
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
17
are not come to prescribe any remedies for your bodily com
plaints; we only come to make you an offer of our ministry for
the good of your immortal soul, which is in great danger of being
forever cast off by the Almighty on account of your sins, and es
pecially for the crime of having vilified and rejected his word
and uttered blasphemies against his Son. ’
“ Paine, on hearing this, was roused into a fury; he gritted his
teeth, turned and twisted himself several times in his bed, utter
ing all the while the bitterest imprecations.”
Dr. Manley does not describe the patient as able to
turn and twist in his bed, and he expressly says he
was not a profane man. But this writer says he ut
tered the bitterest imprecations. CredatAnthony Com
stock !
“ I firmly believe that such was the rage in which he was at
the time that if he had a pistol he would have shot one of us,
for he conducted himself more like a madman than a rational
creature.”
What a lucky escape for Father Fenwick! Just
think of the youthful priest being sent straight to
paradise by a pistol shot from the trembling hand of
the dying Infidel ! Credat George Francis Train!
“ ‘Begone !’ said he, ‘and trouble me no more. I was in peace,’
he continued, ‘till you came.’
“ ‘ We know better than that,’ replied F. Kohlman; ‘ we know
that you cannot be in peace; there can be no peace for the wicked;
God has said it.’ ”
And why didn’t he add, “Your housekeeper has
confirmed it?” Credat Judge Benedict!
“ ‘ Away with you, and your God, too; leave the room instantly,’
he exclaimed; ‘all that you have uttered are [sic] lies, filthy lies,
and if I had a little more time [and strength ?] I would prove it,
as I did about your impostor Jesus Christ.’ ”
In the “ Age of Beason ” Paine says of Jesus Christ,
“ He was a virtuous and amiable man.” Now he tells
the Jesuits that he was an impostor! Credat Beelze
bub !
“ ‘ Monster !’exclaimed F. Kohlman in a burst of zeal; ‘you
will hav no more time; your hour has arrived. Think rather of
the awful account you have already to offer, and implore pardon
of God. Provoke no longer his just indignation upon your head.’
�18
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
. “ Paine here again ordered us to retire in the highest pitch of
his voice, and seemed a very maniac with his rage and madness.
‘ Let us go,’ said I to F. Kohlman, ‘ we have nothing more to do
here; he seems to be entirely abandoned by God; further words
are lost upon him.’ ”
Yes, of course; and why should not the Jesuits
have discovered that at first? Was it not evident to
the dullest mind ? And how thin the pretense that
after repeatedly refusing to hear any argument about
the Bibie and Christianity Paine relaxed when told
that they had come purely to do him good, and at his
own invitation, and that he then expected them to
prescribe some remedy for his disease! Their per
sistence was far greater than that of the hypocritical
Manley. The insolent priests did not go until ordered
to do so some six times. Credat Diabolus ridens !
“Upon this we both withdrew from the room, and left the un
fortunate man to his thoughts. I never before or since beheld a
more hardened wretch. This you may rely upon; it is a faithful
and correct account of the transaction.”
Credat Baron Munchausen !
The newspaper copy adds what the book does not,
to wit:
“I remain your affectionate brother,
“ f Benedict, Bishop of Boston.”
Gloria patri Benedicto !
And now we challenge the dignitaries of the Cath
olic church to produce the original' letter and prove
who wrote it We do not believe that Bishop Fen
wick ever saw it. It is a fabrication, like the Decre
tals of the primitive popes, and the apocryphal gos
pels of the early Catholic church. By such forgeries
Christianity was propagated through the Dark Ages;
but they only serve a contrary purpose now.
“And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the
beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed
their tongues for Paine ” (Rev. xvi, 10}.
�19
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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A Roman Catholic canard. A fabricated account of a scene at the deathbed of Thomas Paine. Did Bishop Fenwick write it?
Creator
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Burr, William Henry
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: New York
Collation: 24 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Publisher's list on last six pages. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Date of publication from KVK. Concerning an account of "The last hours of the great infidel, Thomas Paine", published in several newspapers and purporting to be a letter written by Bishop Fenwick of Boston to his brother Enoch, describing a visit to Paine shortly before his death.
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[Truth Seeker Publishing House]
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[1883]
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CT82
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (A Roman Catholic canard), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
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Catholic Church
Benedict Joseph Fenwick
Conway Tracts
Thomas Paine
-
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PDF Text
Text
at secular society
HUMANITY’S DEBT
TO
THOMAS PAINE
BY
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
♦
Price Twopence.
LONDON:
PROGRESSIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY
28 Stonecutter Street, E.C,
1892.
�LONDON:
PR [NI ED AND PUBLISHED BY G. W. FOOTE
28 STONECUTTER. STREET, E.C.
�INTRODUCTION.
The Manhattan Liberal Club, on January 29, 1892, cele
brated the 155th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Paine.
Chick ering Hall was crowded to the doors. Mr. Moncure D.
Conway, whose Life of Thomas Paine was on the point of
publication, delivered an interesting address on the great
heretic’s services to intellectual and political progress.
Colonel Ingersoll then made a brilliant speech, which is here
reprinted from the verbatim report in the American press.
�THOMAS
PAINE,
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen,
It is not simply a duty, but it is a privilege to help
rescue the reputation of a great and noble man from the
slanders of ignorance and hypocrisy. (Applause.) We have
listened to a very noble eulogium upon Thomas Paine, and
the reason it was so noble is that it is true. We have been
told what he did, something of what he accomplished in this
world, and a little of what he suffered. We must remember
that for many, many ages, mankind was governed by two
ideas; one, that all power to govern came from the clouds—
came from some King of Kings, and that all who ruled occu
pied their thrones because it was the will of him who sat in
sovereignty above all. This was the belief; and this power
from on high, coming to the king, going on down from him
to the lowest one in authority, finally reached the poor,
wretched peasants. Thus it was for many, many genera
tions, and the result of it was that the many toiled in vain,
with little to eat and with little to wear, living in huts and
dens, that the few might live in idleness—might be clad in
robes of purple. That was the scheme of the divine govern
ment believed in by our ancestors—honestly believed in at
least by those who submitted; and they were to be rewarded
for all the pains suffered in this world by having harps when
they should go to another. (Laughter and applause.) And
they consoled themselves with the thought, “ While the
kings and the queens and the lords and the ladies have their
good times here, we will have our good times after we die;
and possibly we will have the happiness of seeing all these
ladies and gentlemen in hell.” (Laughter.) The latter
reflection undoubtedly was a great consolation. (Laughter.)
�Thomas Paine.
5
hat, I say, was the first idea; but the man of whom you
have heard so much, which has been so well said, took the
othei* ground, and said, “This power to govern does not
come from God. God must be retired from politics. (Laughter
and applause.) This powei’ to govern comes from the consent
of the governed. The basis of this authority must be the
people themselves.” (Applause.) Well, nothing] could be
more laughable at that time than the idea of having a govern
ment administered by shoemakers, and carpenters, and
farmers, and simple buyers and sellers, and traders. It was
thought impossible that such people should have brain
enough to really administer a government. This governing
power—this governing sense—was confined to the few—the
few that had been chosen by the King of Kings; but finally,
through the efforts of Thomas Paine, more than through the
efforts of any other man who ever trod the western world—
(applause)—that experiment was tried here on our soil; and
the question was, whether ordinary human beings, with
ordinary intelligence, even though they were mechanics and
farmers and merchants—and lawyers—(laughter)—whether
they had the sense and the honesty to form a govern
ment, and patriotism enough to administer it. It was tried
here; and I need not say it has been an amazing success.
(Applause.) In all these other governments the church and
state existed together. They were united. But a few people
in the days of Thomas Paine said, “ Let us separate church
and state”; and our forefathers agreed to it. Very few,
however, were in favor of it. And I will tell you to-night
the reason they agreed to it. A few, like Thomas Paine, like
Benjamin Franklin, like Thomas Jefferson—a few knew there
should be no such marriage. But the question came up
before the many—the average multitude—and then the
question took a different form. It was not with them, Shall
there be a church and state ?—but, Shall it be our church ?
(Applause.) The Puritans would have had their church
united to the state, if they had had the power; the
Episcopalians the same; and so of every sect in the
thirteen colonies. But there is a little human nature even in
a church;—(laughter)—and a church that could not be the
bride, was willing the state should remain a bachelor, rather
�6
Thomas Paine.
than marry a rival. (Great laughter and applause.) In that
way, and in that way only, we got rid of the church in this
country. Now then, that was the first great step. Political
power does not come from God; or if there be an infinite
being, he allows human beings to govern themselves. He
refused longer to be accountable for the blunders of any
administration;—(laughter and applause)—and that was an
excellent thing for him too. (Renewed laughter.) So, since
that time, in this country, and in some other lands, the
people endeavored to manage their own affairs, without the
interference of any gentleman pretending to be the agent of
some power above the clouds. (Laughter and applause.)
That was the first step.
Then there is another thing. For many, many generations
it has been believed—is believed by a great many good people
to-night—that religion comes from the clouds. We have now
got to the point^that we know that political power comes
from the people, and that every government should rest on
the consent of the governed. We know that. We have found
out that the people themselves make and create and admini
ster better government than they ever got from the clouds.
(Applause.) I say, then, the belief was that religion came
from that same country; and that if some being, somewhere
in the midst of the constellations, had not written some Ten
Commandments, we would never have known right from
wrong. Now, it has always.' seemed to me—and I think I
can make it clear to you—that no such information is neces
sary. In this world, for a great many years people have had
to work to get an honest living, and wherever man has
worked to get an honest living, he has always objected to
some fellow who did not work taking the result of his labors.
Applause.) If a man that planted a few acres of potatoes,
and hoed them all summer, and dug them in the fall, and
picked them up—using his own back—(laughter)—it never
would have occurred to him that a gentleman who had sat
on the fence and watched him—I say, it never would have
occurred to him that that fence-sitter, even if no Ten Com
mandments had ever been given, had a better right to the
potatoes than the man who raised them. (Laughter and
applause.) So, it seems to me that in every country where
�Thomas Paine.
7
the people, or a majority of the people, objected to being
murdered, there would probably have been a law against
murder, whether they had ever heard from Mount Sinai or
not. And so we might go through the Decalogue.
I say, then, we had to take another step and that was
that religion does not come from the clouds. Religion
comes from the heart of man. (Applause.) Human affection
is the foundation of all that is holy in religion. Human
intelligence, applied to human conduct, is what we call
morality; and you add to simple morality kindness, charity,
love—and there can be no more perfect religion imagined
by the brain of man. (Great applause.) Now, then, as
we succeeded so well in politics, by getting out of our
minds the idea that power and authority came from beyond
the stars, so I hope that we shall make the greatest possible
advance in religion, when we get it out of our minds that
religion comes from anothei’ world than this. There is no
religion except humanity. There cannot be. Those clouds
called creeds are destined all to fade away, but the sky
will remain—humanity; and in the sky will shine the
constellations of human virtues. In other words, we want
to outgrow the supernatural in these affairs. Thomas
Paine helped take the first great step. He dug down under
the throne, searching for the bed-rock, and he found nothing
but lies, mistakes, assumptions—everything that is infamous.
And when he got through with that work, it occurred to
him one day, to dig under the altar and see what was there;
and it was worse there than under the throne. (Laughter
and applause.) Now, Thomas Paine was not what would
be called to-day much of an Infidel. I think he would cut
me dead. (Great laughter.) If he were alive to-night,
he would be off with the Unitarians—and'with the conservative
wing of the Unitarians. That is to say, he believed
absolutely in the existence of an infinite God.; and in
some way he excused that God for making this world—
for giving power to the Catholic church. How he did
it, I don’t know; but he did it. In some way, he excused
that deity for all the volcanoes and plagues and famines
of the world. How, I don’t know; but he did. And he
may be right. I am not saying that he was wrong, All
�8
Thomas Paine.
I am saying is that I do not believe he was right. A s
I have said a hundred times, you have no idea how little
I know on this subject —(laughter); — and you never will
know how little I know until you appreciate the state of
your own knowledge. (Great laughter.) Paine, I say not
only believed in it, but he believed in a special providence,
exactly as Mr. Conway has told you. Well, so did Voltaire;
he wrote essay after essay, not simply to prove the existence
of God, but that he in some way ruled this world.
Well, I don’t deny it; but there are two facts in
consistent in my mind—that is to say, one fact is
inconsistent with the alleged fact. I cannot harmonise God
and Siberia. Still, I don’t say that I know; because you
know that I don’t, and I know that I don’t. (Laughter.)
But Paine wanted to do one thing. He wanted, in religion,
to get rid of middlemen. (Laughter.) He wanted the
citizens of the United States to transact what little business
they might have with the deity, without paying any commis
sions to gentlemen who were in the guessing business for a
living. (Laughter.) And whoevei’ steps between a priest
and his salary will find that he has committed all the erim as
in the statutes; and if he does not find it out, others will find
it out—when he is dead. That is all he tried to do. He
taught pure morality. He taught that we should worship
God simply by expressing and feeling our gratitude, and that
gratitude should rise from the heart for favors received, like
perfume from a flower; that there need be no form, no
ceremony, no costly cathedrals for this business—no hired
clergy; that man could worship God for himself. (Applause.)
Then he made enemies. Then they began to look, as Mr.
Conway has said, for special providence. And I remember,
when there was something the matter with my throat, I got
a letter from a Presbyterian minister, who took the pains to
tell me that he had read in a paper that I had cancer of the
throat; he then called my attention to the fact that it was
probably a judgment of God for the blasphemies I had uttered.
And I wrote back to him, good-naturedly—I always feel
that way towards clergymen—(laughter)—I have the feeling
that they are doing the best they know. So I wrote back to
him that I shouldn’t wonder if he were right; and if it
�Thomas Paine.
9
turned out that it was the judgment of God, I should never
blame him—never—(laughter)—that if I were in God’s place,
probably, I should kill any man that I could not answer.
(Laughter and applause.) In justice to that man, I suppose
I ought to add that he'.wrote me another letter faking the
first one all back. But such was the belief; and if the church
could have answered the Age of Reason, it would have
satisfied itself simply by attacking the book—that would
have been enough. It was because it could not answer the
book that it attacked the man. (Applause.) And that is
what the church has always done. I do not say it has been
dishonest. I don’t know how it will account for its acts.
But it has always done that way. And there is some
thing to me remarkable in the constitution of a
religious falsehood. What health it has ! How hard
it is to kill! After you think it is dead, the roses of health
will bloom in its cheeks again. (Laughter.) It will lie in a
comatose condition, like a frozen serpent, and all at once, in
the sunshine of opportunity, it crawls. It will lie hidden for
years, waiting for the mouth of resurrection—waiting for
lips, that it may be born once again. And it is always born
again—(laughter)—yes, sir. I have never known a religious
lie to die. Only the other day, in a paper in this city, appeared
the old story that when Thomas Paine died he was in agony
and terror ; that he called upon Christ to'have pity upon his
soul; that he confessed to some girl that the devil must have
had a hand in writing the Age of Reason—that he wished the
books had all been burned. Now that was told only the other
day ; written—published—by a minister of the gospel—one
who has been duly ordained—(laughter);—and I have no
doubt he believes every word of it—undoubtedly he believes
it, because he wants it that way. (Laughter and applause.)
But the facts are exactly the other way. And is it not
wonderful that all these gentlemen rely so much on what
they call the evidence of death ? Hundreds of murderers
die in this country on the gallows without a quiver—with
the utmost courage; and I have never known one of those
deaths to be quoted in favor of murder—never; and yet it
would be justjas sensible. A man goes to the stake and dies
for his opinion. This is not the slightest evidence that his
�10
Thomas Paine.
■7
opinion was correct. It simply_demonstrates the sincerity
of the man and the courage of his heart—not the correctness
of his opinion. And if every Christian in the world was
frightened at death when he dies, it would not tend to prove
the truth of any miracle in the Bible or the falsity of any
miracle in the Bible. The thing is not evidence in that case.
So the same story was told of Voltaire in the same paper
here the other day—that he had died in the utmost terror
Now, it has been denied—not only that, but it has been
demonstrated a thousand times—that it is utterly false. But
it will come up again next spring—(laughter)—along with
the grass. (Renewed laughter.) The intelligent ministers,
however, won’t use it—that is, not when they are preaching
in their own pulpit; if they go out in the country they may„
(Laughter.) And it is a very curious thing the way that is
done. When a thing gets too idiotic to be preached in the
pulpit it is handed down to the Sunday-school superintendent
and taught to the children. When it is too absurd for the
children we give it to the missionaries—(laughter)—or send
it down South for the colored brethren. In other words, we
do with our theories—with our religions—as we do with our
clothes; when they get out at the elbows and knees, and
when we cannot get them cleaned and revamped, or mended,
to look decent, why then we have charity enough to give them
to some other fellow. So we find the religious teachings of the
day charitably distributed—going from the highest, as they
call themselves, down, down, down, until they strike those
who for the first time hear “ glad tidings of great Jjoy.”
(Laughter.)
Now, all that Thomas Paine endeavored to do—and it
seems like a small matter—was to make this world fit to live
in. That is what he was trying to do. He was trying to
keep the organised few from living upon the agony and toil
of the unorganised many. (Applause.) He did his very
best to exalt in the bosom of every man his idea of the dignity
of man—his idea of the value of liberty and opportunity; his
idea of culture, of education; raising day by day the stan
dard of human endeavor. That is what he tried to do. He
tried to change kings and lords and dukes into the servants
of the sovereign people. (Applause.) That is what he
�Thomas Paine.
11
endeavored to do. And in the world of religion he tried to
do, if possible, still more. In the one case he wished to pre
serve the individual rights of the man by the preservation of
a republican government—of real, pure democracy, as nearly
pure in form as the number of people would permit. But in
the world of religion he knew that each man was a sovereign;
that in that world there should be no government except the
government of reason, of persuasion, of logic. He knew that
in the world of thought each brain should wear the crown
and tiara of sovereignty and the robe of purple. He knew
that in that world only the man was a good citizen who gave
every right that he claimed for himself to every other human
being. (Applause.) He also knew that in that great
republic of mind only those were traitors who resorted to
brute force. And so Thomas Paine said, “ Let every
man think for himself; let him have his own idea of
the divine being; let him worship as his heart prompts.”
Upon that subject he said as great a thing as man
has ever1 said—“ When you say that man shall only
worship God in one way, by that law you say that
God shall receive worship only in one way.” (Applause.)
No greater utterance ever fell from lips upon that subject
than that. You have no right, if there be a God, to say what
worship he shall receive ; and Thomas Paine said, “ If there
be a God, his heart goes out to all his children in this world,
and consequently it is his will that they should all be free,
that they should all be happy.” And all I contend for in this
world is that every man is entitled to the work of his hands;
every man is entitled to the harvest of his acre; and it is
the duty of every man to give his honest thought to every
being who has the right to ask it. That is all. That is all.
That is all the religion we need in this world, or any other.
And if there be another—and everybody who is now living
wishes to keep on living. Hope is not based on evidence.
There is a vast deal of hope where there is no evidence.
There has been a good deal of hope when the evidence was
the other way on a great many questions in this world. And
I suppose it can truthfully be said that hope is the only
universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.
Hope always tells a good story—always paints on the canvas
�12
Thomas Paine.
of the future a beautiful picture. And I would do nothing
by word or act—I would do nothing in any way—to take
from the sky the smallest hope that ever shed a ray of light
in the human heart—(applause)—not one. If this universe
only could be as I wish it were—and maybe it is—I would
like to know—nothing could fill me with greater joy than to
know that for every sorrow suffered here there is to be a joy
somewhere. Nothing would give me greater delight than to
know that every tear that sorrow has ever shed will at last
become prismatic, and that we will see the beautiful bow upon
the dark cloud of death. Nothing would give me greater
joy than to know that there is some world .where inno
cence will always be a perfect shield—some world where
justice will triumph—some world where truth can enter
the ring naked and conquer all comers—some world in which
the good man cannot be slandered and maligned—some
world in which every heart can be known as it absolutely is.
(Great applause.) And if there be such a world, in its shining
streets, or by its winding streams of joy, you will never meet
a grander soul, a braver soul, than once inhabited the clay of
Thomas Paine. (Great applause.)
And so I say, let us do what we can to destroy the phan
toms of ignorance and superstition. Let us do what we can
to take from the heart these weeds and thorns ; and let us be
happy here, and be happy here by making others so. Let us
enjoy to-day without regretting having lost yesterday, and
without fearing that we may lose to-morrow. (Applause.)
Let us enjoy this green strip of flowering earth, called the
present, stretching between the two great eternal deserts—
the past and the future. Let us enjoy that strip of verdure.
Let us enjoy the flowers that bloom upon it. And if there be
another world, I will be just as happy when we get there as
any fellow in this world or in that; and if there be no such,
we will have enjoyed this. (Applause.) While I live, I want
to be free. That is what Thomas Paine wanted to be—not
only free, but he wanted to be free to do good; because the
more liberty you have, the more obligation there is upon
you.
And this man (I can hardly stop speaking about him) said
another thing: “ Any system of religion that shocks the
�Thomas Paine.
13
mind of a child, cannot be a true system.” (Applause.)
Nothing was ever said better than that. And this same
man made a creed for himself: “ The world is my country;
to do good my religion.” That man was brave enough to
write and fight for liberty here—brave enough in the shadow
of the guillotine, to say in the French Chamber, “ Let us
destroy monarchy, not the man ”—great enough to say, “ It
was his misfortune to be a king.” I want you just to think of
the diameter and of the circumference of that splendid
expression, made under those circumstances. I want you to
see just how splendid and noble this man was; and then I
want you to know that all the men who have ever maligned
and slandered him, from that day to this, compared with him
are vermin. (Applause.) And yet I don’t blame them; they
have done the best they know. It is our duty to tell them
who Thomas Paine was. That man, after having done all
that he did, received nothing from the United States, for
many, many years, except scorn—derision—contempt—false
hood—slander. And the church has been like a coiled viper
on the grave of Thomas Paine since 1809—like a coiled viper;
and whoever has attempted to defend him, it has attacked.
There is another little thing connected with this—and I
am going to say a word about myself. The first speech I
ever made in public was an address at a Sunday-school cele
bration, when the other man didn’t come; and in that speech
I defended the memory of Thomas Paine. (Applause.) I
made use of the first chance I had. (Laughter.) I am the
friend of every human being who has been the friend of man
—no matter where he lived—in what age or time. Every
man who has lifted his voice for human rights—I am his
friend. (Applause.) Every man who has defended freedom
of thought, I am his admirer to-night. And every man who
has endeavored to enslave his fellows, and every man who
has persecuted his fellow-men, I hate with all my heart and
soul; and yet, if they were alive, the only injury I would do
them would be to enlighten them. (Applause.) What
would the world have been without these men ?—without
such men as Voltaire, one of the noblest men who ever lived
—(applause)—and whose name I never see and never repeat
without a thrill—never. I think of a soldier, with a plume
�14
Thomas Paine.
over his helmet, riding to a walled city, demanding sur
render ; and I see the hosts of superstition on the beleagured
walls, and I see them with a white flag in their trembling
hands. Voltaire—Thomas Paine—take the two, and they did
more for human liberty than any other two men who ever
lived and died. (Applause.)
Now, all I want is for you to know the truth—and in
a little while it will be published—about Thomas Paine;
and after that book has been published by Mr. Conway,
and sufficient time has elapsed for intelligent people to
read it, and then any occupant of a pulpit tells the old
lies again, I intend to hold him responsible—at least, by
calling his attention to the fact; and I want everyone
who hears me to-night to make up his and her mind—
especially her mind — (laughter) — that from this night
forth you will always have the womanhood and the
manhood to defend the memory of the friend of man,
Thomas Paine. (Long-continued applause.)
�WORKS BY COLONEL R. G. INGERSOLL
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MISTAKES OF MOSES
...
...
...10
Superior edition, in cloth ...
...
... 1 6
Only Complete Edition published in England.
DEFENCE OF FREETHOUGHT
...
... 0 6
Five Hours’ Speech at the Trial of C. B.
Reynolds for Blasphemy.
REPLY TO GLADSTONE. With a Biography by
J. M. Wheeler ...
...
...
... 0
ROME OR REASON ? Reply to Cardinal Manning 0
CRIMES AGAINST CRIMINALS
...
... 0
AN ORATION ON WALT WHITMAN ............... 0
THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS
...
... 0
TRUE RELIGION ...
...
...
... 0
FAITH AND FACT. Reply to Rev. Dr. Field
... 0
GOD AND MAN. Second Reply to Dr. Field
... 0
THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH
...
... 0
LOVE THE REDEEMER. Reply to Count Tolstoi 0
THE LIMITS OF TOLERATION
...
... 0
A Discussion with Hon. F. D. Coudert and
Gov. S. L. Woodford
THE DYING CREED
...
...
... 0
DO I BLASPHEME ?
...
...
... 0
THE CLERGY AND COMMON SENSE
... 0
SOCIAL SALVATION
...
...
... 0
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE ...
...
... 0
GOD AND THE STATE
...
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... 0
WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC?
...
... 0
WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC ? Part II.
... 0
ART AND MORALITY
...
...
... 0
CREEDS AND SPIRITUALITY '
...
... 0
CHRIST AND MIRACLES
...
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... 0
THE GREAT MISTAKE
...
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LIVE TOPICS
...
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.................... 0
MYTH AND MIRACLE
....................
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REAL BLASPHEMY
...
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REPAIRING THE IDOLS
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... 0
R. Forder, 28 Stonecutter-street, London, E.O.
�Works by G. W. Foote
The Grand Old Book ... 1
A Reply to the Grand
Old Man. An Exhaus
tive Answer to the Right
Hon. W. E. Gladstone’s
Impregnable Rock of bLoly
Scripture.
Bound in cloth
... 1
Is Socialism Sound ? ... 1
Four Nights’ Public Debate with Annie Besaut.
Bound in cloth
... 2
Christianity&Secularism 1
Four nights’ Public De
bate with the Rev. Dr.
James McCann.
Borind in cloth
... 1
Darwin on God ...
... 0
Bound in cloth
... 1
Reminiscences of Charles
Bradlaugh ...
... 0
Infidel Death-Beds
... 0
Bound in cloth
... 1
Letters to the Clergy ... 1
Defence of Free Speech 0
Three Hours’ Address to
the Jury before Lord
Coleridge.
The Bible God ...
... 0
Letters to Jesus Christ... 0
Philosophy of Secularism 0
Atheism and Morality ... 0
0 Christianity and Progress 0
Reply to Mr. Gladstone.
Mrs. Besant’s Theosophy 0
A Candid Criticism.
Secularism & Theosophy 0
Rejoinder to Mrs. Besant.
The New Cagliostro ... 0
6
Open Letter to Madame
0 Blavatsky.
I The Folly of Prayer ... 0
I The Impossible Creed ... 0
0
Open Letter to J i hop
0 Magee on the Sermon on
the Mount.
Salvation Syrup, or Light1
on Darkest England ... 0
6 A Reply to General Booth
6 What Was Christ?
... 0
0 A Reply to J. S. Mill.
The Shadow of the Sword 0
6A Moral and Statistical
8 Essay on War.
3 Royal Paupers ...
.., 0
0 The Dying Atheist ... 0
4 Was Jesus Insane ?
... 0
Is the Bible Inspired ?... 0
A Criticism of Lux Mundi.
Bible Romances (revised) 0
double numbers
... 0
2
4 Bible Heroes (1st series) 1
3 Bible Heroes (2nd series) 1
Both complete, in cloth 2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
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2
1
1
1
1
2
0
0
6
“THE FREETHINKER”
■4
Edited by G. W. FOOTE.
The Only Penny Freetliought Paper in England. )
Enlarged to Sixteen Pages.
Circulates throughout the World.
Published every Thursday.
Printed and Published by G. W. Foote, at 28 Stonecutter Street,
London, E.C.
��
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Humanity's debt to Thomas Paine
Creator
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
Description
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 14 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Speech delivered by Ingersoll at the Manhattan Liberal Club, on the 155th anniversary of Paine's birth, 29 Jan. 1892. Publisher's lists, by R. Forder and G.W. Foote, inside and on back cover. No. 78k in Stein checklist. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Progressive Publishing Company
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1892
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N360
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Thomas Paine
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Humanity's debt to Thomas Paine), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
NSS
Thomas Paine
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Text
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
bra-
„
THE BOOKSELLER’S BARGAIN.
•
-j
•
r
BY MARY E. SHEPHERD.
“
OOD morning !
Have you Paine’s ‘ Age of
Reason ’ for sale ? ”
“ No,” said the bookseller, “ I have not.
Sorry I cannot oblige you, sir, but we don’t keep the
book.”
“ H’m ! I am surprised ! I should have thought you
yrould. Well, let me see; have you any others of the
same class ?” And John Huntley ran over a few names.
Mr. Aitkin shook his head.
“ No, I have nothing of the kind in stock.”
. “ A nuisance I I want something fresh to read, and I
thought I would go in for a little of Paine. I didn’t
want to go up to town, either; but I suppose I must if
you haven’t got what I want.”
No, 131, City Road Series.
A
�The Bookseller's Bargain,
2
He was turning away when Mr. Aitkin stopped him.
“ I have a book here which I expect you have not
read,” he said. “ I sold the fellow to it yesterday for
three shillings, but you shall have the loan of it for a
week for nothing, Mr. Huntley, if you will promise to
read it.”
“ Very well, I’ll promise. Anything fresh’ll go down
at present, I can assure you. Many thanks ! ” And
Huntley turned back to the counter.
Reaching down a Bible from the shelf behind him, the
bookseller placed it in his hands. “ This will be a fresh
book to you, I know,” he said.
“ The Bible! ” exclaimed Huntley, half inclined tc
throw it down. “ Look here, Aitkin, you’ve made a fool
of me ! I didn’t look to be taken in like this.”
“ Nay, I haven’t taken you in, lad,” said the old man.
“ You have never read the book through, not even a
quarter of it. Come, now ! ”
“ Well, I haven’t, I must confess.” And John Huntley
looked down at the book in his hand. “ I don’t think
I’ve read more than a bit here and a bit there.”
“ Well, read it for yourself. Eh, lad, it’s a grand
book ! better than all your infidel books. Just see what
it has done for the world ; look for yourself and see, and
judge it by that, ‘By their fruits ye shall know them.’ ”
“ What has it done ? ” asked Huntley impatiently.
“ Made men and women miserable by tormenting them
with fears of a hell' That’s about all it has done,” he
said sneeringly.
“ Nay ! nay ! Would you blame the lighthouse for
revealing the rocks on which it stands to the sailor?
Would you condemn the physician for warning you of a
disease which threatens you if you do not take measures
to avert it? Would you not rather bless him for his
warning ?
“ But the Bible does not only warn : it gives strength
and help,” said Mr. Aitkin. “ Look here, I want to tell
you of something a gentleman told me many years ago.
It was told him by a gentleman who personally knew
Tom Paine, and was repeatedly in his company during
the last years of his life.
I3I>
�The Bookseller's Bargain.
3
“ ‘ One evening,’ he said, ‘ I found Paine haranguing a,
company of his disciples on the great mischief done to
society by the introduction of the Bible and Christianity.
According to him, it was responsible for fully one half
of the evils of mankind. When he paused for a moment
I rose up, and said :
“ ‘ “ Mr. Paine, you have been in Scotland ; you know
there are no people in the world more rigidly attached
to the Bible than the Scotch, no land where it is so
carefully read and studied as it is there. I am correct,
I believe ? ”
“ ‘ He said it was so.
‘“I continued: “You have been in Spain and Portugal,
where they have no Bible; and there you can hire a
man for a dollar to murder his neighbour, who never
gave him any offence. Is not that so ? ”
“ ‘ “ Yes,” he said ; “ you are right.”
“ ‘ “ You have seen the manufacturing districts of
England, where not one man in fifty can read ” ’ (fifty
years before this conversation there were no Sunday
schools), ‘ “ and you have been in Ireland, where the
majority never saw a Bible ? ”
“ ‘Paine said nothing, only nodded his head.
“‘“Now you know it is a fact that in one county in
England or Ireland there are many more capital con
victions in six months than there are in the whole
population of Scotland in twelve ! Now, if the Bible
were such a bad book as you represent it to be, those
who use it would be the worst members of soc ety. But
the contrary is the fact, as my figures show.
“ Well,” said Mr. Aitkin, “Paine didn’t answer a single
word. The gentleman says : ‘ It was then about ten
o’clock at night. Paine answered not a word, but, taking
a candle from the table, he walked out of the room,
leaving his friends and myself staring at one another.’ ”
John Huntley smiled. “ There’s something in the
argument, I admit,” he said.
“ A great deal, I should say,” replied the bookseller.
“ But look here, lad. Read this book for yourself; don’t
try and square it to fit your notions, either. Just you
listen to what it has to say for itself.”
�The Bookseller's bargain.
4
“ Well, I promised you I would read it, and I will.”
And with a “Good morning, and many thanks,” Huntley
left the shop.
The old bookseller stood looking after him as he
passed up the street, and many times during that day he
did not forget to pray that God would open the eyes of
this ignorant and unbelieving man, and reveal to him
the “wondrous things out of” His own word.
#
#
#
*
s «
John Huntley had no opportunity for beginning his
study of the Bible that evening. When he arrived home,
he found two or three of his companions there, and
the rest of the evening passed in songs and careless
merriment. Once or twice he was on the point of telling
his comrades of the bargain the bookseller had made
with him, but something sealed his lips. They would
only laugh at him, he reflected, would say he was a fool
to have been caught so. No, he would keep the matter
a secret from every one—for the present, at any rate.
So the Bible remained in the drawer in his room until
the next evening. Then, as soon as closing-time came,
Huntley shut his shop and started for his lodgings in the
next street of the village. He was the village tailor, and
though a young man—not yet twenty-eight—was doing
well.
Trade had been pretty brisk that day; and as John
fastened the door of the shop and turned off with the key
in his hand, he felt unusually elated and self-sufficient.
It was a fine evening—the sun had not yet set—and
so he decided on taking a little stroll along some of the
village lanes. He would start with Aitkin’s book before
going to bed, he said to himself, his thoughts going back
once more to the conversation he had had with the
bookseller.
“ The Bible, indeed ! ” he reflected somewhat con
temptuously. “After all Aitkin’s arguments—his friend’s,
rather—what has the Bible to do with the prosperity of
our country ? People are educated now to see the folly
of sin, and Christianity has nothing to do with it. Now
here am I! If every Bible in the land were burnt
131.
�The Bookseller's Bargain.
5
To-morrow, and Christianity and its professors were, to
; vanish from the face of the earth; how much worse
should I be ? And millions more, too ? Trade and
commerce—ay, and morals, too—would be in as good
a state as they are now.”
He stopped, and leaning his arms on the top of a gate,
looked away across the fields to where the sun was slowly
sinking below the horizon. He watched it for a few
minutes until it entirely disappeared.
“ It is gone ! ” involuntarily escaped his lips.
He looked round him. The light seemed as bright as
; ever; the little birds were still singing, and the sky was
. full of a dazzling radiance. Indeed it seemed for a while
to grow brighter and brighter in the west. He could not
have believed that the great orb of day had really gone
(down behind those far distant hills if he had not seen it
for himself. But as he stood looking he saw the twilight
gradually steal over the landscape. And as the crimson
and purple glories slowly began to fade from the sky,
they spoke powerfully to' John Huntley as he stood
. there watching the gathering shadows.
“ So would it be for a time if all the Bibles were burnt
-and Christianity torn out, root and branch, from the
thearts of men,” they seemed to say to him. “Its in
fluence would still linger for a while; men would love
. righteousness and would strive to be good. But when
all fear of God was destroyed, and men began to lose
belief in a future state, then the darkness of moral night
. yrould cover the whole world. It would be delayed for a
while, as the darkness to-night was delayed by the glory
of the sunset, but it would be quite as sure.”
Huntley started, and shook himself, as if he had been
suddenly awakened out of sleep.
“Old Aitkin’s talk yesterday has unsettled me,” he
said with a half laugh. “ Pshaw ! I am a fool to have
listened to his yarns. I’ve a good mind not to touch
that old Bible after all. I’ll go for a good sharp walk;
that’ll knock all this nonsense out of my head.”
It was nearly ten o’clock when he arrived at his
lodgings. Supper was ready, and in a short timd he
went upstairs to his room.
’■
131.
�6
The Bookseller's Bargain.
“After all, I may as well start to-night,” he said to
himself. “ I’ve only got a week to do it in, and I
promised him I would read it. Besides, I feel better
than I did. The book can do me no harm.”
So taking the Bible from the drawer, he opened it
and sat down to read. It opened at the third chapter
of Malachi, and as he glanced at it his eye fell on the
fifth verse :
“ And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will
be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the
adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those
that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and
the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his
right, and fear not Me, saith the Lord of hosts.”
“ Against false swearers, and against them that oppress
-he hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless,
and that turn aside the stranger from his right,” repeated
John to himself. Was this the God whom he had
always pictured as being on the side of tyranny and
oppression, the God whose delight it was to make His
creatures miserable by holding out before them the
picture of eternal torment ? Was this the God of
Christianity—the God he hated and would not believe in ?
He turned back a few pages. There, at Zechariah
vii. 9, io, he read these words :
“Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute
true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every
man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor
the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none
of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.”
“None of you imagine evil,” he repeated. “This is
a wonderful law.” His thoughts flew to the infidel code
of rules he had been admiring. What was there in
them to compare with this, which demanded such purity
of thought?
He turned over the pages once more, and these words
in Isaiah met his eye :
“ Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? to loose
the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,
and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every
yoke ? ”
•13’
�The Bookseller's bargain.
7
Like a lightning flash it came to him, the truth that it
was to Christians the slaves owed their freedom—to such
men as Wilberforce and Clarkson, and a host of others.
“Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that
thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?
when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and
that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ? ” the
next verse went on.
*****
Far on into the night John Huntley sat. His candle
had long ago burnt itself out, and had been replaced
by another. Eagerly he pored over the book. He had
turned to the four gospels, and now sat gazing with
wonder at the beauty of the divine Life which shone on
him from their pages. Was there ever such a Teacher ?
“ Wonderful! wonderful! ” he exclaimed as he came
to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. “I never
heard anything like this in my life before.”
And, as he read and read, slowly but surely the con
viction grew and fastened on his mind that this Jesus
Christ—the Carpenter of Galilee—was divine !
“ If there is a God at all—and I believe there is!—Jesus Christ is that God,” he said to himself, as he tossed
from side to side on his bed that early morning before
sleep would come.
The next day was Sunday. He usually spent most of
that day in bed, smoking and reading the newspapers
and infidel literature. But to-day the Bible claimed his
attention. And, as he read, little by little the sense of
his own sinfulness dawned upon him. He saw himself
no longer as the respectable, clever tradesman, whose
business was increasing, and whose name stood high in
the village opinion. No ; he was a guilty sinner ! He
saw the law of God required “ truth in the inward parts.”
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
He read that “ without holiness no man shall see the
Lord,” and his conscience, awakened, cried out: “ O
wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death ? ”
*
I3I-
*
*
*
#
�8
The Bookseller's Bargain.
“Are you busy, Mr. Aitkin? Can I have a word
with you ? ”
“ Not at all. Certainly, certainly, my lad ! Come
inside !
And the old bookseller led the way into the
sitting-room behind the shop.
“ I feel I am bound to thank you very heartily for the
promise you extracted from me,” John Huntley said,
laying the Bible on the table, and placing its price beside ‘
it. “It has been worth its weight in gold, ten times
over, to me. Mr. Aitkin, I am a changed man !
Through reading that book I have discovered that my
so called reasonings are false ; and I have also found:
that I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ is my Saviour.”
“ Thank God ! ” said Mr. Aitkin fervently. “ Thank
God!”
“Yes; thank God!” said John. “I struggled, hard
to resist the truth, but it conquered. O Mr. Aitkin, I
little thought that I should ever stoop—as I should have
called it—to be saved, should lay aside all my pride
and come to Jesus Christ as a little child.’ How littlq ,
/ever thought to become a Christian ! ”
“ His ways are not! as our ways, nor His thoughts as
our thoughts,” said Mr. Aitkin reverently.
. ■»
;:r vfmy
aid no . < oi <uia moii
L . - T
‘WESLEYAN METHODIST BOOK ROOM,
2, CASTLE ST., CITY ROAD, E.C. ; AND 66, PATERNOSTER.' ROW, E.C.
[C/'y Road-Series, No. 131. Price 2s. per ioo.l
�
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The bookseller's bargain
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Shepherd, Mary E.
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 8 p. : ill. ; 18 cm.
Series title: City Road series
Series number: No. 131
Notes: Engraving on front page. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Wesleyan Methodist Book Room
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Thomas Paine
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Thomas Paine
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nahonalsecularsoctety
Ml
A VINDICATION
THOMAS PAINE.
BY
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
*
AND
THOMAS PAINE.
A
CRITICISM.
MONCURE D. CONWAY
‘ To ARGUE WITH A MAN WHO HAS RENOUNCE1} THE USE AND AUTHORITY OF REASON,
IS LIKE ADMINISTERING MEDICINE TO THE DEAD.”—THOMAS PAINE.
CHICAGO AND TORONTO:
BELFORD S, CLARKE & CO
1 87 9.
�* The Vindication of Thomas Paine” is published by arrangenent with Mr. Robt. G. Ingersoll. Mr. Conway’s Article is
e-published from our edition of The Fortnightly Review.
�irth. -urkc
J>
i
VINDICATION OT THOMAS PAINE.
‘ * To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, is
ik administering medicine to the dead. ”—Thomas Paine
Peoria, III., October 8th, 1877.
To the Editor of tne New York Observer :
Sir : Last June, in San Francisco, I offered a thousand dollars
in gold—not as a wager, but as a gift—to any one that would
substantiate the absurd story that Thomas Paine died in agony
and fear, frightened by the clanking chains of devils. I also
offered the same amount to any minister that would prove that
Voltaire did not pass away as serenely as the coming of the dawn.
Afterwards, I was informed that you had accepted the offer, and
called upon me to deposit the money. Acting upon this infor
mation, I sent you the following letter:
“ Peoria, III., August 31st, 1877.
“ To the Editor of the New York Observer:
“ I have been informed that you have accepted, in your paper,
an offer made by me to any clergyman in San Francisco. That
offer was, that I would pay one thousand dollars in gold to any
minister in that city, who would prove that Thomas Paine died
in terror because of religious opinions he had expressed, or that
Voltaire did not pass away serenely as the coming of the dawn.
“ For many years, religious journals and ministers have been
circulating certain pretended accounts of the frightful agonies
endured by Paine and Voltaire when dying; that these great men,
at the moment of death, were terrified because they had given
their honest opinions on the subject of religion to their fellowmen.
The imagination of the religious world has been taxed to the
utmost in inventing absurd and infamous accounts of the last
moments of these intellectual giants. Every Sunday-paper,
thousands of idiotic tracts, and countless stupidities, called ser
mons, have been filled with these calumnies.
�4>
VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
“Paine and Voltaire both believed in God—both hoped for
immortality—both believed in special providence; but both
denied the inspiration of the Scriptures—both denied the divinity
of Jesus Christ. While theologians most cheerfully admit that
most murderers die without fear, they deny the possibility of any
man who has expressed his disbelief in the inspiration of the
bible, dying except in an agony of terror. These stories are used
in revivals and in Sunday schools, and have long been considered
of great value.
“ I am anxious that these slanders shall cease. I am desirous
of seeing justice done, even at this late day, to the dead.
“ For the purpose of ascertaining the evidence upon which
these death-bed accounts really rest, I make to you the following
proposition:
. “ First.—As to Thomas Paine : I will deposit with the First
National Bank of Peoria, Illinois, one thousand dollars in gold,
upon the following conditions : This money shall be subject to
your order when you shall, in the manner hereinafter provided,
substantiate that Thomas Paine admitted the bible to be an
inspired book, or that he recanted his infidel opinions—or that he
died regretting that he had disbelieved the bible—or that he died
calling upon Jesus Christ in any religious sense whatever.
“ In ordei' that a tribunal may be created to try this question,
you may select one man, I will select another, and the two thus
chosen shall select a third, and any two of the three may decide
the matter.
“ As there will be certain costs and expenditures on both sides,
such costs and expenditures shall be paid by the defeated party.
“ In addition to the one thousand dollars in gold, I will deposit
a bond with good and sufficient security in the sum of two
thousand dollars, conditioned for the payment of all costs, in
case I am defeated. I shall require of you a like bond.
“ From the date of accepting this offer, you may have ninety
days to collect and present your testimony, giving me notice of
time and place of taking depositions. I shall have a like time
to take evidence upon my side, giving you like notice, and you
shall then have thirty days to take further testimony in reply to
what I may offer. The case shall then be argued before the
persons chosen; and their decision shall be final as to us.
“ If the arbitrator chosen by me shall die, I shall have the right
to chose another. You shall have the same right. If the third
one, chosen by our two, shall die, the two shall choose another ;
and all vacancies, from whatever cause, shall be filled upon the
same principle.
“The arbitrators shall sit when and where a majarity shall
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
0
determine, and shall have full power to pass upon all questions
arising as to competency of evidence and upon all subjects.
“ Second.—As to Voltaire: I make the same proposition:—
If you will substantiate that Voltaire died expressing remorse, or
showing, in any way, that he was in mental agony because he
had attacked Catholicism—or because he had denied the inspira
tion of the bible—or because he had denied the divinity of Christ.
“ I make these propositions because I want you to stop slander
ing the dead.
“ If the propositions do not suit you in any particular, please
state your objections, and I will modify them in any way con
sistent with the object in view.
“ If Paine and Voltaire died filled with childish and silly fear,
I want to know it, and I want the world to know it. On the
other hand, if the believers in superstition have made and circu
lated these cruel slanders concerning the mighty dead, I want the
world to know that.
“ As soon as you notify me of the acceptance of these proposi
tions, I will send you the certificate of the bank that the money
has been deposited upon the foregoing conditions, together with
copies of bonds for costs.
“R. G. INGERSOLL.”
In your paper of September 27th, 1877, you acknowledge the
the receipt of the foregoing letter, and, after giving an outline of
its contents, say:
“ As not one of the affirmations, in the form stated in this letter,
was contained in the offer we made, we have no occasion to sub
stantiate them. But we are prepared to produce the evidence of
the truth of our own statement, and even to go further : to show
not only ‘ that Tom Paine died a drunken, cowardly, and beastly
death,’ but that for many years previous, and up to that event,
he lived a drunken and beastly life.”
In order to refresh your memory as to what you had published,
I call your attention to the following, which appeared in the
New York Observer, the 19th of July, 1877 :
« PUT DOWN THE MONEY.
“ Col. Bob Ingersoll, in a speech full of ribaldry and blasphemy,
made in San Francisco recently, said:
“ ‘ I will give $1,000 in gold coin to any clergyman who can
substantiate that the death of Voltaire was not as peaceful as the
dawn; and of Tom Paine, whom they assert died in fear and
agony, frightened by the clanking chains of devils—in fact,
�6
VIODlUATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
frightened to death by God. I will give $1,000 likewise to any
one who can substantiate this * absurd story ’—a story without a
word of truth in it.’
“We have published the testimony, and the witnesses are
on hand to prove that Tom Paine died a drunken, cowardly and
beastly death. Let the Colonel deposit the money with any honest
man, and the absurd story, as he terms it, shall be shown to be an
‘ ower true’ tale. But he won't do it. His talk is infidel ‘ buncombe?
and nothing more.”
On the 31st of August I sent you my letter, and on the 27th of
September you say in your paper : “ As not one of the affirma
tions in the form stated in this letter was contained in the offer
we made, we have no occasion to substantiate them.”
What were the affirmations contained in the offer you made ?
I had offered a thousand dollars in gold to any one who would
substantiate the absurd story that Thomas Paine died in fear
and agony, frightened by the clanking chains of devils—in fact,
frightened to death by God.”
In response to this offer you said: Let the Colonel deposit the
money with an honest man, and the ‘ absurd story,’ as he terms
it, shall be shown to be an ‘ ower true ’ tale. But he won’t do it.
His talk is infidel ‘ buncombe,’ and nothing more.”
Did you not offer to prove that Paine died in fear and agony,
frightened by the clanking chains of devils? Did you not
ask me to deposit the money that you might prove the
“ absurd story ” to be an “ ower true ” tale, and obtain the money ?
Did you not, in your paper of the 27th of September, in effect
deny that you had offered to prove this “ absurd story ? ” As
soon as I offered to deposit the gold and give bonds besides, to
cover costs, did you not publish a falsehood ?
You have eaten your own words, and for my part, I would
rather have dined with Ezekiel than with you. You have not
met the issue. You have knowingly avoided it. The question
was not as to the personal habits of Paine. The real question
was, and is, whether Paine was filled with fear and horror at the
time of his death on account of his religious opinions. That is
the question. You avoid this. In effect, you abandon that
charge, and make others.
To you belongs the honor of having made the most cruel and
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
7
infamous charges against Thomas Paine that have ever been made.
Of what you have said you cannot prove the truth of one word.
You say that Thomas Paine died a drunken, cowardly and
beastly death.
I pronounce this charge to be a cowardly and beastly falsehood.
Have you any evidence that he was in a drunken condition
when he died ?
What did he say or do of a cowardly character just before, or
at about the time of his death ?
In what way was his death cowardly? You must answer
these questions, and give your proof,'or all honest men will hold
you in abhorrence. You have made these charges. The man
against whom you make them is dead. He cannot answer you.
I can. He cannot compel you to produce your testimony, or
admit by your silence that you have cruelly slandered the de
fenseless dead. I can, and I will. You say that his death was
cowardly. In what respect ? Was it cowardly- in him to hold
the Thirty-nine Articles in contempt ? Was it cowardly not to
call on your Lord ? Was it cowardly not to be afraid ? You say
that his death was beastly. Again I ask, in what respect ? Was
it beastly to submit to the inevitable with tranquility ? Was it
beastly to look with composure upon the approach of death?
Was it beastly to die without a complaint, without a murmur—
to pass from life without a fear ?
Did Thomas Paine Recant ?
Mr. Paine had prophesied that fanatics would crawl and
cringe around him during his last moments. He believed that
they would put a lie in the mouth of death.
When the shadow of. the coming dissolution was upon him, two
clergymen, Messrs. Milledollar and Cunningham, called to annoy
the dying man. Mr. Cunningham had the politeness to say :
“ You have now a full view of death ; you cannot live long; and
whosoever does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will assur
edly be damned.” Mr. Paine replied: “Let me have none of
your popish stuff. Get away with you. Good morning.”
On another occasion a Methodist minister obtruded himself
when Willet Hicks was present. The minister declared to Mr.
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VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
Paine, “that unless he repented of his unbelief he would b«»
damned.” Paine, although at the door of death, rose in his bed
and indignantly requested the clergyman to leave the room. On
another occasion, two brothers by the name ofc Pigott sought to
convert him. He was displeased, and requested their departure.
Afterwards, Thomas Nixon and Capt. Daniel Pelton visited him
for the express purpose of ascertaining whether he had, in any
manner, changed his religious opinions. They were assured by
the dying man that he still held the principles he had expressed
in his writings.
Afterwards, these gentlemen, hearing that William Cobbett
was about to write a life of Paine, sent him the following note :
" New York, April 24th, 1818.
“ Sir: Having been informed that you have a design to write
a history of the life and writings of Thomas Paine, if you have
been furnished with materials in respect to his religious opinions,
oi’ rather of his recantation of his former opinions before his
death, all you have heard of his recanting is false. Being aware
that such reports would be raised after his death by fanatics who
infested his house at the time it was expected he would die, we,
the subscribers, intimate acquaintances of Thomas Paine since the
year 1776, went to his house. He was sitting up in a chair, and
■apparently in full vigor and use of all his mental faculties. We
interrogated him upon his religious opinions, and if he had
changed his mind, or repente'd of anything he had said or wrote
on that subject. He answered, “ Not at all,” and appeared rather
offended at our supposition that any change should take place in
his mind. We took down in writing the questions put to him,
and his answers thereto, before a number of persons then in his
room, among whom were his doctor, Mrs. Bonneville, etc. This
paper is mislaid and cannot be found at present, but the above is
the substance, which can be attested by many living witnesses.
“ THOMAS NIXON,
“ DANIEL PELTON.”
Mr. Jarvis, the artist, saw Mr. Paine one or two days before his
death. To Mr. Jarvis he expressed his belief in his written
opinions upon the subject of religion. B. F. Haskin, an attorney
of the city of New York, also visited him, and inquired as to his
religious opinions. Paine was then upon the threshold of death
but he did not tremble. He was not a coward. He expressed
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
9
his firm and unshaken belief in the religious ideas he had given
to the world.
Dr. Manley was with him when he spoke his last words. Dr.
Manley asked the dying man if he did not wish to believe that
Jesus was the Son of God, and the dying philosopher answered:
“ I have no wish to believe on that subject.” Amasa Woodsworth
sat up with Thomas Paine the night before his death. In 1839
Gilbert Vale, hearing that Mr. Woodsworth was living in or near
Boston, visited him for the purpose of getting his statement.
The statement was published in the Beacon of June 5, 1839,
while thousands who had been acquainted with Mr. Paine were
living.
The following is the article referred to :
“We have just returned from Boston. One object of our visit
to that city was to see a Mr. Amasa Woodsworth, an engineer,
now retired in a handsome cottage and garden at East Cambridge,
Boston. This gentleman owned the house occupied by Paine at
his death—while he lived next door. As an act of kindness, Mr.
Woodworth visited Mr. Paine every day lor six weeks before his
death. He frequently sat up with him, and did so on the last
two nights of his life. He was always there with Dr. Manley,
the physician, and assisted in removing Mr. Paine while his bed
was prepared. He was present when Dr. Manley asked Mr.
Paine ‘if he wished to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of
God.’ He says that lying on his back he used some action, and,
with much emphasis, replied : ‘ I have no wish to believe on that
subject.’ He lived some time after this, but was nGt known to
speak, for he died tranquilly. He accounts for the insinuating
style of Dr. Manley’s letter, by stating that that gentleman, just
after its publication, joined a church. • He informs us that he has
openly reproved the doctor for the falsity contained in the spirit
of that letter, boldly declaring before Dr. Manley, who is yet liv
ing, that nothing which he saw justified the insinuations. Mr.
Woodsworth assures us that he neither heard nor saw anything
to justify the belief of any mental change in the opinions of Mr.
Paine previous to his death ; but that being very ill and in pain,
chiefly arising from the skin being removed in some parts by long
lying, he was generally too uneasy to enjoy conversation on
abstract subjects. This, then, is the best evidence that can be
procured on this subject, and we publish it while the contravening
parties are yet alive, and with the authority of Mr. Woodsworth.
“ GILBERT VALE.”
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VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
A few weeks ago I received the following letter, which con
firms the statement of Mr. Vale:
“ Near Stockton, Cal., Greenwood Cottage, July 9, 1877.
“Col. Ingersoll: In 1842 I talked with a gentleman in
Boston. I have forgotten his name ; but he was then an engin
eer of the Charlestown navy yard. I am thus particular, so that
you can find his name on the books. He told me that he nursed
Thomas Paine in his last illness, and closed his eyes when dead.
I asked him if he recanted and called upon God to save him. He
replied : “ No ; he died as he had taught. He had a sore upon
his side, and when we turned him it was very painful, and he
would cry out, ‘ 0 God,’ or something like that.” “ But,” said
the narrator, “ That was nothing, for he believed in a God.” I
told him that I had often heard it asserted from the pulpit that
Mr. Paine had recanted in his last moments. The gentleman said
that it was not true, and he appeared to be an intelligent, truth
ful man.
With respect I remain, &c.,
“ PHILIP GRAVES, M. D.”
The next witness is Willet Hicks, a Quaker preacher. He says
that during the last illness of Mr. Paine he visited him almost
daily, and that Paine died firmly convinced of the truth of the
religious opinions he had given to his fellow men. It was to this
same Willet Hicks that Paine applied for permission to be buried
in the cemetery of the Quakers. Permission was refused. This
refusal settles the question of recantation. If he had recanted,
of course there could have been no objection to his body being
buried by the side of the best hypocrites in the earth. If Paine
recanted, why should he be denied “ a little earth for charity ? ”
Had he recanted, it would h£ve been regarded as a vast and
splendid triumph for the Gospel. It would, with much noise
and pomp and ostentation, have been heralded about the world.
I received the following letter to-day. The writer is well known
in this city, and is a man of high character:
Peoria, III., October 8th, 1877.
Robert G. Ingersoll—Esteemed Friend : My parents were
Friends (Quakers). My father died when I was very youno-.
The elderly and middle-aged Friends visited at my mothers
house. We lived in the city of New York. Among the number,
I distinctly remember Elias Hicks, Willet Hicks, and a Mr.___ -
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
11
Day, who was a book-seller in Pearl street. There were many
others, whose names I do not now remember. The subject of the
recantation of Thomas Paine of his views about the bible in his
last illness, or at any other time, was discussed by them, in my
presence, at different times. I learned from them that some of
them had attended upon Thomas Paine in his last sickness, and
ministered to his wants up to the time of his death. And upon
the question of whether he did recant there was but one expres
sion. They all said that he did not recant in any manner. I
often heard them say that they wished he had recanted. In fact,
according to them, the nearer he approached death the more posi
tive he appeared to be in his convictions.
These conversations were from 1820 to 1822. I was at that
time from ten to twelve years old, but these conversations im
pressed themselves upon me because many thoughtless people
then blamed the Society of Friends for their kindness to that
“ arch-infidel,” Thomas Paine.
Truly yours,
“A. C. HANKINSON.”
A few days ago I received the following:
“ Albany, New York, September 27th, 1877.
“ Dear Sir : It is over twenty years ago that, professionally,
I made the acquaintance of John Hogeboom, a justice of the
peace of the County of Rensselaer, New York. He was then
over seventy years of age, and had the reputation of being a man
of candor and integrity. He was a great admirer of Paine. He
told me he was personally acquainted with him, and used to see
him frequently during the last years of his life in the city of New
York, where Hogeboom then resided. I asked him if there was
any truth in the charge that Paine was in the habit of getting
drunk. He said that it was utterly false ; that he never heard
of such a thing during the life time of Mr. Paine, and did hot
believe any one else did. I asked him about the recantation of
his religious opinions on his death-bed, and the revolting death
bed scenes that the world had heard so much about. He said
there was no truth in them ; that he had received his information
from persons who attended Paine in his last illness, “ and that
he passed peacefully away, as we may say, in the sunshine of a
great soul.” * * *
Yours truly,
“W. J. HILTON.”
The witnesses by whom I substantiate the fact that Thomas
Paine did not recant, and that he died holding the religious opin
ions he had published, are
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VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
First.—Thomas Nixon, Captain Daniel Pelton, B. F. Haskin.
These gentlemen visited him during his last illness for the pur
pose of ascertaining whether he had, in any respect, changed his
views upon religion. He told them that he had not.
Second.—Jas. Cheetham. This man was the most malicious
enemy Mr. Paine had, and yet he admits that “ Thomas Paine
died placidly, and almost without a struggle.”—Life of Thomas
Paine, by James Cheetham.
Third.—The ministers, Milledollar and Cunningham. These
gentlemen told Mr. Paine that if he died without believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ, he would be damned, and Paine replied: “ Let
me have none of your popish stuff. Good morning.”—Sherwin’s
Life of Paine, page 220.
Fourth.—Mrs. Hedden. She told these same preachers, when
they attempted to obtrude themselves upon Mr. Paine again, that
the attempt to convert Mr. Paine was useless; “ that if God did
not change his mind, no human power could.”
Fifth.—Andrew A. Dean. This man lived upon Paine’s farm,
at New Rochelle, and corresponded with him upon religious sub
jects.—Paine’s Theological Works, page 308.
Sixth.—Mr. Jarvis, the artist with whom Paine lived. He gives
an account of an old lady coming to Paine, and telling him that
God Almighty had sent her to tell him that unless he repented
and believed in the blessed Saviour he would be damned. Paine
replied that God would not send such a foolish old woman with
such an impertinent message.—Clio Rickman’s Life of Paine.
Seventh.—William Carver, with whom Paine boarded. Mr.
Carver said again and again that Paine did not recant. He knew
him well, and had every opportunity of knowing.—Life of Paine
by Vale.
Eighth. Dr. Manley, who attended him in his last sickness,
and to whom Paine spoke his last words. Dr. Manley asked him
if he did not wish to believe in Jesus Christ, and he replied : “ I
have no wish to believe on that subject.”
Ninth.—Willet Hicks and Elias Hicks, who were with him
frequently during his last sickness, and both of whom tried to
persuade him to recant. According to their testimony Mr. Paine
died as he lived—a believer in God and a friend of man. Willet
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
13
Hicks was offered money to say something false against Paine.
He was even offered money to remain silent, and allow others to
slander the dead. Mr. Hicks, speaking of Thomas Paine, said :
“ He was a good man—an honest man.”—Vale’s Life of Paine.
Tenth.—Amasa Woodsworth, who was with him every day for
some six weeks immediately preceding his death, and sat up with
him the last two nights of his life. This man declares that Paine
did not recant, and that he died tranquilly. The evidence of Mr.
Woodsworth is conclusive.
Eleventh.—Thomas Paine himself. The will of Mr. Paine,
written by himself, commences as follows: “ The last will and
testament of me the subscriber, Thomas Paine, reposing confi
dence in my creator, God, and in no other being, for I know of
no other, nor believe in any other and closes with these words :
I have lived an honest and useful life to mankind ; my time
has been spent in doing good; and I die in perfect composure
and resignation to the will of my creator, God.”
Twelfth.—If Thomas Paine recanted why do you pursue him ?
If he recanted he died substantially in your belief; for what
reason, then, do you denounce his death as cowardly ? If, upon
his death-bed, he renounced the opinions he had published, the
business of defaming him should be done by infidels, not by
Christians. w
I ask you if it is honest to throw away the testimony of his
friends—the evidence of fair and honorable men—and take the
putrid words of avowed and malignant enemies ?
When Thomas Paine was dying, he was infested by fanatics—
by the snaky spies of bigotry. In the shadows of death were
the unclean birds of prey waiting to tear, with beak and claw,
the corpse of him who wrote the “ Rights of Manand there,
lurking and crouching in the darkness, were the jackals and
hyenas of superstition ready to violate his grave.
These birds of prey—these unclean beasts—are the witnesses
produced and relied upon by you.
One by one the instruments of torture have been wrenched
from the cruel clutch of the church, until within the armory of
orthodoxy there remains but one weapon—Slander.
Against the witnesses that I have produced you can bring just
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VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
two—Mary Roscoe and Mary Hinsdale. The first is referred to
in the memoir of Stephen Grellet. She had once been a servant
in his house. Grellet tells what happened between this girl and
Paine. According to this account, Paine asked her if she had
ever read any of his writings, and on being told that she had
read very little of them, he inquired what she thought of them,
adding that from such an one as she he expected a correct answer.
Let us examine this falsehood. Why would Paine expect a
correct answer about his writings from one who had read very
little of them ? Does not such a statement devour itself ? This
young lady further said that the “ Age of Reason” was put in
her hands, and that the more she read in it, the more dark and
distressed she felt, and that she threw the book into the fire.
Whereupon Mr. Paine remarked: “ I wish all had done as you
did, for if the devil ever had any agency in any work, he had it
in my writing that book.”
The next is Mary Hinsdale. She was a servant in the family
of Willet Hicks. She, like Mary Roscoe, was sent to carry some
delicacy to Mr. Paine. To this young lady Paine, according to
her account, said precisely the same that he did to Mary Roscoe,
and she said the same thing to Mr. Paine.
My own opinion is that Mary Roscoe and Mary Hinsdale are
one and the same person, or the same story has been, by mistake,
put in the mouths of both.
It is not possible that the identical conversation should have
taken place between Paine and Mary Roscoe, and between him
and Mary Hinsdale.
Mary Hinsdale lived with Willet Hicks, and he pronounced
her story a pious fraud and fabrication. He said that Thomas
Paine never said any such thing to Mary Hinsdale.—Vale’s Life
of Paine.
Another thing about this witness. A woman by the name of
Mary Lockwood, a Hicksite Quaker, died. Mary Hinsdale met
her brother about that time and told him that his sister had
recanted, and wanted her to say so at her funeral. This turned
out to be false.
It has been claimed that Mary Hinsdale made her statement to
Charles Collins. Long after the alleged occurrence Gilbert Vale,
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
15
one of the biographers of Paine, had a conversation with Collins
concerning Mary Hinsdale. Vale asked him what he thought of
her. He replied that some of the Friends believed that she used
opiates, and that they did not give credit to her statements. He
also said that he believed what the Friends said, but thought
that when a young woman, she might have told the truth.
In 1818 William Cobbett came to New York. He began col
lecting materials for a life of Thomas Paine. In this’ way he
became acquainted with Mary Hinsdale and Charles Collins. Mr.
Cobbett gave a full account of what happened in a letter addressed
to the Norwich Mercury in 1819. From this account it seems
that Charles Collins told Cobbett that Paine had recanted.
Cobbett called for the testimony, and told Mr. Collins that he
must give time, place and circumstances. He finally brought a
statement that he stated had been made by Mary Hinsdale.
Armed with this document, Cobbett, in October of that year,
called upon the said Mary Hinsdale, at No. 10 Anthony street,
New York, and showed her the statement. Upon being ques
tioned by Mr. Cobbett, she said, “ that it was so long ago that
she could not speak positively to any part of the matter—that
she would not say that any part of the paper was true—that she
had never seen the paper—and that she had never given Charles
Collins authority to say anything about the matter in her name.”
And so in the month of October, in the year of grace, 1818, in
the mist and fog of forgetfulness, disappeared forever one Mary
Hinsdale, the last and only witness against the intellectual hon
esty of Thomas Paine.
Did Thomas Paine Die in Destitution and Want ?
The charge has been made, over and over again, that Thomas
Paine died in want and destitution; that he was an abandoned
pauper—an outcast, without friends and without money. This
charge is just as false as the rest.
Upon his return to this country, in 1802, he was worth $30,000
according to his own statement, made at that time, in the follow
ing letter, addressed to Clio Rickman:
My Dear Friend: Mr. Monroe who is appointed minister
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VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
extraordinary to France, takes charge of this, to be delivered to
Mr. Este, banker, in Paris, to be forwarded to you.
I arrived in Baltimore, 30th of October, and you can have no
idea of the agitation which my arrival occasioned. From New
Hampshire to Georgia (an extent of 1,500 miles), every news
paper was filled with applause or abuse.
My property in this country has been taken care of by my
friends, and is now worth six thousand pounds sterling, which,
put in the funds, will bring me £400 sterling a year.
Remember me, in affection and friendship, to vour wife and
family, and in the circle of your friends.
THOMAS PAINE.
A man, in those days, worth thirty thousand dollars was not a
pauper. That amount would bring an income of at least two
thousand dollars per annum. Two thousand dollars then, would
be fully equal to five thousand dollars now.
On the 12th of July, 1809, the year in which he died, Mr.
Paine made his will. From this instrument we learn that he was
the-owner of a valuable farm within twenty miles of New York.
He also was the owner of thirty shares in the New York Phoenix
Insurance Company, worth upwards of fifteen hundred dollars.
Besides this, some personal property and ready money. By his
will he eave to Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, brother
of Robert Emmet, two hundred dollars each, and one hundred
dollars to the widow of Elihu Palmer.
Is it possible that this will was made by a pauper—by a desti
tute outcast—by a man who suffered for the ordinary necessaries
of life?
But suppose, for the sake of the argument, that he v^as poor,
and that he died a beggar, does that tend to show that the bible
is an inspired book, and that Calvin did not burn Servetus ? Do
you really regard poverty as a crime ? If Paine had died a mil
lionaire, would you have accepted his religious opinions ? If
Paine had drank nothing but cold water, would you have repu
diated the five cardinal points of Calvinism ? Does an argument
depend for its force upon the pecuniary condition of the person
making it ? As a matter of fact, most reformers—most men and
women of genius—have been acquainted with poverty. Beneath
J
f
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
17
a covering or rags have been found some of the tenderest and
bravest hearts.
Owing to the attitude of the churches for the last fifteen
hundred years, truth-telling has not been a very lucrative busi
ness. As a rule, hypocrisy has worn the robes, and honesty the
rags. That day is passing away. You cannot now answer the
argument of a man by pointing at the holes in his coat. Thomas
Paine attacked the church when it was powerful—when it had
what is called honors to bestow—when it was the keeper of the
public conscience—when it was strong and cruel. The church
waited till he was dead, and then attacked his reputation and
his clothes.
Once upon a time a donkey kicked a lion. The lion was
dead.
Did Thomas Paine Live the Life of a Drunken Beast, and
Did He Die a Drunken, Cowardly and Beastly Death ?
Upon you rests the burden of substantiating these infamous
charges.
You have, I suppose, produced the best evidence in your pos
session, and that evidence I will now proceed to examine. Your
first witness is Grant Thorburn. He macles three charges against
Thomas Paine. 1st. That his wife obtained a divorce from him
in England for cruelty and neglect. 2nd. That he was a defaulter,
and fled from England to America. 3rd. That he was a drunkard.
These three charges stand upon the same evidence—the word of
Grant Thorburn. If they are not all true, Mr. Thorburn stands
impeached.
The charge that Mrs. Paine obtained a divorce on account of
the cruelty and neglect of her husband is utterly false. There is
no such record in the world, and never was. Paine and his wife
separated by mutual consent. Each respected the other. They
remained friends. This charge is without any foundation in fact.
I challenge the Christian world to produce the record of this de
cree of divorce. According to Mr. Thorburn, it was granted in
England. In that country public records are kept of all such
decrees. Have the kindness to produce this decree, showing that
B
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▼INDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
it was given on account of cruelty, or admit that Mr. Thorburn
was mistaken.
Thomas Paine was a just man. Although separated from his
.wife, he always spoke of her with tenderness and respect, and
frequently sent her money without letting her know the source
from whence it came. Was this the conduct of a drunken beast ?
The second charge, that Paine was a defaulter in England and
fled to America, is equally false. He did not flee from England.
He came to America, not as a fugitive, but as a free man. He
came with a letter of introduction, signed by another infidel,
Benjamin Franklin. He came as a soldier of Freedom—an apos
tle of Liberty.
In this second charge there is not one word of truth.
He held a small office in England. If he was a defaulter, the
records of that country will show that fact.
Mr. Thorburn, unless the records can be produced to substan
tiate him, stands convicted of at least two mistakes.
Now as to the third: He says that in 1802 Paine was an
“ old remnant of mortality, drunk, bloated and half asleep.”
Can any one believe this to be a true account of the personal
appearance of Mr. Paine in 1802 ? He had just returned from
France. He had been welcomed home by Thomas Jefferson, who
had said that he was entitled to the hospitality of every American.
In 1802 Mr. Paine was honored with a public dinner in the
city of New York. He was called upon and treated with kind
ness and respect by such men as De Witt Clinton.
In 1806 Mr. Paine wrote a letter to Andrew A. Dean upon the
subject of religion. Read that letter and then say that the writer
of it was an old remnant of mortality, drunk, bloated and half
asleep. Search the files of the New York Observer from the first
issue to the last, and you will find nothing superior to this letter.
In 1803 Mr. Paine wrote a letter of considerable length, and of
great force, to his friend Samuel Adams. Such letters are not
written by drunken beasts, nor by remnants of old mortality, nor
by drunkards. It was about the same time that he wrote his
“ Remarks on Robert Hall’s Sermons.” These “ Remarks” were
not written by a drunken beast, but by a clear-headed and
thoughtful man
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
39
In 1804, he published an essay on the invasion of England, and
a treatise on gun-boats, full of valuable maritime information ; in
1805, a treatise on yellow fever, suggesting modes of prevention.
In short, he was an industrious and thoughtful man. He sympa
thized with the poor and oppressed of all lands. He looked upon
monarchy as a species of physical slavery. He had the goodness
to attack that form of government. He regarded the religion of
his day as a kind of mental slavery. He had the courage to givehis reasons for his opinion. His reasons filled the churches with
hatred. Instead of answering his arguments they attacked him.
Men who were not fit to blacken his shoes blackened his character.
There is too much religious cant in the statement of Mr.
Thorburn. He exhibits too much anxiety to tell what Grant
Thorburn said to Thomas Paine. He names Thomas Jefferson as
one of the disreputable men who welcomed Paine with open
arms. The testimony of a man who regarded Thomas Jefferson
as a disreputable perscn, as to the character of anybody, is utterly
without value.
In my judgment, the testimony of Mr. Thorburn should be
thrown aside as wholly unworthy of belief.
Your next witness is the Rev. J. D. Wickham, D.D., who tells
what an elder in his church said. This elder said that Paine
passed his last days on his farm at New Rochelle, with a solitary
female attendant. This is not true. He did not pass his last
days at New Rochelle; consequently, this pious elder did not see
him during his last days at that place. Upon this elder we prove
an alibi. Mr. Paine passed his last days in the city of New
York, in a house upon Columbia street. The story of the Rev.
J. D. Wickham, D.D., is simply false.
The next competent false witness is the Rev. Charles Hawley,
D.D., who proceeds to state that the story of the Rev. J. D.
Wickham, D.D., is corroborated by older citizins of New Rochelle.
The names of these ancient residents are withheld. According
to these unknown witnesses, the account given by the deceased
elder was entirely correct. But as the particulars of Mr. Paine’s
conduct “ were too loathsome to be described in print,” we are
left entirely in the dark as to what he really did.
While at New Rochelle, Mr. Paine lived with Mr. Purdy, with
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VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
Mr. Dean, with Capt. Pelton, and with Mr. Staple. It is worthy
of note that all of these gentlemen give the lie direct to the state
ments of “ older residents” and ancient citizens spoken of by
the Rev. Charles Hawley, D.D., and leave him with the “ loachsome particulars” existing only in his own mind.
The next gentleman you bring upon the stand is W. H. Ladd,
who quotes from the memoirs of Stephen Grellett. This gentle
man also has the misfortune to be dead. According to his account,
Mr. Paine made his recantation to a servant girl of his by the
name of Mary Roscoe. To this girl, according to the account,
Mr. Paine uttered the wish that all who read his book had
burned it. I believe there is a mistake in the name of this girl.
Her name was probably Mary Hinsdale, as it was once claimed
that Paine made the same remark to her, but this point I shall
notice hereafter.
These are your witnesses, and the only ones you bring forward
to support your charge that Thomas Paine lived a drunken andl
beastly life, and died a drunken, cowardly and beastly death.
All these calumnies are found in a life of Paine by James Cheet
ham, the convicted libeller already referred to. Mr. Cheetham
was an enemy of the man whose life he pretended to write.
In order to show you the estimation in which this libeller was
held by Mr. Paine, I will give you a copy of a letter that throws
light upon this point:
“ October 27th, 1807.
“ Mr. Cheetham : Unless you make a public apology for theabuse and falsehood in your paper of Tuesday, October 27th, res
pecting me, I will prosecute you for lying.
*
*
*
“ THOMAS PAINE.”
In another letter, speaking of this same man, Mr. Paine says ::
“ If an unprincipled bully cannot be reformed, he can be pun
ished.” “ Cheetham has been so long in the habit of giving falseinformation, that truth is to him like a foreign language.”
Mr. Cheetham wrote the life-of Paine to gratify his malice and
to support religion. He was prosecuted for libel—was convicted'
and fined.
Yet the life of Paine, written by this man, is referred to by the;
Christian world as the highest authority.
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
*
21
As to the personal habits of Mr. Paine we have the testimony
of William Carver, with whom he lived ; of Mr. Jarvis, the artist,
with whom he lived; of Mr. Purdy, who was a tenant of Paine’s;
of Mr. Burger, with whom he was intimate ; of Thomas Nixon
and Capt. Daniel Pelton, both of whom knew him well; of Amasa
Woodsworth, who was with him when he died ; of John Fellows,
who boarded at the same house; of James Wilburn, with whom
he hoarded; of B. F. Haskin, a lawyer, who was well acquainted
with him, and called upon him during his last illness; of Walter
Moi ton, President of the Phoenix Insurance Company; of Clio
Rickman, who had known him for many years; of Willet and
Elias Hicks, Quakers, who knew him intimately and well; of
Judge Hertell, H. Margary, Elihu Palmer and many others. All
these testified to the fact that Mr. Paine was a temperate man.
In those days nearly everybody used spirituous liquors. Paine
was not an exception ; but he did not drink to excess. Mr.
Lovett who kept the City Hotel, where Paine stopped, in a note
to Caleb Bingham, declared that Paine drank less than any
boarder he had.
Against all this evidence you produce the story of Grant
Thorburn—the story of the Rev. J. D. Wickham, that an elder in
his church told him that Paine was a drunkard, corroborated by
the Rev. Charles Hawley, and an extract from Lossing’s history
to the same effect. The evidence is overwhelmingly against you.
Will you have the fairness to admit it ? Your witnessess are
merely the repeaters of the falsehoods of James Cheetham, the
convicted libeller.
After all, drinking is not as bad as lying. An honest drunk
ard is better than a calumniator of the dead. “ A remnant of old
mortality, drunk, bloated and half asleep,” is better than a per
fectly sober defender of human slavery.
To become drunk is a virtue compared with stealing a babe
from the breast of its mother.
Drunkenness is one of the beatitudes, compared with editing a
religious paper devoted to the defence of slavery upon the ground
that it is a divine institution.
Do you really think that Paine was a drunken beast when he
wrote “ Common Sense”—a pamphlet that aroused three millions
�22
VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
of people as people were never aroused by words before ? Was
he a drunken beast when he wrote the “ Crisis ? ” Was
it to a drunken beast that the following letter was addressed:
“Rocky Hill, September 10, 1783.
“ I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you are
at Bordentown. Whether for the sake of retirement or economy
I know not. Be it for either, or both, or whatever it may, if
you will come to this place and partake with me, I shall be ex
ceedingly happy to see you at it. Your presence may remind
congress of your past services to this country; and if it is in my
power to impress them, command my best exertions with free
dom, as they will be rendered cheerfully by one who entertains
a lively sense of the importance of your works, and who, with
much pleasure, subscribes himself
“Your sincere friend,
“ GEORGE WASHINGTON.”
Did any of your ancestors ever receive a letter like that ?
Do you think that Paine was a drunken beast when the follow
ing letter was received by him :
“ You express a wish in your letter to return to America in a
national ship. Mr. Dawson, who brings over the treaty, and who
will present you with this letter, is charged with orders to thecaptain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate you back,
if you can be ready to depart at such a short warning. You will,
in general, find us returned to sentiments worthy of former times ;
in these it will be your glory to have steadily labored, and with
as much effect as any man living. That you may live long to
continue your useful labors, and reap the reward in the thankful
ness of nations, is my sincere prayer. Accept the assurances of
my high esteem and affectionate attachment.
“THOMAS JEFFERSON.”
Did any of your ancestors ever receive a letter like that ?
“ It has been very generally propagated through the continent
that I wrote the pamphlet ‘ Common Sense.’ I could not have
written anything in so manly and striking a style.
“ JOHN ADAMS.”
“ A few more such flaming arguments as were exhibited at
Falmouth and Norfolk, added to the sound doctrine and unanswer
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
23
able reasoning contained in the pamphlet ‘Common Sense/ will not
leave numbers at a loss to decide on the propriety of a separation.
“ GEORGE WASHINGTON.”
“ It is not necessary for me to tell you how much all your
countrymen—I speak of the great mass of the people—are inter
ested in your welfare. They have not forgotten the history of
their own revolution, and the difficult scenes through which they
passed; nor do they review its several stages without reviving in
their bosoms a due sensibility of the merits of those who served
them in that great and arduous conflict. The crime of ingrati
tude has not yet stained, and, I trust, never will stain, out national
character. You are considered by them as not only having ren
dered important services in our revolution, but as being on a
more extensive scale the friend of human rights and a distin
guished and able advocate in favor of public liberty. To the
welfare of Thomas Paine, the Americans are not, nor can they be,
indifferent.
JAMES MONROE.”
Did any of your ancestors ever receive a letter like that ?
“ No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of
style, in perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and
in simple and unassuming language.
“ THOMAS JEFFERSON.”
Was ever a letter like that written about an editor of the New
York Observer ?
Was it in consideration of the services of a drunken beast that
the legislature of Pennsylvania presented Thomas Paine with five
hundred pounds sterling ?
Did the State of New York feel indebted to a drunken beast,
and confer upon Thomas Paine an estate of several hundred
acres ?
Did the congress of the United States thank him for his ser
vices because he had lived a drunken and beastly life ?
Was he elected a member of the French convention because he
was a drunken beast ? Was it the act of a drunken beast to put
his own life in jeopardy by voting against the death of the king ?
Was it because he was a drunken beast that he opposed the
“ reign of terror ”—that he endeavored to stop the shedding of
blood, and did all in his power to protect even his own enemies ?
�24
VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
Do the following extracts sound like the words of a drunken
beast:
“ I believe in the equality of man, and I believe that religious
duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to
make our fellow creatures happy.”
“ My own mind is my own chuBch.”
“ It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally
faithful to himself.”
“ Any system of religion that shocks the mind of a child can
not be a true system.”
“ The word of God is the creation which we behold.”
“ The age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system.”
“ It is with a pious fraud as with a bad action—it begets a
calamitous necessity of going on.”
“ To read the bible without horror, we must undo everything
that is tender, sympathizing and benevolent in the heart of
man.”
“ The man does not exist who can say I have persecuted him,
or that I have, in any case, returned evil for evil.”
“ Of all the tyrants that afflict mankind, tyranny in religion is
the worst.”
“ The belief in a cruel god makes a cruel man.”
“ My own opinion is, that those whose lives have been spent in
doing good, and endeavoring to make their fellow-mortals happy,
will be happy hereafter.”
“ The intellectual part of religion is a private affair between
every man and his maker, and in which no third party has any
right to interfere. The practical part consists in our doing good
to each other.”
“No man ought to make a living by religion. One person can
not act religion for another—every person must perform it for
himself.”
“ One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred
priests.”
“ Let us propagate morality, unfettered by superstition.”
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
25
“ God is the power, or first cause, nature is the law, and matter
as the subject acted upon.”
“ I believe in one God and no more, and I hope for happiness
beyond this life.”
“ The key of happiness is not in the keeping of any sect, nor
•ought the road to it to be obstructed by any.”
“ My religion, and the whole of it, is, the fear and love of the
Deity, and universal philanthropy.”
“ I have yet, I believe, some years in store, for I have a good
State of health and a happy mind. I take care of both, by nourish
ing the first with temperance and the latter with abundance.”
“ He lives immured wiMiin the Bastile of a word.”
How perfectly that sentence describes you. The Bastile in
which you are immured is the word “ Calvinism.”
“ Man has no property in man.”
What a splendid motto that would have made for the New
'York Observer in the olden time I
“ The world is my country—to do good, my religion.”
I ask you again, whether these splendid utterances came from
the lips of a drunken beast ?
CONCLUSION.
From the persistence with which the orthodox have charged,
for the last sixty-eight years, that Thomas Paine recanted, and
that when dying he was filled with remorse and fear ; from the
malignity of the attacks upon his personal character, I had
concluded that there must be some evidence of some kind to
support these charges. Even with my ideas of the average honor
■of believers in superstition—the disciples of fear, I did not quite
believe that all these infamies rested solely upon poorly attested
lies. I had charity enough to suppose that something had been
■said or done by Thomas Paine capable of being tortured into a
foundation for these calumnies. And I was foolish enough to
think that even you would be willing to fairly examine the pre
tended evidence, said to sustain these charges, and give your
honest conclusion to the world. I supposed that you, being
�26
VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
acquainted with the history of your country, felt under a certain
obligation to Thomas Paine for the splendid services rendered by
him in the darkest days of the Revolution. It was only reason
able to suppose that you were aware that in the midnight of
Valley Forge, the “ Crisis,” by Thomas Paine, was the first star
that glittered in the wide horizon of despair. I took it for
granted that you knew the bold stand taken, and the brave words
spoken by Thomas Paine in the French convention, against the
death of the king. I thought it probable that you, being an
editor, had read the “ Rights of Man;” that you knew that
Thomas Paine was a champion of human liberty; that he was
one of the founders and fathers of this republic ; that he was one of
the foremost men of his age ; that he had never written a word in
favour of injustice; that he was a despiser of slavery; that he ab
horred tyranny in all its forms; that he was in the widest and
highest sense a friend of his race; that his head was as clear as his
heart was good, and that he had the courage to speak his honest
thoughts. Under these circumstances I had hoped that you
would, for the moment, forget your religious prejudices and sub
mit to the enlightened judgment of the world the evidences you
had, or could obtain, affecting in any way the character of so
great and so generous a man. This you have refused to do. In
my judgment you have mistaken the temper of even your own
readers. A large majority of the religious people of this country
have, to a considerable extent, outgrown the prejudices of their
fathers. They are willing to know the truth, and the whole
truth, about the life and death of Thomas Paine. They will not
thank you for having presented to them the moss-covered, the
maimed and distorted traditions of ignorance, prejudice and
credulity. By this course you will convince them, not of the
wickedness of Paine, but of your own unfairness.
What crime had Thomas Paine committed that he should have •
feared to die ? The only answer you can give us, that he denied
the inspiration of the scriptures. If this is a crime, the civilized
world is filled with criminals. The pioneers of human thought__
the intellectual leaders of the world—the foremost men in every
science—the kings of literature and art—those who stand in the
front rank of investigation—the men who are civilizing, elevat
�VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
.
27"
ing, instructing and refining mankind, are to-day unbelievers inthe dogma of inspiration. Upon this question the intellect of
christendom agrees with the conclusion reached by the genius of
Thomas Paine. Centuries ago a noise was made for the purpose
of frightening mankind. Orthodoxy is the echo of that noise.
The man who now regards the old testament as, in any sense,
a sacred or inspired book, is, in my judgment, an intellectual
and moral deformity. There is in it so much that is cruel,
ignorant and ferocious, that it is to me a matter of amazement
that it was ever thought to be the work of a most merciful Deity.
Upon the question of inspiration, Thomas Paine gave his
honest opinion. Can it be that to give an honest opinion causes
one to die in terror and despair ? Have you, in your writings,
been actuated by the fear of such a consequence ? Why should
it be taken for granted that Thomas Paine, who devoted his life
to the sacred cause of freedom, should have been hissed at in the
hour of death by the snakes of conscience, while editors of
Presbyterian papers, who defended slavery as a divine institu
tion, and cheerfully justified the stealing of babes from the
breasts of mothers, are supposed to have passed smilingly from
earth to the embraces of angels ? Why should you think that
the heroic author of the “ Rights of Man” should shudderingly
dread to leave this “ bank and shoal of time,” while Calvin,
dripping with the blood of Servetus, was anxious to be judged
of God ? Is it possible that the persecutors; the instigators of
the massacre of St. Bartholomew; the inventors and users of
thumb-screws, and iron boots, and racks; the burners and tearers
of human flesh; the stealers, whippers and enslavers of men;.
the buyers and beaters of babes and mothers; the founders of
inquisitions; the makers of chains; the builders of dungeons;
the slanderers of the living and the calumniators of the dead;
all died in the odor of sanctity, with white, forgiven hands
folded upon the breasts of peace, while the destroyers of preju
dice ; the apostles of humanity; the soldiers of liberty; the
breakers of fetters; the creators of light; died surrounded by
the fierce fiends of fear ?
In your attempt to destroy the character of Thomas Paine you
*
have failed, and have succeeded only in leaving a stain upon
*
�28
VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE.
your own. You have written words as cruel, bitter and heart
less as the creed of Calvin. Hereafter you will stand in the
pillory of history as a defamer—a calumniator of the dead. You
will be known as ihs man who said that Thomas Paine, the
“Author Hex j, lived a drunken and beastly life, and died a
drunken, cowardly and beastly death. These infamous words
will be branded upon the forehead of your reputation. They
■will be remembered against you, when all else you may have
suttered shall have passed from the memory of men.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
�*
THOMAS PAINE.
�y.
j
I
III
!'i
I.
J,
•ir
I!
�THOMAS PAINE.
MONCURE D CONWAY.
During the International Exposition at Philadelphia, by which
the hundredth year of American independence was celebrated, a
number of eminent citizens of the United States presented to that
city a bust of Thomas Paine. The offer was promptly declined.
After a century of progress in a republic founded in religious
freedom by freethinkers the odium theologicum was still strong
enough, when the list of revolutionary heroes was unrolled for
national homage, to single out for insult the man who in the year
commemorated was idolised beyond all others, above even Wash
ington himself. A recent writer in the Atlantic Monthly remarks
that “ his (Paine’s) career was wonderful, even for the age of
miraculous events he lived in.” This is literally true, but one
may now add that even the wonders of his career while living
.are eclipsed by those which have attended his name and fame.
It would be impossible to find in the eighteenth century a name
surrounded with brighter halo by tho> of his contemporaries
2
*
whom the world now honors; it would be equally impossible to
find in the nineteenth century a name more covered with obloquy.
Nor is this obloquy found in theological quarters alone. There is
a purely mythological Paine still industriously circulated in
pictorial tracts, which show him recanting his opinions, and dying
“ in fear and agony, frightened by the clanking chains of devils—
in fact, frightened to death by God.” But there is also a conven
tionalised Paine whose actuality is admitted even by scholars,
and who is denied a place of honor among independent minds as
contemptuously as the bust was refused a niche in the Indepen
dence Hall at Philadelphia.
At a time when even such a liberal thinker as Mr. Leslie
Stephen is found contributing his assent to the schivarmerei, of
�32
THOMAS PAINE.
traditions and denunciations gathered around the reputation of
Paine, an attempt to secure a rehearing of his case may meet little
favor. Many of the unorthodox may properly repudiate any
thing looking like an admission that the works or character of
Paine form any part of their case. What matters it if he was a
lax thinker, an ignorant, tipsy vagabond ? Concessum sit. His
writings are of no importance to our questions, his political
opinions and deeds have no relation to present emergencies. But
even conceding this, it may be claimed that the man whom, aboveall others, theological hatred has distinguished by the persistency
of its invective has some title to the consideration of a tolerant
age; and further, that polemical writings which elicited more
volumes in reply from eminent theologians than any others of
their time can hardly be without historical interest, if no other.
However, I am induced to submit the present study not by any
desire to vindicate Paine’s opinions, nor even primarily to vindi
cate Paine himself, but by a conviction that beneath the conven
tionalised and vulgarised notion of this man lies obscured a
remarkable chapter of modern history, and altogether hidden one
the best types of English mind and character.
The pious mythology that has gathered around Paine may be
briefly dismissed. All the moming-stars become rebellious and
diabolical Lucifers to those on whose darkness they bring the
light. The light which Paine brought upon the bald dogmas of
a hundred years ago has so far faded to the light of common day,,
that many who regard his name with abhorrence are nearer tohim in belief than to those with whom their notions of the man
originated. To such his reign of terror is generally explained
by the theory that he must have been a blasphemer, and an
atheist of an especially vulgar type. The late Lord Dalling, in
his essay on Cobbett, speaks of Paine as “ an atheist; ” whereas
his theism was pronounced and almost passionate. The Bishopof Llandaff, in replying to Paine, said, “ There is a philosophical
sublimity in some of your ideas when speaking of the Creator of
the universe.” It seems to have been part of the evidences of
such Christianity as Paine opposed that its assailants should die
in agony and terror. The same imagination that invented the
horrors of Faust’s end is, however, somewhat tempered in the
�33
THOMAS PAINE.
sensational pulpit pictures of the death-beds of Voltaire and
Paine; and all may be favorably contrasted with the realistic
scenes attending the last moments of Bruno and some others
which they succeeded. But in Paine’s case an amusing solecism
is presented in the twofold character of the myth, which equally
insists that he recanted his heresies and was nevertheless carried
*
off by devils. The denunciations which have pursued him have
been directed against a man who is yet declared to have died in
the true faith. In truth, poor Paine did have a hard time of it
in his closing days. No sooner was it known that his end was
near than fanatical preachers and women managed to gain en
trance to his room and tried to convert him. To the ministers
who told him that if he died without believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ he would be damned, Paine replied, “ Let me have
none of your popish stuff. Good morning.” A woman came
saying that God had sent her to tell him that unless he repented
and believed in the blessed Saviour he would be damned. Paine
replied that God would not send a foolish old woman with such
an impertinent message. One after another these obtrusive
zealots were dismissed, and finally, in the words of his relentless
enemy, Cheetham, “ Thomas Paine died placidly, and almost
without a struggle.” In the year of his death, 1809, Paine wrote
his will, at the close of which he says : “ I have lived an honest
and useful life to mankind; my time has been spent in doing
good; and I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will
of my Creator, God.”
In the biography of Cobbett, recently published, there are
*
several allusions to Paine, and the efforts made by Cobbett to
repair the wrong he had done to the good name of Paine are indi
cated, though with less fulness than the facts admit of. While
Paine was in France, amid revolutionary scenes and perils, there
appeared in London The Life of Thomas Paine, the Author of
Rights of Man. By Francis Oldys, A.M., of the University of
Pennsylvania. Printed for John Stockdale, Piccadilly, 1791.
Mr. Edward Smith justly characterises it as “one of the most
horrible collections of abuse which even that venal day pro
* The. Life of William Cobbett. By Edward Smith.
C
(Sampson Low & Co.)
�31
TIIOM.AS PAINE.
duced.” It is now known to have been written by George Chal
mers, who fled from America and became a Government clerk and
pamphleteer in England. Paine probably did not see this libel
until long after it was written. The malice displayed in every
line, and its political animus, rendered a reply unnecessary ; and
the pamphlet was sinking into oblivion when William Cobbett
reprinted it in his Censor. He lamented his mistake, and carried
his desire to make reparation to the extent of bringing Paine’s
bones to England in hope that they might be entombed with
honor. The welcome which Cobbett and Paine’s bones received
may be judged from the fact that the Bolton town-crier was im
prisoned ten weeks for announcing their arrival. And now, sixty
years later, for mere mention of these bones with honor, Cobbett’s
biographer has received a sentence of corresponding severity from
a weekly reviewer, who, to the growing Paine-myth, adds the
unique charge of venality !
There are several good biographies of Paine,—such as those
written by Vale, Sherwin, Rickman, Linton,—yet in an impor
tant public library in London the only books concerning him are
the political libel of George Chalmers and the pious libel of
Cheetham, for which he was convicted in a court of Christians.
Cheetham was a Manchester man who went to New York and
edited a paper. No sooner had the grave closed over Paine than
Cheetham, in the same year, published his accusations. The
worst of these involved the honor of a lady, Madame Bonneville,
who promptly prosecuted the accused for slander; and though
the judge reminded the jury that the defendant’s book was calcu
lated to aid Christianity, they brought in a verdict against him
with damages. It is important, however, to state that the most
eminent Christian writers in America were not deceived by these
libels. Thus, the Rev. Solomon Southwick, editor of the Chris
tian Visitor when Cheetham’s book appeared, wrote: “ Had
Thomas Paine been guilty of any crime, we should be the last to
eulogise his memory. But we cannot find he was ever guilty of
any other crime than that of advancing his opinions freely upon
all subjects connected with public liberty and happiness. . . . .
We may safely affirm that Paine’s conduct in America was that
of a real patriot. In the French Convention he displayed the
�35
THOMAS PAINE.
same pure and disinterested spirit............. His life, it is true, was
written by a ministerial hireling, who strove in vain to blacken
his moral character. The late James Cheetham likewise wrote
his life, and we have no hesitation in saying that we knew per
fectly well at the time the motives of that author for writing and
publishing a work which, we have every reason to believe, is a
libel almost from beginning to end. In fact, Cheetham had be
come tired of this country, and had formed a plan to return to
England and become a ministerial editor in opposition to Cob
bett, and his Life of Paine was written to pave his way back
again. *
Although the authorities of Philadelphia have refused to admit
the bust of Paine to a place in Independence Hall, his portrait is
there, and it is near that of George III. This juxtaposition is
proper enough. To these two men may be fairly ascribed the
'• evolution and its event, of which Independence Hall is the his
toric memorial. It was at a time when those American leaders
from whose statuesque company Paine is rejected, sat in the same
place anxious and dismayed, without any clear idea of whithei
the storm was bearing them and the country, that there appeared
among them that Englishman and his Quaker coat who was the
first to pronounce the word “ Independence.” Not for a long
time after the struggle had begun, did the idea of complete separ
ation from England enter the question. The leaders regarded
themselves as resisting a special wrong; and at any time before
Paine began his appeals the English Ministry might have ended
the difficulty by conceding to the colonies immunity from certain
taxes. There is even reason to believe that submission rather
than separation was beginning to be the question in the minds of
many influential Americans at the close of that dark year, 1774,
when Paine arrived in America. “ Independence was a . doctrine
scarce and rare even towards the conclusion of the year ’75. All
our politicks had been founded on the hope or expectation of mak
ing the matter up; a hope which, though general on the side of
America, had never entered the head or heart of the British
Testimonials, <fcc., compiled by J. N. Moreau.
1861
�3(
THOMAS PAINE.
court. * On the 8th of July, 1775, the American Congress
humbly petitioned the king “ that your royal authority and influ
ence may be graciously interposed to procure us relief from our
afflicting fears and jealousies, and to settle peace through every
part of your dominions; with all humility submitting to your
Majesty’s wise consideration, whether it may not be expedient,
for facilitating these important purposes, that your Majesty be
pleased to direct some mode by which the united applications of
your faithful colonists to the throne, may be improved into a
happy and permanent reconci liation.”j- Mr. Penn, who carried
this petition to England, presented it on the 1st of September in
the same year, and on the 4th was informed by Lord Dartmouth
that “no answer would be given to it;” and, although this
haughty attitude induced the revolutionary leaders to listen more
favorably to Paine’s arguments, even then they persuaded him
to strike out of his first pamphlet on the subject a sentence
which seemed to burn their ships. The sentence erased from
Common Sense was:—“ A greater absurdity cannot be conceived
of than three millions of people running to their sea-coast every
time a ship arrived from London, to know what portion of liberty
they should enjoy.
It is probable that even Franklin, who introduced Paine to the
chiefs of the revolution as a friend he had met in London, knew
little of the moral region from which the man had come, or how
much of England he bore with him. No individual of that time
was more related to the feelings and convictions which stirred
the genuine heart of the English people. He went from those
humble clubs which had no constitutions, and met in public
houses and small rooms, wherein were uttered in the ear many
things that have since been proclaimed from the housetops. One
such circle was that which met at the White Hart in Lewes
every evening. Its central figure was the exciseman, Thomas
Paine (then about thirty years of age), who generally had in his
possession the “Headstrong Book,”—an old volume of Homer
* Crisis No. 3. Paine himself appears to have reached the conclusion that com
plete and final separation was necessary only after the battle at Concord and Lex
ington, April 19, 1775.—Common Sense, p. 28.
+ Journals of Congress.
J Rush’s Letter, July 17, 1809.
�THOMAS PAINE.
37
which was delivered to the wrangler who most obstinately and
successfully defended his position in an evening’s debate. It
would not be a little curious if, as Clio Rickman seems to think,
it was while as yet Paine had no reputation beyond the village,
that one of the White Hart company wrote verses to him such as
the following:
“ Thy logic vanquished 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.”
Paine was not then, indeed, a mere radical in the rough. His
father (a stay-maker) was the son of a respectable Quaker farmer;
his mother the daughter of a lawyer in Thetford, where Paine was
born (1736), and they made sacrifices to secure him the best edu
cation within their reach. He studied well in the Thetford
grammer-school, whose master was the Rev. William Knowles ;
and, at any rate, he appears to have given satisfaction as teacher
of English in an academy in London, where he was employed in
1765. He had also considerable experience of various sides of
life, having served for a time on “ the King of Prussia privateer,”
married, and held the office of exciseman in several places. Paine
possessed some qualities not so common in his countrymen; first
of all, a profoundly religious nature, which at first was manifested
in a tendency to apply scriptural phrases to real things, but ulti
mately expressed itself in those earnest negations which gained
him the name of infidel; secondly, he was morally a man of the
world, entirely without that insularity which is sometimes con
fused with patriotism. Franklin having said, “ Where liberty is,
there is my country,” Paine amended the saying with, “ Where
liberty is not, there is mine.”
Such was the man, and with such antecedents, who emigrated
to America at the moment when the colonists were fighting
against the powers which were even more hated, because more
hopelessly, by poor men like himself in England. The third
Georgian reign, with its corruptions and its unconquerable stupid
ities, could hardly be seen through three thousand miles, as they
were seen by English radicals who read the speeches of Pitt
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THOMAS PAINE.
and the invectives of Junius. Paine was a sort of English
ambassador of this sentiment to which Transatlantic independence
was a dream, while in America it was a dread. In the preface of
that work which literally electrified the American people are these
words, “ The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of
all mankind.”
The work referred to is that entitled Common Sense. It was
published January 1, 1776, and was the first work of Paine’s
which reached the entire nation. The circulation speedily ran to
a hundred thousand. Concerning the effect it produced there can
be no question. Upon this point his admirers and enemies agree.
Rush, who refused to renew acquaintance with him because of his
infidelity, at the same time (1809) wrote, “ Common Sense burst
from the press with an effect which has rarely been produced by
types and paper in any age or country.” Washington writes to
General Reed, March, 1776, “By private letters which I have
lately received from Virginia, I find that Common Sense is work
ing a powerful change in the minds of many men.” And again,
“ A few more such flaming arguments as were exhibited at Fal
mouth 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 on the propriety of a separation.”
General Lee writes to Washington, “ Have you seen the pamph
let Common Sense 1 I never saw such a masterly irresistible
performance. It will, if 1 mistake not, in concurrence with the
trancendent folly and wickedness of the Ministry, give the coup
de grdce to Great Britain. In short, I own myself convinced by
the arguments of the necessity of separation.” But there is no
need to accumulate such quotations. John Adams (who detested
Paine), Jefferson, Franklin, the contemporary historians Gordon
and Ramsay, and all cognisant of the facts, even including Cheet
ham, unite in the testimony that this first appeal for American
independence did more than anything else to unite the colonies
around that aim, and render any subsequent compromise impos
sible. Among the many examples of its effect one may be men
tioned. By request of General Scott, a leading member of the
New York Assembly, who was alarmed at the still semi-treason
able position of Paine, a number of distinguished members of that
�THOMAS PAINE.
39
body met to read the pamphlet and prepare an answer. They
met several evenings. When the readings were ended they unani
mously concluded to attempt no answer.
That Thomas Paine was a charlatan, and his writings shams,
is now so often assumed, that perhaps one may, without arro
gance, express concurrence with the estimate of the American
statesmen and generals. If an essay is to be judged, like an
organism in nature, by its degree of adequacy to its own ends,
Paine’s Common Sense may be numbered among the few perfect
works ; and those who regard the detachment of the English
colonies in America, and their constitution as a republic, in the
light of a necessary world-event, may further regard as a great
work the pamphlet so-adapted to a great purpose. To that pur
pose, if it were to succeed, it was necessary to unite thirteen
colonies, representing several centres of various history, interest,
relio-ion, and even, to some extent, of race. The people of New
England, severely trained in the religion of obedience to rulers,
and rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; the Dutch
population of New York, so slow to arouse; the Quakers of
Pennsylvania, with their already loud testimonies against armed
resistance; the old English families of Maryland, Virginia, and
elsewhere, whose pride as well as sentiment clung to “ the mother
country,” as so many in Canada now do ; all these must be com
bined and concentrated upon an aim which, if it should fail,
would be treason,—if it should succeed, would but launch them
upon an unknown sea, whose farther shore was haunted by dan
gers more formidable than their pilgrim fathers had encountered.
Paine begins by penetrating the superstition about Government.
It is the expedient of men living in society to defend themselves
against the wickedness of exceptional persons. They prudently
surrender part of their property to protect the rest. “ Society in
every state is a blessing, but Government in its best state is but
a necessary evil ; in its worst state an intolerable one , for when
we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a Government,
which we might expect in a country without a Government, our
calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means
by which we suffer.” There follows an illustration likely to tell
upon the colonial mind—a small number of people in some
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THOMAS PAINE.
sequestrated region; their co-operation under common difficulty s,
their decrease of reciprocal attachment when prosperity did away
with dangers which had bound them in a common cause; the
appearance of vice, followed by the need of regulations. “ Some
convenient tree will afford them a state-house, under the branches
of which the whole colony may assemble to deliberate on public
matters. ... In this first Parliament every man by natural
right will have a seat.” But with increase of the colony general
convenience will require the selection of a few from the whole
body. This is all very simple, and says Paine, “ the more simple
anything is, the less liable is it to be disordered, and the easier
repaired when disordered.” With which maxim in view he
reaches, on the fourth page, the Constitution of England. “ Abso
lute Governments (through the disgrace of human nature) have
this advantage with them, that they are simple; if the people
suffer they know the head from which their sufferings springs,
know likewise the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety
of causes and cures. But the Constitution of England is so ex
ceedingly complex that the nation may suffer for years together,
without being able to discover in which part the fault lies; some
will say in one and some in another, and every political physician
will advise a different medicine.”
The English Constitution, he says, is compounded of—1. The
remains of Monarchical Tyranny in the person oi the King; 2.
The remains of Aristocratical Tyranny in the persons of the
Peers; 3. The new Republican Materials in the persons of the
Commons, on whose virtue depends the freedom of England.
“ To say that the Constitution of England is a union of three
powers, reciprocally checking each other, is farcical.” How came
the King by a power which the People are afraid to trust and
always obliged to check ? This question, which it is always so
easy for a peaceful and prosperous people to answer, was put by
Paine to a nation who knew none of those practical advantages
of monarchy which are its only real arguments. A power, he
says, that needs checking, cannot be from God, nor could it be the
gift of a wise people. Nor, he adds, is the check adequate, while
the King is giver of places and pensions. “ Though we have been
wise enough to shut and lock a door against absolute Monarchy,
�THOMAS PAINE.
41
• we at the same time have been foolish enough to put the Crown
in possession of the key.” General principles like these are fol
lowed by a scriptural argument. It is presented with entire
sincerity—for the Age of Reason is yet fifteen years away—and
makes such use of the divine reproofs of the Israelites for wishing
a king as could not have been answered by any pulpit in the
land at that day.
Samuel’s diatribe (I. viii. 10) plentifully interlarded with
applications, ending with “Ye shall cry out in that day because
of your King which ye shall have chosen, and the Lord will not
hear you in that day,” passed from the pen of Paine to the
pulpits as the voice of prophecy. With equal force did the
author touch every variety of sentiment. Did the Quakers long
for peace ? Kings and civil wars go together. “ Thirty kings
and two minors have reigned in that distracted kingdom (Eng
land) since the Conquest, in which time there have been (includ
ing the Revolution) no less than eight civil wars and nineteen
rebellions.” Did the old gentleman talk tenderly of the old
home and mother country ? There lay the dead of Concord and
Lexington, there was the cold, unnatural disdain of every petition J
“ wherefore since nothing but blows will do, for God’s sake let
us come to a final separation, and not leave the next generation
to the cutting of throats under the violated unmeaning names of
parent and child.” Were some faint-hearted ? He reminded
them how many allies they might expect as an independent
country; how America was without an enemy in the world
except as being a part of Great Britain. He awakened the poor
by tracing poverty to dependence, and pointing out the vast
resources of the country which, could America trade directly
with foreign nations, would make them the richest of nations.
He also enlisted the pride of the non-English settlers by his
sentence—" Europe, and not England, is the parent country of
America.” Nay, even the Reconciliationists he convinced by his
argument to show the perils of their plan, even were it possible
—an argument which the King was rendering final by his speech
on the same day that Paine’s pamphlet was published. In addi
tion to this there was a remarkably clear outline of a colonial
republic such as might be formed, and a demonstration of the
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THOMAS PAINE.
presence of both the men and means to conduct the same. “ No •
writer,” wrote Jefferson, “ has exceeded Paine in ease and famili
arity of style, in perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucida
tion, and in simple and unassuming language.” This is eminently
true of Common Sense, which is almost as free from suggestion
of the writer’s personality as the Declaration of Independence.
The man is utterly merged in the cause he has espoused, and
the result is a style never arrogant, yet strangely authentic. Its
wonderful effect was much enhanced by their knowledge that its
author had devoted the copyright to the colonies.
The year which gave the Colonies the Declaration of Inde
pendence on paper, brought them mainly reverses on the field.
Things went from bad to worse, until, late in the winter, Wash
ington wrote to a Congress which had fled for safety, “ Ten days
more will put an end to this army.” At that time Paine was
serving under Washington as a common soldier, and every night,
while others tried to snatch a little repose, he was writing his
next great production, that number of The Crisis whose vast
effect has made it historic. It was a little piece, afterwards
printed in eight pages, written by the light of camp-fires during
Washington’s retreat through the Jerseys with only 2,600 men,
his best arms in the hands of the enemy. The last sentence was
written on the 23rd of December (1776), and Washington sum
moned together his dismayed and shivering soldiers to hear it
read. It opened with these words
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 thanks of man and woman.”
On the Christmas night after this was read to the remnant of
his army, Washington recrossed the Delaware, and on the follow
ing day encountered the British forces at Trenton. It was the
first victory of the Americans. The soldiers rushed into battle
with the cry, “ These are the times that try men’s souls,” and the
nation ascribed their triumph to the pen of Paine. He speedily
became the most popular man in America. Public expressions
of gratitute poured in upon him from Congress and the State
legislatures, with testimonials in money—it being found that he
had impoverished himself by giving his copyright to the national
�THOMAS PAINE.
43
cause—and the University of Pennsylvania awarded him the
degree of A. M. The United States Congress elected him
Secretary of its most important Committee, that of Foreign
Affairs. And though he presently lost this by his “ imprudence”*
in attacking a fraudulent claim urged against the nation by one
Silas Deane, who was backed by an American clique and the
French Government, the State of Pennsylvania made him Clerk
of its Legislature. While serving in this capacity, it became
Paine’s duty on one occasion (1780) to read to the Legislature a
letter from Washington describing the deplorable situation
caused by the capture of Charleston by the British. “ A despair
ing silence pervaded the House” when this letter had been read,
for the treasury was empty. Paine at once drew his salary, and,
proposing a subscription, headed it with five hundred dollars.
*
He was the poorest man present, and the others at once came
forward with their contributions which, taken up by Congress,
surmounted the emergency.
Paine had for some years indulged the hope of influencing affairs
in England. “ I was strongly impressed with the idea that if I
could get over to England without being known, and only remain
in safety till I could get out a publication, I could open the eyes
of the country with respect to the madness and stupidity of the
government.” Full of this hope he went to Paris in 1787, bear
ing with him letters of introduction to eminent men there, and,
after a brief sojourn, the same year crossed to England, and
hastened to Thetford. His father was dead; he settled on his
mother a weekly allowance of nine shillings. At this time he
appears to have been mainly occupied with an iron bridge which
he had invented, a model of which had been exhibited to the
Academy of Sciences in Paris and received its approbation. The
bridge was cast and erected at Rotherham, Yorkshire, in 1790.
* Journals of Congress, Jan. 7-16, 1779. A similar disregard of his own inter
ests was shown by Paine in a pamphlet written by him against certain cherished
territorial claims of Virginia, at a time when a bill was pending in the Legislature
of that State to offer him a sum of money. As he was forewarned, his pamphlet
defeated the bill. (Letter of Lee to Washington, 23rd July, 1784.) In the
Deane affair, Congress showed its appreciation of the patriotic character of
Paine’s “imprudence” by voting him three thousand dollars.
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THOMAS PAINE.
At the close of the same year Paine was engaged writing, at the
Angel, Islington, his Rights of Man. Part I. appeared in 1791,
Part II. in 1792. And now Paine’s collaborateurs, so far as his
literary success was concerned—the Ministry—came to his
aid again. The work reached a circulation of nearly forty
thousand, on its merits as an answer to Burke. Ferocious de
nunciations of it, culminating in a prosecution and outlawry of
the author, secured for it a reading hardly less than that which
Common Sense had enjoyed in America. “Paine’s Rights of
Man,” says Hazlitt, “was the only really powerful reply [to
Burke’s Reflections']; and, indeed, so powerful and explicit that
the government undertook to crush it by an ex-officio information, and by a declaration of war against France, to still the
ferment and excite an oduim against its admirers, as taking part
with a foreign enemy against their princ.e and country.”
Paine had a sixpenny edition of the work printed, from which
the profit on each copy was twopence; nevertheless it speedily
earned £1,000, which Paine, though still poor, gave to the Society
of Constitutional Information, in London, to be distributed as
they should see best. This society circulated vast numbers of
Paine’s works, and among other things 12,000 copies of his Letter
to Mr. Secretary Dundas, one of the most effective things Paine
ever wrote. Dundas (May 25, 1792) had opened the debate in
the House of Commons on the proclamation against “ wicked and
seditious publications,” and had especially directed the epithets
against the Rights of Man. This gave Paine an opportunity
which he was not likely to disregard, and his reply took the form
of a contrast between the then uncomfortable state of financial
and other affairs in England, and the prosperity which was
already springing up in America.
Legal proceedings were instituted against Paine for his book,
May 21, and he resolved to defend himself in person at the trial,
which was appointed for the following December. This deter
mination was changed by a deputation which came from France
to inform him of his election by the department of Calais to
represent them in the National Convention. The government
did not detain him, probably were glad to be rid of him; at any
rate, in the state of public feeling at the time, an arrest of an
�THOMAS PAINE.
45
American citizen and member of the French Convention might
have been attended with serious complications.
While Paine was the theme of a new national anthem with
one party, and was being burnt in effigy by another in his native
land, he passed to Calais to be welcomed as a hero, and thence
made a sort of triumphal journey to France. But he had left
behind him the times that tried men’s souls. During the whole
of the year 1793 the Government was mainly employed in trying
to trample out the works of Paine. Taking the last six months of
that year, we find in the Cambridge Independent, the only paper
audacious enough even to print full reports of the proceedings,
paragraphs which reveal the extent of the crusade. The religi
ous heresies of Paine had not yet been printed in England, and
the work mainly prosecuted was The Rights of Man. On July
18 Mr. Cook, a baker at Cambridge, was sentenced to three
months’ imprisonment for having, three years and a half previ
ously, said that “ he wished all the churches were pulled down
to mend the roads with; and as to the King’s Chapel, he should
like to see it turned into a stable.” In the ardour of ferreting
out Paine’s works, this ancient offence, like many others, was
brought to light and punished. At Nottingham, Daniel Holt, for
selling a volume by Paine, was sentenced to £50 fine, two years’
imprisonment, with two sureties for good behavior afterwards.
The Messrs. Robinson, publishers, were fined £200 for selling a
copy, though the firm had published “ A Protest against Mr.
Paine’s Works.’’ A boy named Sutton, at Ashfield, was fined
£20, with a year’s imprisonment, for “ avowing himself a Painite.” George Eden, for the same offence, was fined one shilling
and imprisoned six months. Peart and Belcher, at Warwick,
Phillips, at Leicester, and many other booksellers, were fined and
imprisoned ; among these being Mr. Spence, “ in Little Turnstile,
Holborn,” which cannot be far from where Mr. Truelove has so
long freely sold the works of Paine, and others much more radi
cal, beside the little table on which Paine wrote The Rights of
Man. In the few cases where gentlemen, were found distribut
ing the books the penalties were very severe. Thus Mr. Fische
Palmer was sentenced at Perth to seven years’ transportation for
assisting the publication and circulation of Paine’s works, in the
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THOMAS PAINE.
interest of parliamentary reforms to which he had been for
many years devoted. Mr. Thomas Muir, of Huntershill, for
having advised persons to read “ the works of that wretched
outcast Paine” (to quote the Lord Advocate’s words), was actually
sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation. The sentence was
received amid hisses from the gallery. The tipstaff being ordered
by the Lord Justice Clerk to take those who hissed into custody,
replied, “ My lord, they’re all hissing.” There were, indeed, large
numbers of people who viewed these proceedings with indigna
tion, but something like an apparent suppression was at length
reached. The famous town-crier of Bolton who reported to his
masters that he had been round that place, “ and found neither
the Rights of Man nor Common Sense in it,” made a statement
characteristic of the time. Yet at that time there were in the
country more than a hundred thousand volumes of Paine in
circulation among the people. They were read in secret, and the
race of old Radicals has hardly run out which remembers reading
the books on Sundays in fields—in groups, whose numbers
alternately read, listened, and went off to keep a look-out for
the police.
For a little time after his arrival in Paris, Paine enjoyed what
to the majority of the republicans in his time would have been
all that the heart of man could desire. It was a year of sun
shine, but Paine never outgrew his Quakerism, and hated all the
fuss and pomp with which the Parisians insisted on lionising
“ the author hero of the Revolution.” Possibly he might have
adapted himself to such things better had he been able to speak
the French language; but as he did not, he was probably em
barrassed by the attentions he received. Madame Roland has
expressed, in her Appeal, the regret she felt at being unable to
converse with Paine ; but she listened carefully to his discourse
with others, and being able to understand English, she was im
pressed by “ the boldness of his conceptions, the originality of
his style, the striking truths he throws out bravely among those
whom they offend.” Paine was described by Aaron Burr, hypercrititical in such matters, as a gentleman ; and the sense in which
he was so may be understood from a passage in one of Lord
Edward Fitzgerald’s letters from Paris to his mother,—“ I lodge
�THOMAS PAINE.
47
with my friend Paine ; we breakfast, dine, and sup together. The
more I see of his interior the more I like and respect him. I
cannot express how kind he has been to me. There is a simpli
city of manner, a goodness of heart, and a strength of mind in
him that I never knew a man before to possess.” Paine was,
however, deficient in the dexterities of general society; he could
not comprehend the pride that infuses what is called loyalty, nor
such transmitted instincts as those which make the moral accent
of words like infidel and miscreant. That was good arable
soil to him which to some around him was burning lava,—foi
*
instance to that young aristocrat, Captain Grimstone, who once
leaped from the table at a dinner-party and struck him on the
head, calling him an incendiary and traitor to his country. The
old man of sixty only resented this by saving the young man’s
life—it being punishable with death to strike a deputy—and pro
viding him with money to leave the country.
This was not the only instance of Paine’s personal kindness
to members of the high English circle, whose ordinary toast in
those days was “ Damnation to Thomas Paine !” He gave £200
to General O’Hara, who was his fellow-prisoner. These incidents,
however, made little impressions in his favor, and it was, per
haps, the only glad tidings which had reached the ruling class in
England from Paris for many a day when it was announced by
the London journals that Paine had been guillotined. The fact
that Paine must have suffered under sentence of revolutionists
for mercy to a fallen monarch seemed only to sweeten their
revenge.
Coming as the rumor of his death did along with the terrible
Age of Reason, it was easily shown to be a divine judgment.
But, in fact, it was Paine who could felicitate himself on provi
dential intervention. The facts are sufficiently striking. Neither
soldiering under Washington, agitating revolutions, nor lionising
at republican courts, had destroyed the Quaker of Thetford;
and when it was proposed to execute the King, it was he who rose
up in the French Convention and testified against capital punish
ment, begging them to kill the King, but spare the man. He
pleaded that Louis Capet should be banished to America—for his
education! “ He may learn from the constant aspect of pubfic
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THOMAS PAINE.
prosperity that the true system of government consists not in
kings, but in fair, equal and honorable representation.” The
angry radicals of the Robespierre faction were utterly unable to
comprehend this language in the supposed arch-firebrand of
America, and it looks as if they suspected that the English had
bought him; at any rate, after he had been thrown into prison,
the Americans in Paris went in a body to demand his release,
and were refused on the ground that Paine was an English
citizen.
It was also stated to the American deputation that the Amnrican Minister, Morris, had taken no interest in the case, which
unhappily was true. Paine could understand that; there were
private reasons for the hostility of Morris; but neither he nor
any American in Europe doubted that when the tidings had
reached the United States that nation would be indignant, and
that Washington, now President, would instantly demand his
friend’s release. In that, too, he was disappointed. Washington
gave no sign, but left Paine to languish 4n prison for nearly a
year. This was equivalent to a death sentence coming from
Washington. Though Monroe came as Minister, superseding
Morris, and exerted himself to the utmost to secure Paine’s
release, it was soon discovered by Robespierre that he had
brought no instruction favorable to Paine; and the sentence of
death was passed. On the night when a chalk-mark was put on
the door of each prisoner who was to be executed in the morning,
Paine’s door happened to be open, so that when closed the mark
was on the inside. By this accident his life was preserved. A
few days after, Robespierre fell. But though that fall occurred
on the 27th July, it was not until the 4th November (1794) that
Paine was set at liberty—the continued silence of Washington
causing the belief that the imprisonment was agreeable to him.
This was a terrible humiliation. Washington was now a hero
in the eyes of all Europe, and his published praises of Paine
were known to the world. Paine had dedicated to Washington
his first work on the Rights of Man, and to Lafayette his
second ; and it was to him that Lafayette had entrusted the key
of the Bastile to be presented to Washington. After all this
Washington delivers him up silently to death! Whatever may
�THOMAS PAINE.
49
have been the cause, no one can wonder at the bitterness of the
letter which Paine wrote to Washington after it, and it would
seem to require a great deal of partiality to judge the passionate
words of the aggrieved prisoner an pied de la lettre, while
putting indulgent constructions on the deliberate and neverexplained action of Washington.
On his way to prison Paine had managed to call at the rooms
of one of the most eminent American writers of that time, Joel
Barlow, and entrust to him the manuscript of a work on which
he had for some time been engaged—the Age of Reason. Even
in childhood, Paine tells us, he had rebelled against some features
of the popular theology ; but the long struggle with poverty, the
American revolution, political controversies, prevented his giving
much attention to the subjects treated in the Age of Reason
until later life; and there are evidences in his earlier works that,,
while abandoning the more familiar dogmas of orthodoxy, he
had not specially considered such subjects as supernaturalism and
the general value of the Bible until after the American revolu
tion had ceased. There was, indeed, in most of the political
leaders in that revolution a sceptical spirit, as was only natural
when it is remembered that George III. was the visible head of
the Church. The late Hon. Jared Sparks, while President of
Harvard University, showed me some letters which passed be
tween Jefferson and Paine on religious subjects. I believe they
are still withheld from the public, and no doubt more for the
sake of the great Virginian’s reputation than for that of Paine,
who, as I remember, was by no means the more unorthodox of
the two. It was indeed the earnest way in which Paine regarded
all matters of human interest, his religious sense of the duty of
testifying against what he considered public errors and wrongs,
even at such cost as Fox, Barclay, and other saints of the Thet
ford household had paid before him, which led to the Age of
Reason and the author’s impalement. Even as regards positive
beliefs, Paine was nearer to the received standards than many
who now join in the hue and cry against him. On the first page
of his denounced work he says,—“ I believe in one God, and no
more ; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe the
equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in
D
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THOMAS PAINE.
doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our
fellow-creatures happy.” There is no action or word in Paine’s
life or writings which impeaches the sincerity of this creed. But
he further believed what many liberal thinkers yet do not, that
it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally
faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in
disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does
not believe.” The negative positions of the Age of Reason are
still exercising a profound influence on innumerable minds^ de
spite the repeated announcement that the book is dead and
buried. It would be difficult to find in any modern work more
forcible popular statements than those found on nearly every
page. “ Admitting that something has been revealed to a certain
person, it is revelation to the first person only and hearsay to
every other. “ The trinity of gods was no other than a reduc
tion of the former plurality, which was about twenty or thirty
thousand; the statue of Mary succeeded the statue of Diana of
Ephesus; the deification of heroes changed into the canoni
sation of saints; the mythologists had gods for everything ;
the Christian mythologists had saints for everything; the Church
became as crowded with the one as the Pantheon had been with
the other; and Rome was the place of both.” “ The morality
that he (Christ) preached and practised was of the most benevo
lent kind; and though similar systems of morality had been
preached by Confucius, and by some of the Greek philosophers,
many years before, by the Quakers since, and by many good men
in all ages, it has nbt been exceeded by any.” “ The Christian
mythologists tell us that then Satan made war against the
Almighty, who defeated him and confined him afterwards ....
in a pit; .... the fable of Jupiter and the Giants was told
many hundred years before that of Satan.” “ They represent
him (Satan) as having compelled the Almighty to the direct
necessity either of surrendering the whole of the creation to the
govenment and sovereignty of this Satan, or of capitulating for
its redemption by coming down upon earth, and exhibiting
himself upon a cross in the shape of a man........... They make
the transgressor triumph and the Almighty fall.” “ Is the gloomy
pride of man become so intolerable, that nothing can flatter it
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51
but a sacrifice of the Creator?” “When we contemplate the
immensity of that Being who directs and governs the incompre
hensible WHOLE, of which the utmost ken of human sight can
discover but a part, we ought to feel shame at calling such
paltry stories (e.g. that of Samson and Delilah, the foxes, &c.)
the Word of God.” “It (the Church) has set up a religion of
pomp and of revenue, in pretended imitation of a person whose
life was humility and poverty.” “The Word of God is the
Creation we behold .... which no human invention can coun
terfeit or alter.” “ The Creation speaketh an universal language.”
What homage should we have heard if, in any orthodox work
of the last century, had occurred the far-seeing astronomic specu
lations of the Age of Reason ! It was from the humble man who
in early life studied his globes, purchased at cost of many a din
ner, and attended the lectures of Martin, Ferguson, and Bevis,
that there came twenty-one years before Herschel’s famous paper
on the Nebulae, the sentence,—“ The probability, therefore, is that
each of those fixed stars is also a sun, round which another sys
tem of worlds or planets, though too remote for us to discover,
performs its revolutions.”
It has been so often said as to have become a general belief,
that the Age of Reason is a mass of ribaldry. The work, how
ever, is a very serious one, and the sentences I have quoted are
characteristic of its spirit. In patiently going through the Old
and New Testaments, and examining narratives for which literal
inspiration was claimed, it was impossible not to point out primi
tive features which seem grotesque when made salient amid
modern customs and ideas. There are a few instances in which
Paine dwells upon the absurdity which is presented to his mind,
—in one or two cases with questionable taste, as in his picture of
the people coming out of their graves and walking about Jeru
salem, according to Matthew,—but I know of no similar investi
gation in which the writer’s mind is so generally fixed upon the
simple question of truth and falsehood, and so rarely addicted to
ridicule. Few will deny the difficulty, however reverent the
reciter, of relating the story of Jonah and the whale without
causing a smile. Paine’s smile is in two sentences; in one place
he says it would have been nearer to the idea of a miracle if
�52
THOMAS PAINE.
Jonah had swallowed the whale, elsewhere that if credulity could
swallow Jonah and the whale it could swallow anything. But
after this, for him, unusual approach to the ribaldry of which he
is so freely accused, Paine gives over three pages of criticism on
the Book of Jonah, not only grave and careful, but presenting
perhaps the earliest appreciation of the moral elevation and large
aim of that much-neglected legend.
A great many sneers have been directed against Paine because
of the fact mentioned by himself, with his usual naivety that
when he wrote Part I. of the Age of Reason he had not a copy of
the Bible in his room. But the circumstance is not without its
more impressive significance. Paine had already received intima
tion that his arrest was certain and near. The guillotine was
within the shadow closing about him. There was but one
anxiety it brought—the remembrance that he had not yet written
a sentence of that testimony against superstition, which had been
gathering the importance of his final duty to mankind. For
ordinary purposes he had no need of a Bible ; he had been in all
his early life fed on little else ; he had now to run a race with
the faction of Robespierre. This book was written during the
few days of liberty remaining to him, and six hours after the last
sentence was penned he was on his way to prison. He addressed
it “ to the protection of the citizens of the United States,” man
aged to get it into the hands of Joel Barlow, and so soon as he
could get pen and paper began in prison Part II. of the same
work. The greater part, therefore, of the book was written by a
man who believed that death was near and certain. Part II. was
destined, however, to be published when he had become free, and
was able to refer to chapter and verse with a fulness and accu
racy which his opponents liked far less than the more vague and
reserved allusions of the first production. Mr. Yorke, a wellknown Englishman of the time, who visited him in Paris, wrote:
“ The Bible is the only book which he has studied, and there is
not a verse in it that is not familiar to him.”
Paine’s life abounds in such curious incidents, and instances of
luck, that at a somewhat earlier period he would probably have
been supposed under the protection of the devil for a term. The
incident of the chalk mark which had saved him from the guil
�THOMAS PAINE.
53
lotine was followed by a long fever, during which his insensibility
for a month prevented further proceedings against him; and,
when he was at liberty, he engaged a passage for America in a
vessel commanded by Commodore Barney, but was detained by
some slight circumstance which saved his life, for the vessel sank
at sea.
Paine had become utterly disgusted with French politics. He
was receiving every day reproaches from England because of his
Age of Reason, many of his former friends having turned against
him. The echoes from America were as yet few. The neglect of
him in his distress by Washington was counterbalanced by the
friendship of the new President, Jefferson, who had offered him
an American ship in which to return. The sufferings and fever
which he had undergone in prison. had seriously impaired his
health and strength ; indeed he never recovered them again. He
more than ever pictured America as the one perfect land. To a
lady who wrote to him from New York, he replied:—•“ You touch
me on a very tender point when you say that my friends on your
side of the water cannot be reconciled to the idea of my abandon
ing America, even for my native England. They are right. I had
rather see my horse, Button, eating the grass of Bordertown, oi
Morrisiana, than see all the pomp and show of Europe.” But a
terrible disenchantment awaited him. When he returned to
America it was to find most of his old friends turned to enemiesThe very lady who had so written, and her husband, refused to
receive the author of the Age of Reason, which now had become
the horror of every pulpit; Samuel Adams, Benjamin Bush, and
of course Washington, would have nothing to do with him. The
Federalists of the North who wished to make the United States
another England, and hated everything French, dreaded him ; the
slaveholders of the South had been alarmed at his having written
about the abolition of slavery— ‘ We must push that mattez
further on your side of the water. I wish that a few well-instruct
ed negroes could be sent among their brethren in bondage; for.
until they are enabled to take their own part, nothing will bft
done.”* The nation which he had left glorified by enthusiasm
Written to a friend in Philadelphia from Paris, March 16, 1789.
�54
THOMAS PAINE.
for liberty, had sunk to the work of protecting slavery j sectarian
ism and dogmatism, having lost their ancient supports in the
State, were industriously replacing them with a revival of intoler
ance before which great men were bowing who used to talk more
heresy than Paine. The poor man was almost abandoned. It
need hardly excite wonder if in the solitude to which he was
forced, and in his enfeebled health, the old man drank enough
for pious imagination to turn him into a sot. There is not the
least doubt that Paine was a temperate man up to the time when,
close upon seventy, his friends began to turn from him. The
weakness that followed his imprisonment first led him to use
stimulants in any noticeable degree, but there is no doubt that
Barlow is the truest witness in saying that Paine was a temperate
man “ till he conceived himself neglected and despised by his for
mer friends in the United States.” But, admitting that during
the closing three years of his life—he was over seventy-two at
death—Paine drank more than was good for him, it is certain
that it was not enough to prevent his writing during those years
many able essays, and also that it would not have been heard of
but for that heterodoxy which exposeth a multitude of sins.
Whether the one fault which undertook this old man, Thomas
Paine, so warm-hearted and faithful, casts the darker shadow
over his own career or over those who gave him up to be the
scape-goat demanded by defeated bigotry and oppression, is a
question on which future critics may have something to say.
For the present it is enough to know that Thomas Paine has been
selected for special odium, not because he was an immoral man,
for he was not that,—the only charge of that kind ever made
recoiled on the accuser, and proved the singular generosity of the
accused to a deserted family; not because he was irreligious, he
was the reverse of that by episcopal testimony; not even because
he was unorthodox, for he was chief founder of the society of
Theo-philanthropists in Paris (1797) in opposition to the atheistic
opinions which found many adherents not only there, but in Eng
land, whose fame, however, has suffered far less than that of this
devout theist and admirer of Christ; but because he wrote for the
people and had the power of convincing them, and this brought
on a panic among those interested in the existing theological and
�THOMAS PAINE.
»
55
political order. It was on the works of Paine that the battle of a
free press, and that of free thought, were fought and won in Eng
land. The battle did indeed rage for many years after Paine was
dead. I have before me a printed paragraph taken from an
English newspaper of the year 1823, which tells a significant
story:—“ Some persons have, we are informed, purchased the
lease of a house in Fleet Street, near St. Bride’s Church, which
they have underlet to Richard Carlile, for the purpose of enabling
him to vend his numerous publications. This is one of the con
sequences of vindictive persecutions for opinions. Persecute
truth, and it will be seen to flourish: persecute error, and many
will be induced ,to embrace it from sympathy with the sufferers.
Carlile was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and fines of
£1,500. The three years expired in November last, and he has
since been and now is held in Dorchester jail for the fine. His
sister was also sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and a fine
of £500. Her two years’ imprisonment expired also in November,
and she, who states in her petition to the House of Commons that
she never possessed any property, has also been and still is de
tained for her fine. The consequence of these absurd persecutions
has been the propagating of infidel opinions to an extent which
they could not otherwise have reached, and at length to the in
terference of persons in a way calculated to call public attention
more closely to matters which those who promoted the prosecu
tions wished should be suppressed. These facts speak for them
selves.”
Subsequent facts spoke even more loudly in the same way.
The Carlisles were soon released under the feeling that Miss Car
lile’s petition awakened in the House of Commons and in the
country, and they and their successors continued to sell the works
of Paine and other heresiarchs without molestation. The recent
attempts to interfere with the freedom so secured, were rendered
possible by the complication of the principle with moral questions
which were not involved in the original struggle ; but their one
success—the imprisonment of Mr. Truelove—as well as their
several failures, equally confess the impregnable security of the
main principle for which Paine and his comrades suffered.
��
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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A vindication of Thomas Paine, by Robert G. Ingersoll, and : Thomas Paine, a criticism by Moncure D. Conway
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
Conway, Moncure Daniel [1832-1907]
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Place of publication: Chicago; Toronto
Collation: 55 p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: Ingersoll's "Vindication" is a reply to the New York observer, refuting charges brought against Paine's character and stories of his supposed recantation. The article by Conway is reprinted from the Fortnightly Review for March, 1879. Inscription on p.[3]: Sample: "Can send 100 at 8d each post paid, H.B. Cooke, 170 1/2 Young St., Toronto, Ont., E W." Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Belfords, Clarke & Co.
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1879
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N1517
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Thomas Paine
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Thomas Paine
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ORATI O N
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
ON
THOMAS PAINE.
COLONEL ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
LONDON:
FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY,
28, Stonecutter Street, E.C.
PRICE FOURPENCE.
�LONDON :
PRINTED BY CHARLES BRADLAUGH AND ANNIE BESANT,
28, STONECUTTER STREET, E.C.
�b'L l S &
ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
i
>
To speak the praises of the brave and thoughtful dead is to
me a labour of gratitude and love.
Through all the centuries gone, the mind of man has
been beleaguered by the mailed hosts of superstition.
Slowly and painfully has advanced the army of deliver
ance. Hated by those they wished to rescue, despised by
those they were dying to save, these grand soldiers, these
immortal deliverers, have fought without thanks, laboured
without applause, suffered without pity, and they have died
execrated and abhorred, h or the good of mankind they
accepted isolation, poverty, and calumny. They gave up
all, sacrificed all, lost all but truth and self-respect.
One of the bravest soldiers in this army was Thomas
Paine; and for one, I feel indebted to him for the liberty
we are enjoying this day. Born among the poor, where
children are burdens ; in a country where real liberty was
unknown ; where the privileges of class were guarded with
infinite jealousy, and the rights of the individual trampled
beneath the feet of .priests and nobles; where to advocate
justice was treason; where intellectual freedom was infi
delity, it is wonderful that the idea of true liberty ever
entered his brain.
- Poverty was his mother—necessity his master.
He had more brains than books; more sense than education ; more courage than politeness ; more strength than
polish. He had no veneration for old mistakes—no admi
ration for ancient lies. He loved the truth for the truth’s
sake, and for man’s sake. He saw oppression on every
hand ; injustice everywhere—hypocrisy at the altar, venality
. On the bench, tyranny on the throne ; and with a splendid
courage he espoused the cause of the weak against the
strong—-of the enslaved many against the titled few.
In England he was nothing. He belonged to' the lower
classes. There was no avenue open for him. The people
�4
ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
hugged their chains, and the whole power of the Govern
ment was ready to crush any man who endeavoured to
Strike a blow for the right.
At the age of thirty-seven, Thomas Paine left England for
America with the high hope of being instrumental in the
establishment of a free Government. In his own country
he could accomplish nothing. Those two vultures—Church
and State—were ready to tear in pieces and devour the heart
of anyone who might deny their divine right to enslave the
world.
Upon his arrival in this country, he found himself pos
sessed of a letter of introduction, signed by another infidel,
the illustrious Franklin. This, and his native genius, con
stituted his entire capital; and he needed no more. He
found the colonies clamouring for justice ; whining about
their grievances; upon their knees at the foot of the throne,
imploring that mixture of idiocy and insanity, George III.
by the grace of God, for a restoration of their ancient
privileges. They were not endeavouring to become free
men, but were trying to soften the heart of their master.
They were perfectly willing to make brick if Pharaoh would
furnish the straw. The colonists wished for, hoped for,
and prayed for reconciliation. They did not dream of
independence.
Paine gave to the world his “ Common Sense.” It was
the first argument for separation, the first assault upon the
British form of government, the first blow for a republic,
and it aroused our fathers like a trumpet’s blast.
He was the first to perceive the destiny of the New
World.
■No other pamphlet ever accomplished such wonderful
results. It was filled with argument, reason, persuasion,
and unanswerable logic. It opened a new world. It filled
the present with hope, and the future with honour. Every
where the people responded, and in a few months the Con
tinental Congress declared the colonies free and independent
States.
A new nation was born.
It is simple justice to say that Paine did more to cause
the Declaration of Independence than any other man.
Neither should it be forgotten that his attacks upon
Great Britain were also attacks upon monarchy; and while
he convinced the people that the colonies ought to
separate from the mother country, he also proved to the^
�ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
'
.5
that a free government is the best that can be instituted
among men.
In my judgment, Thomas Paine was the best political
writer that ever lived. “ What he wrote was pure nature?
and his soul and his pen ever went together.” Ceremony^
pageantry, and all the paraphernalia of power had no
effect upon him. He examined into the why and where
fore of things. He was perfectly radical in his mode of
thought. Nothing short of the bed-rock satisfied him.
His enthusiasm for what he believed to be right knew no
bounds. During all the dark scenes of the Revolution,
never for one moment did he despair. Year after year his
brave words were ringing through the land, and by the
bivouac fires the weary soldiers read the inspiring words of
“ Common Sense,” filled with ideas sharper than their
swords, and consecrated themselves anew to the cause of
freedom.
Paine was not content with having aroused the spirit of
independence, but he gave every energy of his soul to keep
that spirit alive. He was with the army. He shared its
defeats, its dangers, and its glory. When the situation
became desperate, when gloom settled upon all, he gave
them the “ Crisis.” It was a cloud by day and a pillar of
fire by night, leading the way to freedom, honour, and glory.
He shouted to them, “ 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.”
To those who wished to put the war off to some future
day, with a lofty and touching spirit of self-sacrifice he
said: “ Every generous parent should say, ‘ If there must
be war, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.’ ”
To the cry that Americans were rebels, he replied : “ He
that rebels against reason is a real rebel; but he that, in
defence of reason, rebels against tyranny, has a better
title to ‘ Defender of the Faith ’ than George the Third.”
Some said it was not to the interest of the colonies to be
free. Paine answered this by saying : “ To know whether it
be the interest of the Continent to be independent, we need
ask only this simple, easy question, ‘ Is it the interest of a
man to be a boy all his life ? ’ ” He found many who would
listen to nothing, and to them he said, “ That to argue with
a gran who has renounced his reason is like giving medi-
�C-RATION ON THOMÄS'' PAINE:
cine to the dead.” This sentiment ought to adorn the
walls of every orthodox church.
There is a world of political wisdom in this : “ England
lost her liberty in a long chain of right reasoning from
wrong principles
and there is real discrimination in
saying, “The Greeks and Romans were strongly possessed
of the spirit of liberty, but not the principles, for at
the time that they were determined not to be slaves them
selves, they employed their power to enslave the rest of
mankind.”
In his letter to the British people, in which he tried to
convince them that war was not to their interest, occurs the
following passage brimful of common sense : “War never
can be the interest of a trading nation any more than
quarrelling can be profitable to a man in business. But to
make war with those who trade with us, is like setting a
bull-dog upon a customer at the shop door.”
The writings of Paine fairly glitter with simple, compact,
logical statements, that carry conviction to the dullest and
most prejudiced. He had the happiest possible way of
putting the case ; in asking questions in such a way that
they answer themselves, and in stating his premises so
clearly that the deduction could not be avoided.
Day and night he laboured for America ; month after
month, year after year, he gave himself to the great cause,
until there was “ a government of the people and for the
people,” and until the banner of the stars floated over a
continent redeemed and consecrated to the happiness of
mankind.
At thé close of the Revolution, no one stood higher in
America than Thomas Paine. The best, the wisest, the
most patriotic were his friends and admirers j and had he
been thinking only of his own good, he might have rested
from his toils and spent the remainder of his life in comfort
and in ease. He could have been what the world is pleased
to call “ respectable.” He could have died surrounded by
clergymen, warriors, and statesmen. At his death there
would have been an imposing funeral, miles of carriages,
civic societies, salvos of artillery, a nation in mourning, and,
above all, a splendid monument covered with lies.
He chose rather to benefit mankind.
At that time the seeds sown by the great Infidels were
beginning to bear fruit in France. The people were begin
ning to think.
�ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
7
The Eighteenth Century was crowning its gray hairs with
the wreath of progress.
On every hand Science was bearing testimony against the
Church. Voltaire had .filled Europe with light ; D’Holbach
was giving to the ZZz'A of Paris the principles contained in
his i: System of Nature.” The Encyclopaedists had attacked
•superstition with information for the masses. The founda
tion of things began to be examined. A few had the
courage to keep their shoes on and let the bush burn.
Miracles began to get scarce. Everywhere the people
began to inquire. America had set an example to the
world. The word liberty began to be in the mouths of
men, and they began to wipe the dust from their knees.
The dawn of a new day had appeared.
Thomas Paine went to France. Into the new movement
he threw all his energies. His fame had gone before him,
and he was welcomed as a friend of the human race, and as
a champion of free government.
He had never relinquished ’ his intention of pointing out
to his countrymen the defects, absurdities, and abuses of
the English Government. For this purpose he composed
and published his greatest political work, “ The Rights ef
Man.” This work should be read by every man and
woman. It is concise, accurate, natural, convincing, and
unanswerable. It shows great thought, an intimate know
ledge of the various forms of government, deep insight into
the very springs of human action, and a courage that com
pels respect and admiration. The most difficult political
problems are solved in a few sentences. The venerable
arguments in favour of wrong are refuted with a question—
answered with a word. For forcible illustration, apt com
parison, accuracy and clearness of statement, and absolute
thoroughness, it has never been excelled.
The fears of the administration were ' aroused, and Paine
was prosecuted for libel and found guilty ; and yet there is
not a sentiment in the entire work that will not challenge
the admiration of every civilized man. It is a magazine of
political wisdom, an arsenal of ideas, and an honour, not
only to Thomas Paine, but to human nature itself. It
could have been written only by the man who had the
generosity, the exalted patriotism, the goodness to say,
“ The world is my country, and to do good my religion.”
There is in all the utterances of the world no grander, no
sublimer sentiment. There is no creed that can be com
�8
ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
pared with it for a moment It should be wrought in gold,
adorned with jewels, and impressed upon every human
heart—“ The world is my country, and to do good my reli
gion-”
In 1792 Paine was elected by the department of Calais
as their representative in the National Assembly. So great
was his popularity in France that he was selected about
the same time by the people of no less than four depart
ments.
Upon taking his place in the Assembly he was appointed
as one of a committee to draft a constitution for France.
Had the French people taken the advice of Thomas Paine,
there would have been no “ Reign of Terror.” The streets
of Paris would not have been filled with blood. The Revolu
tion would have been the grandest success of the world.
The truth is, that Paine was too conservative to suit the
leaders of the French Revolution. They, to a great extent,
were carried away by hatred, and a desire to destroy. They
had suffered so long, they had borne so much, that it was
impossible for them to be moderate in the hour of victory.
Besides all this, the French people had been so robbed by
the Government, so degraded by the Church, that they were
not fit material with which to construct a Republic. Many
of the leaders longed to establish a beneficent and just
government, but the people asked for revenge.
Paine was filled with a real love for mankind. His phi
lanthropy was boundless. He wished to destroy monarchy
—not the monarch. He voted for the destruction of
tyranny, and against the death of the king. He wished toestablish a government on a new basis; one that would for
get the past; one that would give privileges to none, and
protection to all.
In the Assembly, where nearly all were demanding the
execution of the king—where to differ from the majority was
to be suspected, and where to be suspected was almost cer
tain death—Thomas Paine had the courage, the goodness,
and the justice to vote against death. To vote against the
execution of the king was a vote against his own life. This
was the sublimity of devotion to principle. For this he was
arrested, imprisoned, and doomed to death.
Search the records of the world, and you will find but few
sublimer acts than that of Thomas Paine voting against the
king’s death. He, the hater of despotism, the abhorrer of
monarchy, the champion of the rights of mao, the republi
�ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
9
can, accepting death to save the. life of a deposed tyrant—
of a throneless king. This was the last grand act of his
political life—the sublime conclusion of his political career.
All his life he had been the disinterested friend of man.
He had laboured—not for money, not for fame, but for the
general good. He had aspired to no office; had asked no
recognition of his services, but had ever been content to
labour as a common soldier in the army of progress. Con
fining his efforts to no country, looking upon the world as
his field of action, filled with a genuine love for the right,
he found himself imprisoned by the very people he had
striven to save.
Had his enemies succeeded in bringing him to the block,
he would have escaped the calumnies and the hatred of the
Christian world. In this country, at least, he would have
ranked with the proudest names. On the anniversary of the
Declaration his name would have been upon the lips of all
the orators, and his memory in the hearts of all of the
people.
Thomas Paine had not finished his career.
He had spent his life thus far in destroying the power of
kings, and now he turned his attention to the priests. He
knew that every abuse had been embalmed in Scripture—
that every outrage was in partnership with some holy text
He knew that the throne skulked behind the altar, and both
behind a pretended revelation from God. By this time he
had found that it was of little use to free the body and leave
the mind in chains. He had explored the foundations of
despotism, and had found them infinitely 'rotten. He had
dug under the throne, and it occurred to him that he would
take a look behind the altar.
The result of his investigations was given to the world in
the “ Age of Reason.” From the moment of its publication
he became infamous. He was calumniated beyond measure.
To slander him was to secure the thanks of the Church. AU
his services were instantly forgotten, disparaged, or denied.
He was shunned has tough he had been a pestilence. Most
of his old friends forsook him. He was regarded as a moral
plague, and at the bare mention of his name the bloody
hands of the Church were raised in horror. He was de
nounced as the most despicable of men.
Not content with following him to the grave, they pur
sued him with redoubled fury, and recounted with infinite
Jgusto and satisfaction the supposed horrors of his death
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ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
bed; gloried in the feet that he was forlorn and friendless,
and gloated like fiends over what they supposed to be the
agonising remorse of his lonely death.
It is wonderful that all his services were thus forgotten.
It is amazing that one kind word did not fall from some
pulpit ; that some one did not accord to him, at least—■
honesty. Strange that in the general _ denunciation some
one did not remember his labour for liberty, his devotion
to principle, his zeal for the rights of his fellow-men. He
had by brave and splendid effort, associated his name with
the cause of progress. He had made it impossible to write
the history of political freedom with his name left out. He
was one of the creators of light ; one of the heralds of the
dawn. He hated tyranny in the name of kings, and in the
name of God, with every drop of his noble blood. He be
lieved in liberty and justice, and in the sacred doctrine of
human equality. Under these divine banners he fought the
battle of his life. In both worlds he offered his, blood for
the good of man. In the wilderness of America, in the
French Assembly, in the sombre cell waiting for death, he
was the same unflinching, unwavering friend of his race,
the same undaunted champion of universal freedom.. And
for this he has been hated ; for this the Church has violated
even his grave.
,
This is enough to make one believe that nothing is more
natural than for men to devour their benefactors The
people in all ages have crucified and glorified. Whoever
lifts his voice against abuses, whoever arraigns the past at
the bar of the present, whoever asks the king to show his
. commission, or questions the authority of the priest, wi be
denounced as the enemy of man and God. . In all ages
reason has been regarded as the enemy of religion. Nothing
has been considered so pleasing to the Deity as a total
denial of the authority of your own mind. Self-reliance has
been thought a deadly sin ; and the idea of living and dying
without the aid and consolation of superstition has always
horrified the Church. By some unaccountable infatuation
FaIW has been and still is, considered of immense import
ance All religions have been based upon the idea that God
wm for ever reward the true believer, and eternally damn the
who doubts or denies. Belief is regarded as the one
esæntial thing. To practise justice, to love mercy, is not
enough You must believe in some incomprehensible creed.
You must say, “Once one is three, and three times one i
�ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
II
one.” The man who practised every virtue, but failed to
believe, was execrated. Nothing so outrages the feelings of
the Church as a moral unbeliever—nothing so horrible as a
charitable Atheist.
When Paine was born, the world was religious. The
pulpit was the real throne, and the churches were making
every effort to crush out of the brain the idea that it had
the right to think.
The splendid saying of Lord Bacon, that “the inquiry of
truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it, the know
ledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief
of truth, which is the enjoying of it, are the sovereign
good of human nature,” has been, and ever will be, rejected
by religionists. Intellectual liberty, as a matter of neces
sity, for ever destroys the idea that belief is either praise or
blameworthy, and is wholly inconsistent with every creed in
Christendom. Paine recognised this truth. He also, saw that
as long as. the Bible was considered inspired this infamous
doctrine of the virtue of belief would be believed and
preached. He examined the Scriptures for himself, and
found them filled with cruelty, absurdity, and immorality.
He again made up his mind to sacrifice himself for the
.good of his fellow-men.
He commenced with the assertion, “ That any system of
religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a
child cannot be a true system.” What a beautiful, what a
tender sentiment! No wonder that the Church began to
hate him. He believed in one God, and no more. After
this life he hoped for happiness. He believed that true re
ligion consisted in doing justice, loving mercy, in endea
vouring to make our fellow-creatures happy, and in offering
to God the fruit of the heart. He denied the inspiration of
the Scriptures. This was his crime.
He contended that it is a contradiction in terms to call
anything a revelation that comes to us at second-hand,
either verbally or in writing. He asserted that revelation is'
’ necessarily limited to the first communication, and that after
that it is only an account of something which another person
says was a revelation to him. We have only his word for it,
as it was never made to us. This argument never has been,
and probably never will be answered. He denied the divine
origin of Christ, and showed conclusively that the pretended
prophecies of the Old Testament had no reference to him
whatever; and yet he believed that Christ was a virtuous and
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ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE,
amiable mail: that the morality he taught and practised was
of the most benevolent and elevated character, and that it
had not been exceeded by any. Upon this point hd. entergained the same sentiments now held by the Unitarians, and
in fact by the most enlightened Christians.
In his time the Church believed and taught that every
word in the Bible was absolutely true. Since his day it has
been proven false in its cosmogony, false in its astronomy,
false in its chronology, false in its history, and, so far as the
Old Testament is concerned, false in almost everything.
There are but few if any scientific men who apprehend that
the Bible is literally true. Who on earth at this day would
pretend to settle any scientific question by a text from the
Bible ? The old belief is confined to the ignorant and
zealous. The Church itself will before long be driven to
occupy the position of Thomas Paine. The best minds of
the orthodox world, to-day, are endeavouring to prove the
existence of a personal Deity. All other questions occupy a
minor place. You are no longer asked to swallow the Bible
whole, whale, Jonah and all. You are simply required to
believe in God and pay your pew-rent. There is not now an
enlightened minister in the world who will seriously contend
that Samson’s strength was in his hair, nor that the necro
mancers of Egypt could turn water into blood, and pieces of
wood into serpents. These follies have passed away, and the
only reason that the religious world can now have for dis
liking Paine is that they have been forced to adopt so many
of his opinions.
Paine thought the barbarities of the Old Testament incon
sistent with what he deemed the real character of God.
He believed that murder, massacre, and indiscriminate
slaughter had never been commanded by the Deity. He re
garded much of the Bible as childish, unimportant, and
foolish. The scientific world entertains the same opinion.
Paine attacked the Bible precisely in the same spirit in which
he had attacked the pretensions of kings. He used the same
weapons. All the pomp in the world could not make him
cower. His reason knew no “ holy of holies,” except the
abode of truth. The sciences were then in their infancy.
The attention of the really learned had not been directed to
an impartial examination of our pretended revelation. It
was accepted by most as a matter of course. The Church
was all-powerful; and no one, unless thoroughly imbued with
the spirit of self-sacrifice, thought for a moment of disputing
�ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
I
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the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. The infamous
doctrine that salvation depends upon belief—upon a mere
intellectual conviction—was then believed and preached»
To doubt was to secure the damnation of your soul. This
absurd and devilish doctrine shocked the common sense of
Thomas Paine, and he denounced it with the fervour of
honest indignation. This doctrine, although infinitely ridicu-*
lous, has been nearly universal, and has been as hurtful . as
senseless. For the overthrow of the infamous tenet Paine
exerted all his strength. He left few arguments to be used
by those who should come after him, and he used none that
have been refuted. The combined wisdom and genius of all
mankind cannot possibly conceive of an argument against
liber y of thought. Neither can they show why anyor. e should
be punished, either in this world or another, for acting
honestly in accordance with reason ; and yet, a doctrine with
every possible argument against it has been, and still is, be
lieved and defended by the entire orthodox world. Can it be
possible that we have been endowed with reason simply that
our souls may be caught in its toils and snares, that we may
be led by its false and delusive glare out of the narrow path
that leads to joy into the broad way of everlasting death ? Is
it possible that we have been given reason simply that we
may through faith ignore its deductions, and avoid its con
clusions ? Ought the sailor to throw away his compass and
depend entirely upon the fog? If reason is not to be de
pended upon in matters of religion, that is to say, in respect
to our duties to the Deity, why should it be relied upon in
matters respecting the rights of our fellows ? Why should
we throw away the laws given to Moses by God himself, and
have the audacity to make some of our own ? How dare we
drown the thunders of Sinai by calling the ayes and noes in
a petty legislature ? If reason can determine what is merci
ful, what is just, the duties of man to man, what more do we
want, either in time or eternity ?
Down, for ever down, with any religion that requires upon
its ignorant altar the sacrifice of the goddess Reason ; that
compels her to abdicate for ever the shining throne of the
soul, strips from her form the imperial purple, snatches from
her hand the sceptre of thought, and makes her the bond
woman of a senseless faith !
If a man should tell you that he had the most beautiful
painting in the world, and after taking you where it was,
should insist upon having your eyes shut, you would likely
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ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
suspect, either that he had no painting or that it was some
pitiable daub. Should he tell you that he was a most excel
lent performer on the violin, and yet refuse to play unless
your ears were stopped, you would think, to say the least of
it, that he had an odd way of convincing you of his musical
ability. But would his conduct be any more wonderful than
that of a religionist who asks that, before examining his
creed, you will have the kindness to throw away your reason ?
The first gentleman says, “ Keep your eyes shut, my picture
will bear everything but being seen“ keep your ears
stopped, my music objects to nothing but being heard.”
The last says, “Away with your reason, my religion dreads
nothing but being understood.”
So far as I am concerned, I most cheerfully admit that
most Christians are honest, and most ministers sincere. We
do not attack them; we attack their creed. We accord to
them the same rights that we ask for ourselves. We believe
that their doctrines are hurtful. We believe that the fright
ful text, “ He that believes shall be saved, and he that
believeth not shall be damned,” has covered the earth with
blood It has filled the world with arrogance, cruelty, and
murder. It has caused the religious wars ; bound hundreds
of thousands to the stake; founded inquisitions; filled
dungeons; invented instruments of torture; taught the
mother to hate her child ; imprisoned the mind; filled the
earth with ignorance; persecuted the lovers of wisdom
built the monasteries and convents ; made happiness a
crime, investigation a sin, and self-reliance a blasphemy. It
has poisoned the springs of learning; misdirected the ener
gies of the world; filled all the countries with want; housed
the people in hovels; fed them with famine ; and, but for
the efforts of a few brave Infidels, it would have taken the
world back to the midnight of barbarism, and left the
heavens without a star.
The maligners of Paine say that he had no right to attack
this doctrine because he was unacquainted with the dead
languages; and for this reason, it was a piece of pure impu
dence in him to investigate the Scriptures.
Is it necessary to understand Hebrew in order to know
that cruelty is not a virtue, and that murder is inconsistent
with infinite goodness, and that eternal punishment can be
inflicted upon man only by an eternal fiend ? Is it really
essential to conjugate the Greek verbs before you can make
up your mind as to the probability of dead people getting
�ORATION ON THOMAS FAINE.
î5
out of their graves ? Must one be versed in Latin . before
he is entitled to express his opinion as to the genuineness
of a pretended revelation from God? _ Common sense
belongs exclusively to no tongue. Logic is not confined to,
nor has it been buried with, the dead languages. Paine
attacked the Bible as it is translated. If the translation is
wrong, let its defenders correct it.
The Christianity of Paine’s day is not the Christianity of
our time. There has been a great improvement since then.
One hundred and fifty years ago the foremost preachers of
our time would have perished at the stake. A Umversalist ■
would have been torn in pieces in England, Scotland and
America; Unitarians would have found themselves in the
stocks, pelted by the rabble with dead cats, after which
their ears would have been cut off, their tongues bored^and
their foreheads branded. Less than one hundred and fifty
years ago the following law was in force in Maryland :—
“ Be it enacted by the Right Honourable, the Lord Proprietor, by arid
with the advice and consent of his lordship s governor, and the upper and
lower houses of the Assembly, and the authority of the same :
“That if any person should hereafter, within this province, wittingly,
■ maliciously, and advisedly, by writing or speaking, blaspheme or curM
God, or deny our Saviour Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, or shall
deny the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or the God
head of any of the three persons, or the unity of the Godhead, or shall
utter any profane words concerning the Holy T rinity, 01 any of the
persons thereof, and shall thereof be convict by verdict, shall, for the
first offence be bored through the tongue, and be fined twenty pounds,
to be levied off his body. And for the second offence, the offender shall
be stigmatized by burning in the forehead with the lettei B, and fined
forty pounds. And that for the third offence, the offender shall suffer
death without the benefit of clergy.”
The strange thing about the law is, that it has never been,
repealed, and is still in force in the District of Columbia.
Laws like these were in force in most of the colonies, and in all
countries where the Church had power.
In the Old Testament, the death penalty was attached to
hundreds of offences. It has been the same in all Christian
countries. To-day, in civilized Governments, the death
penalty is attached only to murder and treason, and in
some it has been entirely abolished. What a commentary
upon the divine humbugs of the world !
In the day of Thomas Paine the Church was ignorant,
bloody, and relentless. In Scotland the “ Kirk ” was at the
summit of its power. It was a full sister of the Spanish In
quisition. It waged war upon human nature. It was the
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ORATIONON THOMAS PAINE.
enemy of happiness, the hater of joy, and the despiser of
religious liberty. It taught parents to murder their children
rather than to allow them to propagate error. If the mother
held opinions of which the infamous “Kirk” disapproved,
her children were taken from her arms, her babe from her
very bosom, and she was not allowed to see them, or to write
them a word. It would not allow shipwrecked sailors to be
rescued on Sunday. It sought to annihilate pleasure, to
pollute the heart by filling it with religious cruelty and
gloom, and to change mankind into a vast horde of pious,
heartless fiends. One of the most famous Scotch divines
said: “The Kirk holds that religious toleration is not far
from blasphemy.” And this same Scotch Kirk denounced,
beyond measure, the man who had the moral grandeur to
say, “The world is my country, and to do good my religion.”
And this same Kirk abhorred the man who said, “Any
system of religion that shocks the mind of a child cannot be
a. true system.”
At that time nothing so delighted the Church as the beauties
of endless torment, and listening to the weak wailings of in
fants struggling in the slimy coils and poisonous folds of the
worm that never dies.
About the beginning of the nineteenth century, a boy by
the name of Thomas Aikenhead was indicted and tried at
Edinburgh Tor having denied the inspiration of the Scrip
tures, and for having, on several occasions, when cold, wished
himself in hell that he might get warm. Notwithstanding
the poor boy recanted and begged for mercy, he was found
guilty and hanged. His body was thrown in a hole at the
foot of the scaffold and covered with stones.
Prosecutions and executions like this were common in
every Christian country, and all of them were based upon the
belief that an intellectual conviction is a crime.
No wonder the Church hated and traduced the author of
the “ Age of Reason.”
England was filled with Puritan gloom and Episcopat
ceremony. All religious conceptions were of the grossest
nature. The ideas of crazy fanatics and extravagant poets
were taken as sober facts. Milton had clothed Christianity
in thé soiled and faded finery of the gods—had added to the
story of Christ the fables of Mythology. He gave to the
Protestant Church the most outrageously material ideas of the
Deity. He turned all the angels into soldiers—made
Heaven a battle-field, put Christ in uniform, and described
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ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
1
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God as a militia general. His works were considered by the
Protestants nearly as sacred as the Bible itself, and the
imagination of the people was thoroughly polluted by the
horrible imagery, the sublime absurdity of the blind
Milton.
Heaven and hell were realities—the judgment-day was ex
pected—books of account would be opened. Every man
would hear the charges against him read. God was sup
posed to sit on a golden throne, surrounded by the tallest
angels, with harps in their hands and crowns on their heads.
• The goats would be thrust into eternal fire on the left, while
the orthodox sheep, on the right, were to gambol on sunny
slopes for ever and for ever.
The nation was profoundly ignorant, and consequently extremly religious, so far as belief was concerned.
• . .
In Europe, Liberty was lying chained in the Inquisity—
her white bosom stained with blood. In the new world the
Puritans had been hanging and burning in the name of
God, and selling white Quaker children into, slavery in the
name of Christ, who said, “ Suffer little children to come
unto me.”
Under such conditions progress was impossible. Some one
had to lead the way. The Church is, and always has been, in
capable of a forward movement. Religion always looks back.
The Church has already reduced Spain to a guitar, Italy to
a hand-organ, and Ireland to exile.
Someone not connected with the Church had to attack the
monster that was eating out the heart of the world. Some'
one had to sacrifice himself for the good of all. The people
were in the most abject slavery; their manhood had been
taken from them by pomp, by pageantry, and power. Pro
gress is born of doubt and inquiry. The Church never
doubts—never inquires. To doubt is heresy to inquire is
to admit that you do not know—-the Church does neither.
More than a century ago Catholicism, wrapped in robes
red with the innocent blood of millions, holding in her frantic
clutch crowns and sceptres, honours and gold, the keys of
heaven and hell, trampling beneath her feet the liberties of
nations, in the proud moment of almost universal dominion,
felt within her heartless breast the deadly dagger of Voltaire.
From that blow the Church never can recover. Livid
with hatred, she launched her eternal anathema at the great
destroyer, and ignorant Protestants have echoed the curse of
Rome.
B
�ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
_ In our country the Church was all-powerful, and, although
divided into many sects, would instantly unite to repel a
common foe.
Paine struck the first grand blow.
The “ Age of Reason ” did more to undermine the power
of the Protestant Church than all other books then known.
It furnished an immense amount of food for thought. It
was written for the average mind, and is a straightforward,
honest investigation of the Bible, and of the Christian
system.
. Paine did not falter from the first page to the last. He
gives you his candid thought, and candid thoughts are
always valuable.
The “ Age of Reason ” has liberalised us all. It put argu
ments in the mouths of the people ; it put the Church on
the defensive j it enabled somebody in every village to
corner the parson ; it made the world wiser, and the Church
better; it took power from the pulpit and divided it among
the pews.
°
Just in proportion that the human race has advanced,
the Church has lost power. There is no exception to this
rule.
No nation ever materially advanced that held strictly to
the religion of its founders.
No nation ever gave itself wholly to the control of the
Church without losing its power, its honour, and existence.
Every Church pretends to have found the exact truth.
This is the end of progress. Why pursue that which you
have ? Why investigate when you know ?
Every creed is a rock in running water: humanity sweeps
by it.. Every creed cries to the Universe, “Halt !” A
creed is the ignorant past bullying the enlightened present.
The ignorant are not satisfied with what can be demon
strated. Science is too slow for them, and so they invent
creeds. They demand completeness. A sublime segment,
a grand fragment, are of no value to them. They demand
the complete circle—the entire structure.
In music they want a melody with a recurring accent at
measured periods. In religion they insist upon immediate
answers to the questions of creation and destiny. The alpha
and omega of all things must be in the alphabet of their
superstition. A religion that cannot answer every question,
and guess every conundrum, is, in their estimation, worse
than worthless. They desire a kind of theological diction-
�ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
19
ary—a religious ready-reckoner, together with guideboards
at all crossings and turns. They mistake impudence. for
authority, solemnity for wisdom, and pathos for inspiration.
The beginning and the end are what they demand. The
grand flight of the eagle is nothing to them. . They want
the nest in which he was hatched, and especially the dry
limb upon which he roosts. Anything that can be learned
is hardly worth knowing. The present is considered.of no
value in itself. Happiness must not be expected this side
of the clouds, and can only be attained by self-denial and
faith ; not seif-denial for the good of others, but for the sal
vation of your own sweet self.
Paine denied the authority of bibles and creeds—this w’as
his crime—and for this the vzorld shut the door in his face,
and emptied its slops upon him from the windows.
I challenge the world to show that Thomas . Paine ever
wrote one line, one word in favour of tyranny—in favour of
immorality; one line, one ivord against what he believed to
be for the highest and the best interests of mankind ; one
line, one word against justice, charity, or liberty; and yet he
has been pursued as though he had been a fiend from hell.
His memory has been execrated as though he had murdered
some Uriah for his wife ; driven some Hagar into the. desert
to starve with his child upon her bosom ; defiled his. own
daughters ; ripped open rvith the sword the sweet bodies of
loving and innocent women ; advised one brother to assas
sinate another ; kept a harem w’ith seven hundred waves, and
three hundred concubines, or had persecuted Christians
even unto strange cities.
The Church has pursued Paine to deter others. No effort
has been in any age of the world spared to crush out oppo
sition. The Church used painting, music, and architecture,
simply to degrade mankind. But there are men that, nothing
can awe. There have been at all times brave spirits that
dared even the gods. Some proud head has always been
above the waves. In every age some Diogenes has sacrificed
to all the gods. True genius never cowers, and there is
always some Samson feeling for the pillars of authority.
Cathedrals and domes, and chimes and chants—temples
frescoed and groined and carved, and gilded with gold—
altars and tapers, and paintings of virgin and babe—censer
and chalice, chasuble, paten and alb—organs and anthems
and incense rising to the winged and blest—maniple, amice
and stole—crosses and crosiers, tiaras and crowms—mitres
�20
ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
and missals and masses—rosaries, relics and robes—martyrs
and saints, and windows stained as with the blood of Christ,—
never for one moment awed the brave, proud spirit of the
Infidel. He knew that all the pomp and glitter had been
purchased with liberty—-that priceless jewel of the soul. In
looking at the cathedral he remembered the dungeon. The
music of the organ was not loud enough to drown the clank
of fetters. He could not forget that the taper had lighted
the fagot. He knew that the cross adorned the hilt of the
sword, and so, where others worshipped, he wept and scorned.
The doubter, the investigator, the Infidel, have been the
saviours of liberty. The truth is beginning to be realised,
and the intellectual are beginning to honour the brave
thinkers of the past.
But the Church is as unforgiving as ever, and still wonder
why any Infidel should be wicked enough to endeavour to
destroy her power.
I will tell the Church why.
You have imprisoned the human mind; you have been
the enemy of liberty; you have burned us at the stake—
wasted us upon slow fires—torn our flesh with iron , you
have covered us with chains—treated us as outcasts ; you
have filled the world with fear; you have taken our wives
and children from our arms; you have confiscated our pro
perty ; you have denied us the right to testify in .courts of
justice, you have branded us with infamy j you have torn
out our tongues; you have refused us burial. In the name
of your religion, you have robbed us of every right; and
after having inflicted upon us every evil that can be inflicted
in this world, you have fallen upon your knees, and with
clasped hands implored your God to torment us for ever.
Can you wonder that we hate your doctrines—that we
despise your creeds—that we feel proud to know that we
are beyond your power—that we are free in spite of you—
that we can express our honest thought, and that the whole
world is grandly rising into the blessed light ?
Can you wonder that we point with pride to the fact, that
Infidelity has ever been found battling for the rights of man,
for the liberty of conscience, and for the happiness of all ?
Can you wonder that we are proud to know that we have
always been disciples of Reason, and soldiers of Freedom ;
that we have denounced tyranny and superstition, and have
kept our hands unstained with human blood ?
We deny that religion is the end or object of this life.
�ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
21
When it is so considered it becomes destructive of happiness
—the real end of life. It becomes a hydra-headed monster,
reaching in terrible coils from the heavens, and thrusting its
thousand fangs into the bleeding, quivering hearts of men.
It devours their substance, builds palaces for God (who
dwells not in temples made with hands), and allows his
children to die in huts and hovels. It fills the earth with
mourning, heaven with hatred, the present with fear, and all
the future with despair.
Virtue is a subordination of the passions to the intellect.
It is to act in accordance with your highest convictions. It
does not consist in believing, but in doing.
This is the sublime truth that the Infidels in all ages have
uttered. They have handed the torch from one to the other
through all the years that have fled. Upon the altar of Reason
they have kept the sacred fire, and through the long mid
night of faith they fed the divine flame.
Infidelity is liberty; all religion is slavery. In every
creed, man is the slave of God—woman is the slave of man,
and the sweet children are the slaves of all.
We do not want creeds; we want knowledge—we want
happiness.
And yet we are told by the Church that we have accom
plished nothing; that we are simply destroyers; that we tear
down without building again.
Is it nothing to free the mind ? Is it nothing to civilize
mankind? Is it nothing to fill the world with light, with
discovery, with science ? Is it nothing to dignify man and
exalt the intellect ? Is it nothing to grope your way into the
dreary prisons, the damp and dropping dungeons, the dark
and silent cells, where the souls of men are chained to the
floors of stone, to greet them like a ray of light, like the
song of a bird, the murmur of a stream; to see the dull eyes
open and grow slowly bright, to feel yourself grasped by the
shrunken and unused hands, and hear yourself thanked by a
strange and hollow voice ?
Is it nothing to conduct these souls gradually into the
blessed light of day—to let them see again the happy fields,
the sweet, green earth, and hear the everlasting music of the
waves ? Is it nothing to make men wipe the dust from their
swollen knees, the tears from their blanched and furrowed
cheeks ? Is it a small thing to reave the heavens of an
insatiate monster and write upon the eternal dome, glittering
with stars, the grand word—Freedom ?
�22
ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
Is. it a small thing to quench the flames of hell with the
holy tears of pity—to unbind the martyr from the stake
break all the chains—put out the fires of civil war—stay the
sword of the fanatic, and tear the bloody hands of the
Church from the white throat of Science ?
Is it a small thing to make men truly free—to destroy the
dogmas of ignorance, prejudice, and power—the poisoned
fables of superstition, and drive from the beautiful face of
the earth the fiend of Fear?
It does seem as though the most zealous Christian must at
times entertain some doubt as to the divine origin of his
religion. For eighteen hundred years the doctrine has been
preached. For more than a thousand years the Church had,
to a great extent, control of the civilized world, and what
has been the result ? Are the Christian nations patterns of
charity and forbearance ?
On the contrary, their principal business is to destroy
each other. More than five millions of Christians are
trained, educated, and drilled to murder their fellowChristians. Every nation is groaning under a vast debt in
curred in carrying on war against other Christians, or
defending themselves from Christian assault. The world is
covered with forts to protect Christians from Christians ; and
every sea is covered with iron monsters ready to "blow
Christian brains into eternal froth. Millions upon millions
are annually expended in the effort to construct still more
deadly and terrible engines of death. Industry is crippled,
honest toil is robbed, and even beggary is taxed to defray
the expenses of Christian warfare. There must be some other
way to reform this world. We have tried creed and dogma
and fable, and they have failed; and they have failed in all
the nations dead.
The people perish for the lack of knowledge.
Nothing but education—scientific education—can benefit
mankind. We must find out the laws of nature and conform
to them.
We need free bodies and free minds—free labour and free
thought—chainless hands, and fetterless'brains. Free labour
will give us wealth. Free thought will give us truth.
We need men with moral courage to speak and write their
real thoughts, and to stand by their convictions, even to the
very death. We nee^ have no fear of being too radical
The future will verify all grand and brave predictions. Paine
�ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
23
was splendidly in advance of his time; but he was orthodox
compared with the Infidels of to-day.
Science, the great Iconoclast, has been busy since 1809,
and by the highway of Progress are the broken images of the
past.
On every hand the people advance. The Vicar of God
has been pushed from the throne of the Caesars, and upon
the roofs of the Eternal City falls once more the shadow of
the Eagle.
All has been accomplished by the heroic few. The men
of science have explored heaven and earth, and with infinite
patience have furnished the facts. The brave thinkers have
used them. The gloomy caverns of superstition have been
transformed into temples of thought, and the demons of the
past are the angels of to-day.
Science took a handful of sand, constructed a telescope,
and with it explored the starry depths of heaven. Science
wrested from the gods their thunderbolts ; and now the
electric spark, freighted with thought and love, flashes under
all the waves of the sea. Science took a tear from the cheek
of unpaid labour, converted it into steam, created a giant that
turns with tireless arm the countless wheels of toil.
Thomas Paine was one of the intellectual heroes—one of
the men to whom we are indebted. His name is associated
for ever with the Great Republic. As long as free govern
ment exists he will be remembered, admired, and honoured.
He lived a long, laborious and useful life. The world is
better for his having lived. For the sake of truth he ac
cepted hatred and reproach for his portion. He ate the
bitter bread of sorrow. His friends were untrue to him
because he was true to himself and true to them. He lost
the respect of what is called society, but kept his own. His
life is what the world calls failure, and what history calls
success.
If to love your fellow-men more than self is goodness,
Thomas Paine was good.
If to be in advance of your time, to be a pioneer in the
direction of light, is greatness, Thomas Paine was great.
If to avow your principles and to discharge your duty
in the presence of death is heroic, Thomas Paine was &
hero.
At the age of seventy-three death touched his tired heart.
He died in the land his genius defended—under the flag he
^..gave to_the skies. Slander cannot touch him now—hatred
�24
ORATION ON THOMAS PAINE.
cannot reach him more. He sleeps in the sanctuary of the
tomb, beneath the quiet of the stars.
A few more years—a few more brave men—a few more
rays of light, and mankind will venerate the memory of him
who said :
“Any system of religion that shocks the mind of a child
cannot be a true system.”
“The world is my country, and to do good my religion.”
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Oration on Thomas Paine
Creator
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 24 p. ; 17 cm.
Notes: Date of publication from Stein's checklist (Item 78d). Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Freethought Publishing Company
Date
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[1877]
Identifier
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N380
Subject
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Thomas Paine
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Oration on Thomas Paine), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
NSS
Thomas Paine