Thomas
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LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE WITH A HISTORY OF HIS LITERARY, POLITICAL BY MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY AUTHOR OF "OMITTED CHAPTERS OF HISTORY DISCLOSED
THE "LAST GLEANINGS, "THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE"
BY WILLIAM COBBETT VOLUME I G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK
LONDON Knickerbocker Press
Copyright, 1892 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. CHAPTER
PAGE
p.i A BRIEF PREFACE
TO THIS DIGITAL EDITION
p.iii A BRIEF
BIOGRAHICAL NOTE OF MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY Prepared for this Digital Edition Born : March 17, 1832 in Stafford County, Va., U.S.A.
Died : Nov. 15, 1907 in New York, U.S.A. (Sources: The Encyclopedia Americana, 1953; Encyclopædia Britannica, 1994-1999; Simon & Shuster Webster's Biographical Dictionary, 1999; Webster's World Encyclopedia, 2001, 2000; Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, sixth edition, 2000.) Daniel Moncure Conway was born of Methodist slaveholding parents and educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., graduating in 1849. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1850, and later studied at the Harvard Divinity School. He had become imbued with rationalistic ideas and attempted to preach them on his return to Virginia, but was obliged to leave the state. While serving in the Methodist ministry he was converted to Unitarianism, but because of his outspoken Abolitionist views he was dismissed from his first Unitarian pastorate, in Washington, D.C., in 1856. He secured another pastorate in Cincinnati, Ohio, and while there wrote several volumes, and became active in Abolitionist causes, editing The Dial of Cincinnati (1860–61); even settling a colony of fugitive slaves at Yellow Springs, Ohio. In 1862 he became co-editor in Boston of the anti-slavery newspaper, the Commonwealth, earnestly advocating emancipation. During the Civil War he went to England to lecture on behalf of the North explaining the causes of the Civil War, becoming a pastor at South Place Chapel in London, England (1864–84, 1892–97). He returned to America near the close of the century, and made his home in New York. Conway contributed to journals in both England and the United States and wrote more than 70 books and pamphlets on a great variety of subjects. His published books include: Demonology and Devil Lore (1879); The Wandering Jew (1880); Thomas Carlyle (1881); Emerson at Home and Abroad (1882); George Washington and Mount Vernon; Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life of Edmund Randolph (1887); Pine and Palm, a novel (1887); Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1890); Prisms of Air, a novel (1891); The Life of Thomas Paine, 2 vols. (1892); Barons of the Potomac and the Rappahannock (1892); Centenary History of South Place Chapel (1893); The Writings of Thomas Paine, 4 vols. (1894-96); Solomon and Solomonic Literature (1899); Autobiography (1904); My Pilgrimage to the Wise Men of the East (1906); Addresses and Reprints, 1850-1907 (Boston, 1909). His Autobiography (1904) is valuable for sketches of important 19th-century figures. Conway was elected President of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, February 22, 1906 and served as its President until his death in November of 1907. See L. D. Easton, Hegel's First American Followers (1966). p.v ----------------------------------- IN the Preface to the first edition of this work, it was my painful duty to remark with severity on the dissemination of libels on Paine in a work of such importance as Mr. Leslie Stephen's "History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century." The necessity of doing so was impressed on me by the repetition of some of Mr. Stephen's unfounded disparagements in Mr. O. B. Frothingham's "Recollections and Impressions." I have now the satisfaction of introducing this edition with retractations by both of those authors. Mr. Frothingham, in a letter which he authorizes me to use, says: "Your charge is true, and I hasten to say peccavi. The truth is that I never made a study of Paine, but took Stephen's estimates. Now my mistake is clear, and I am willing to stand in the cold with nothing on but a hair shirt. Your vindication of Paine is complete." Mr. Frothingham adds that in any future edition of his work the statements shall be altered. The note of Mr. Leslie Stephen appeared in The National Reformer, September 11, 1892, to which it was sent by a correspondent, at p.vi -- PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION his desire; for it equally relates to strictures in a pamphlet by the editor of that journal, Mr. John M. Robertson.
The account which I gave of Paine in the book upon the Eighteenth Century was, I have no doubt, erroneous. My only excuse, if it be an excuse, was the old one, `pure ignorance.' I will not ask whether or how far the ignorance was excusable.
p.vii -- PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION ignorance of which he has found himself a victim. In advance of his further treatment of the subject, and with perfect confidence in his justice, I here place by the side of my original criticism a retraction of anything that may seem to include him among authors who have shown a lack of magnanimity towards Paine. The general statement (First Preface, p. xvi) must, however, remain; for recent discussions reveal a few unorthodox writers willing to throw, or to leave, " a traditionally hated head to the orthodox mob." On the other hand, some apology is due for this phrase. No orthodox mob is found. Here and there some halloo of the old Paine hunt is heard dying away in the distance, but the conservative religious and political press, American and English, has generally revised the traditional notions, and estimated the evidence with substantial justice. Nearly all of the most influential journals have dealt with the evidence submitted; their articles have been carefully read by me, and in very few are the old prejudices against Paine discoverable. Were these estimates of Paine collected with those of former times the volume would measure this century's advance in political liberty, and religious civilization. My occasionally polemical treatment of the subject has been regretted by several reviewers, but its necessity, I submit, is the thing to be regretted. Being satisfied that Paine was not merely an interesting figure, but that a faithful investigation of his life would bring to light important facts of history, I found it impossible to deal with him as an ordinary p.viii -- PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION subject of inquiry. It were vain to try and persuade people to take seriously a man tarred, feathered, pilloried, pelted. It was not whitewashing Paine needed, but removal of the pitch, and release from the pillory. There must first of all be an appeal against such sentence. And because the wrongs represented a league of prejudices, the pleadings had to be in several tribunals -- moral, religious, political, social, -- before the man could be seen at all, much less accorded the attention necessary for disclosure of the history suppressed through his degradation. Paine's personal vindication would still have required only a pamphlet, but that it was ancillary to the historic revelations which constitute the larger part of this work. A wiser writer unless too wise to touch Paine at all -- might have concealed such sympathies as those pervading this biography; but where sympathies exist the reader is entitled to know them, and the author subjects himself to a severer self-criticism if only in view of the vigilance he must excite. I have no feeling towards Paine inconsistent with recognition of his faults and errors. My vindication of him has been the production of evidence that removed my own early and baseless prejudices, and rendered it possible for me to study his career genuinely, so that others might do the same. The phantasmal Paine cleared away, my polemic ends. I have endeavored to portray the real Paine, and have brought to light some things unfavorable to him which his enemies had not discovered, and, I believe, could never have discovered. p.ix -- PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION The errata in the first edition are few and of slight importance. I wish to retract a suggestion made in my apology for Washington which I have discovered to be erroneous. It was suggested (vol. ii., pp. 173 and 382) that Washington's failure to answer Paine's private letter of September 20, 1795, asking an explanation of his neglect while he (Paine) was in prison and his life in peril, may have been due to its interception by Pickering (who had by a suppression of documents sealed the sad fate of his predecessor in office, Edmund Randolph). I have, however, discovered that Paine's letter did reach Washington. I would be glad if my own investigations, continued while preparing an edition of Paine's works, or any of my reviewers, had enabled me to relieve the shades with which certain famous names are touched by documentary acts in this history. The publication of those relating to Gouverneur Morris, while American Minister in France, was for personal reasons especially painful to myself. Though such publication was not of any importance to Paine's reputation, it was essential to a fair judgment of others -- especially of Washington, -- and to any clear comprehension of the relations between France and the United States at that period. As the correspondence between Gouverneur Morris and the French Minister concerning Paine, after his imprisonment, is in French, and the originals (in Paris) are not easily accessible to American and English readers, I have concluded to copy them here. p.x -- PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
p.xi -- PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION The translations of these letters are on page 120, vol. ii., of this work. No other letters on the subject between these Ministers are known. The reader may judge whether there is anything in the American Minister's application to warrant the opening assertion in that of Deforgues. Morris forwarded the latter to his government, ut withheld his application, of which no copy exists in the State Archives at Washington. p.xiii AT Hornsey, England, I saw a small square mahogany table, bearing at its centre the following words: "This Plate is inscribed by Thos. Clio Rickman in Remembrance of his dear friend Thomas Paine, who on this table in the year 1792 wrote several of his invaluable Works." The works written by Paine in Rickman's house were the second part of "The Rights of Man," and "A Letter to the Addressers." Of these two books vast numbers were circulated, and though the government prosecuted them, they probably contributed largely to make political progress in England evolutionary instead of revolutionary. On this table he set forth constitutional reforms that might be peacefully obtained, and which have been substantially obtained. And here he warned the "Addressers," petitioning the throne for suppression of his works "It is dangerous in any government to say to a nation, Thou shall not read. This is now done in Spain, and was formerly done under the old government of France; but it served to procure the downfall of the latter, and is subverting that of the former; and it will have the same tendency in all countries; because Thought, by some means or p.xiv -- PREFACE other, is got abroad in the world, and cannot be restrained, though reading may." At this table the Quaker chieftain, whom Danton rallied for hoping to make revolutions with rosewater, unsheathed his pen and animated his Round Table of Reformers for a conflict free from the bloodshed he had witnessed in America, and saw threatening France. This little table was the field chosen for the battle of free speech; its abundant ink-spots were the shed blood of hearts transfused with humanity. I do not wonder that Rickman was wont to show the table to his visitors, or hat its present owner, Edward Truelove -- a bookseller who has suffered imprisonment for selling proscribed books, -- should regard it with reverence. The table is what was once called a candle-stand, and there stood on it, in my vision, Paine's clear, honest candle, lit from his "inner light," now covered by a bushel of prejudice. I myself had once supposed his light an infernal torch; now I sat at the ink-spotted candle-stand to write the first page of this history, for which I can invoke nothing higher than the justice that inspired what Thomas Paine here wrote. The educated ignorance concerning Paine is astounding. I once heard an English prelate speak of "the vulgar atheism of Paine." Paine founded the first theistic society in Christendom; his will closes with the words, "I die in perfect composure, and resignation to the will of my Creator, God." But what can be expected of an English prelate when an historian like Jared Sparks, an old Unitarian minister, could suggest that a letter written p.xv -- PREFACE by Franklin, to persuade some one not to publish a certain attack on religion, was "probably" addressed to Paine. (Franklin's "Writings," vol. x., p. 281.) Paine never wrote a page that Franklin could have so regarded, nor anything in the way of religious controversy until three years after Franklin's death. "The remarks in the above letter," says Sparks, "are strictly applicable to the deistical writings which Paine afterwards published." On the contrary, they are strictly inapplicable. They imply that the writer had denied a "particular providence," which Paine never denied, and it is asked, "If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it?" Paine's "deism" differed from Franklin's only in being more fervently religious. No one who had really read Paine could imagine the above question addressed to the author to whom the Bishop of Llandaff wrote: "There is a philosophical sublimity in some of your ideas when speaking of the Creator of the Universe." The reader may observe at work, in this example, the tiny builder, prejudice, which has produced the large formation of Paine mythology. Sparks, having got his notion of Paine's religion at second-hand, becomes unwittingly a weighty authority for those who have a case to make out. The American Tract Society published a tract entitled "Don't Unchain the Tiger," in which it is said: "When an infidel production was submitted -- probably by Paine -- to Benjamin Franklin, in manuscript, he returned it to the author, with a letter from which the following is extracted: `I would advise you not to attempt unchaining the Tiger, but to burn p.xvi -- PREFACE this piece before it is seen by any other person." Thus our Homer of American history nods, and a tract floats through the world misrepresenting both Paine and Franklin, whose rebuke is turned from some anti-religious essay against his own convictions. Having enjoyed the personal friendship of Mr. Sparks, while at college, and known his charity to all opinions, I feel certain that he was an unconscious victim of the Paine mythology to which he added. His own creed was, in essence, little different from Paine's. But how many good, and even liberal, people will find by the facts disclosed in this volume that they have been accepting the Paine mythology and contributing to it? It is a notable fact that the most effective distortions of Paine's character and work have proceeded from unorthodox writers -- some of whom seem not above throwing a traditionally hated head to the orthodox mob. A recent instance is the account given of Paine in Leslie Stephen's "History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century." On its appearance I recognized the old effigy of Paine elaborately constructed by Oldys and Cheetham, and while writing a paper on the subject (Fortnightly Review, March, 1879) discovered that those libels were the only "biographies" of Paine in the London Library, which (as I knew) was used by Mr. Stephen. The result was a serious miscarriage of historical and literary justice. In his second edition Mr. Stephen adds that the portrait presented "is drawn by an enemy," but on this Mr. Robertson pertinently asks why it was allowed to stand? ("Thomas Paine: an Investigation," by p.xvii -- PREFACE John M. Robertson, London, 1888). Mr. Stephen, eminent as an agnostic and editor of a biographical dictionary, is assumed to be competent, and his disparagements of a fellow heretic necessitated by verified facts. His scholarly style has given new lease to vulgar slanders. Some who had discovered their untruth, as uttered by Paine's personal enemies, have taken them back on Mr. Stephen's authority. Even brave O. B. Frothingham, in his high estimate of Paine, introduces one or two of Mr. Stephen's depreciations (Frothingham's "Recollection and Impressions," 1891). There has been a sad absence of magnanimity among eminent historians and scholars in dealing with Paine. The vignette in Oldys -- Paine with his "Rights of Man" preaching to apes; -- the Tract Society's picture of Paine's death-bed -- hair on end, grasping a bottle, -- might have excited their inquiry. Goethe, seeing Spinoza's face demonized in a tract, was moved to studies of that philosopher which ended in recognition of his greatness. (The chivalry of Goethe is indeed almost as rare as his genius, but one might have expected in students of history an historic instinct keen enough to suspect in the real Paine some proportion to his monumental mythology, and the pyramidal cairn of curses covering his grave. What other last-century writer on political and religious issues survives in the hatred and devotion of a time engaged with new problems? What power is confessed in that writer who was set in the place of a decadent Satan, hostility to him being a sort of sixth point of Calvinism, and fortieth article of the Church? Large p.xviii -- PREFACE indeed must have been the influence of a man still perennially denounced by sectarians after heretical progress has left him comparatively orthodox, and retained as the figure-head of "Freethought" after his theism has been abandoned by its leaders. "Religion," said Paine, "has two principal enemies, Fanaticism and Infidelity." It was his strange destiny to be made a battle-field between these enemies. In the smoke of the conflict the man has been hidden. In the catalogue of the British Museum Library I counted 327 entries of books by or concerning Thomas Paine, who in most of them is a man-shaped or devil-shaped shuttlecock tossed between fanatical and "infidel" rackets. Here surely were phenomena enough to attract the historic sense of a scientific age, yet they are counterpart of an historic suppression of the most famous author of his time. The meager references to Paine by other than controversial writers are perfunctory; by most historians he is either wronged or ignored. Before me are two histories of "American Slavery" by eminent members of Congress; neither mentions that Paine was the first political writer who advocated and devised a scheme of emancipation. Here is the latest "Life of Washington" (1889), by another member of Congress, who manages to exclude even the name of the man who, as we shall see, chiefly converted Washington to the cause of independence. And here is a history of the "American Revolution" (1891), by John Fiske, who, while recognizing the effect of "Common Sense," reveals his ignorance of that pamphlet, and of all Paine's works, by describing it as full of p.xix -- PREFACE scurrilous abuse of the English people, -- whom Paine regarded as fellow-sufferers with the Americans under royal despotism. It may be said for these contemporaries that the task of sifting out the facts about Paine was formidable. The intimidated historians of the last generation, passing by this famous figure, left an historic vacuum, which has been filled with mingled fact and fable to an extent hardly manageable by any not prepared to give some years to the task. Our historians, might, however, have read Paine's works, which are rather historical documents than literary productions. None of them seem to have done this, and the omission appears in many a flaw in their works. The reader of some documents in this volume, left until now to slumber in accessible archives, will get some idea of the cost to historic truth of this long timidity and negligence. But some of the results are more deplorable and irreparable, and one of these must here be disclosed. In 1802 an English friend of Paine, Redman Yorke, visited him in Paris. In a letter written at the time Yorke states that Paine had for some time been preparing memoirs of his own life, and his correspondence, and showed him two volumes of the same. In a letter of Jan. 25, 1805, to Jefferson, Paine speaks of his wish to publish his works, which will make, with his manuscripts, five octavo volumes of four hundred pages each. Besides which he means to publish "a miscellaneous volume of correspondence, essays, and some pieces of poetry." He had also, he says, prepared historical prefaces, p.xx -- PREFACE stating the circumstances under which each work was written. All of which confirms Yorke's statement, and shows that Paine had prepared at least two volumes of autobiographic matter and correspondence. Paine never carried out the design mentioned to Jefferson, and his manuscripts passed by bequest to Madame Bonneville. This lady, after Paine's death, published a fragment of Paine's third part of "The Age of Reason," but it was afterwards found that she had erased passages that might offend the orthodox. Madame Bonneville returned to her husband in Paris, and the French "Biographical Dictionary" states that in 1829 she, as the depositary of Paine's papers, began "editing" his life. This, which could only have been the autobiography, was never published. She had become a Roman Catholic. On returning (1833) to America, where her son, General Bonneville, also a Catholic, was in military service, she had personal as well as religious reasons for suppressing the memoirs. She might naturally have feared the revival of an old scandal concerning her relations with Paine. The same motives may have prevented her son from publishing Paine's memoirs and manuscripts. Madame Bonneville died at the house of the General, in St. Louis. I have a note from his widow, Mrs. Sue Bonneville, in which she says: "The papers you speak of regarding Thomas Paine are all destroyed -- at least all which the General had in his possession. On his leaving St. Louis for an indefinite time all his effects -- a handsome library and valuable papers included were stored away, and during his absence the p.xxi -- PREFACE storehouse burned down, and all that the General stored away were burned." There can be little doubt that among these papers burned in St. Louis were the two volumes of Paine's autobiography and correspondence seen by Redman Yorke in 1802. Even a slight acquaintance with Paine's career would enable one to recognize this as a catastrophe. No man was more intimately acquainted with the inside history of the revolutionary movement, or so competent to record it. Franklin had deposited with him his notes and papers concerning the American Revolution. He was the only Girondist who survived the French Revolution who was able to tell their secret history. His personal acquaintance included nearly every great or famous man of his time, in England, America, France. From this witness must have come testimonies, facts, anecdotes, not to be derived from other sources, concerning Franklin, Goldsmith, Ferguson, Rittenhouse, Rush, Fulton, Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, the Adamses, Lees, Morrises, Condorcet, Vergennes, Sièyes, Lafayette, Danton, Genêt, Brissot, Robespierre, Marat, Burke, Erskine, and a hundred others. All this, and probably invaluable letters from these men, have been lost through the timidity of a woman before the theological "boycott" on the memory of a theist, and the indifference of this country to its most important materials of History. When I undertook the biography of Edmund Randolph I found that the great mass of his correspondence had been similarly destroyed by fire in New Orleans, and probably a like fate will befall p.xxii -- PREFACE the Madison papers, Monroe papers, and others, our national neglect of which will appear criminal to posterity. After searching through six States to gather documents concerning Randolph which should all have been in Washington City, the writer petitioned the Library Committee of Congress to initiate some action towards the preservation of our historical manuscripts. The Committee promptly and unanimously approved the proposal, a definite scheme was reported by the Librarian of Congress, and -- there the matter rests. As the plan does not include any device for advancing partisan interests, it stands a fair chance of remaining in our national oubliette of intellectual desiderata. In writing the "Life of Paine" I have not been saved much labor by predecessors in the same field. They have all been rather controversial pamphleteers than biographers, and I have been unable to accept any of their statements without verification. They have been useful, however, in pointing out regions of inquiry, and several of them -- Rickman, Sherwin, Linton -- contain valuable citations from contemporary papers. The truest delineation of Paine is the biographical sketch by his friend Rickman. The "Life" by Vale, and sketches by Richard Carlile, Blanchard, and others, belong to the controversial collectanea in which Paine's posthumous career is traceable. The hostile accounts of Paine, chiefly found in tracts and encyclopædias, are mere repetitions of those written by George Chalmers and James Cheetham. The first of these was published in 1791 under the title: "The Life of Thomas Pain, Author of p.xxiii -- PREFACE 'The Rights of Men,' with a Defence of his Writings. By Francis Oldys, A.M., of the University of Pennsylvania. London. Printed for John Stockdale, Pickadilly." This writer, who begins his vivisection of Paine by accusing him of adding "e" to his name, assumed in his own case an imposing pseudonym. George Chalmers never had any connection with the University of Philadelphia, nor any such degree. Sherwin (1819) states that Chalmers admitted having received £500 from Lord Hawksbury, in whose bureau he was a clerk, for writing the book; but though I can find no denial of this I cannot verify it. In his later editions the author claims that his book had checked the influence of Paine, then in England, and his "Rights of Man," which gave the government such alarm that subsidies were paid several journals to counteract their effect. (See the letter of Freching, cited from the Vansitart Papers, British Museum, by W. H. Smith, in the Century, August, 1891.) It is noticeable that Oldys, in his first edition, entitles his work a "Defence" of Paine's writings -- a trick which no doubt carried this elaborate libel into the hands of many "Paineites." The third edition has, With a Review of his Writings." In a later edition we find the vignette of Paine surrounded by apes. Cobbett's biographer, Edward Smith, describes the book as "one of the most horrible collections of abuse which even that venal day produced." The work was indeed so overweighted with venom that it was sinking into oblivion when Cobbett reproduced its libels in America, for which he did penance through many years. My reader p.xxiv -- PREFACE will perceive, in the earlier chapters of this work, that Chalmers tracked Paine in England with enterprise, but there were few facts that he did not manage to twist into his strand of slander. In 1809, not long after Paine's death, James Cheetham's "Life of Thomas Paine " appeared in New York. Cheetham had been a hatter in Manchester, England, and would probably have continued in that respectable occupation had it not been for Paine. When Paine visited England and there published "The Rights of Man" Cheetham became one of his idolaters, took to political writing, and presently emigrated to America. He became editor of The American Citizen, in New York. The cause of Cheetham's enmity to Paine was the discovery by the latter that he was betraying the Jeffersonian party while his paper was enjoying its official patronage. His exposure of the editor was remorseless; the editor replied with personal vituperation; and Paine was about instituting a suit for libel when he died. Of Cheetham's ingenuity in falsehood one or two specimens may be given. During Paine's trial in London, for writing "The Rights of Man," a hostile witness gave testimony which the judge pronounced "impertinent"; Cheetham prints it "important." He says that Madame de Bonneville accompanied Paine on his return from France in 1802; she did not arrive until a year later. He says that when Paine was near his end Monroe wrote asking him to acknowledge a debt for money loaned in Paris, and that Paine made no reply. But before me is Monroe's statement, while President, that for his advances to p.xxv -- PREFACE Paine "no claim was ever presented on my part, nor is any indemnity now desired." Cheetham's book is one of the most malicious ever written, and nothing in it can be trusted. Having proposed to myself to write a critical and impartial history of the man and his career, I found the vast Paine literature, however interesting as a shadow measuring him who cast it, containing conventionalized effigies of the man as evolved by friend and foe in their long struggle. But that war has ended among educated people. In the laborious work of searching out the real Paine I have found a general appreciation of its importance, and it will be seen in the following pages that generous assistance has been rendered by English clergymen, by official persons in Europe and America, by persons of all beliefs and no beliefs. In no instance have I been impeded by any prejudice, religious or political. The curators of archives, private collectors, owners of important documents bearing on the subject, have welcomed my effort to bring the truth to light. The mass of material thus accumulated is great, and its compression has been a difficult task. But the interest that led me to the subject has increased at every step; the story has abounded in thrilling episodes and dramatic surprises; and I have proceeded with a growing conviction that the simple facts, dispassionately told, would prove of importance far wider than Paine's personality, and find welcome with all students of history. I have brought to my task a love for it, the studies of some years, and results of personal researches made in Europe and America: qualifications which I count xxvi -- PREFACE less than another which I venture to claim -- the sense of responsibility,
acquired by a public teacher of long service, for his words, which, be they
truths or errors, take on life, and work their good or evil to all generations.
p. 1 CHAPTER I EARLY INFLUENCES
THE history here undertaken is that of an English mechanic, of Quaker training, caught in political cyclones of the last century, and set at the centre of its revolutions, in the old world and the new. In the church register of Euston Parish, near Thetford, England, occurs this entry: "1734. Joseph Pain and Frances Cocke were married June 20th." These were the parents of Thomas Paine. The present rector of Euston Church, Lord Charles Fitz Roy, tells me that the name is there plainly "Pain," but in the Thetford town-records of that time it is officially entered "Joseph Paine." Paine and Cocke are distinguished names in the history of Norfolk County. In, the sixteenth century Newhall Manor, on the road between Thetford and Norwich, belonged to a Paine family. In 1553 Thomas Paine Gent., was, by license from Queen Mary, trustee for the Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII., by Queen Anne Bullen. In St. Thomas Church, Norwich, stands the monument of Sir Joseph Paine, Knt., the most famous mayor p.2 -- EARLY INFLUENCES [1734] and benefactor of that city in the seventeenth century. In St. John the Baptist Church is the memorial of justice Francis Cocke (d. 1628). Whether our later Joseph and Thomas were related to these earlier Paines has not been ascertained, but Mr. E. Chester Waters, of London, an antiquarian especially learned in family histories, expressed to me his belief that the Norfolk County Paines are of one stock. There is equal probability that John Cocke, Deputy Recorder of Thetford in 1629, pretty certainly ancestor of Thomas Paine's mother, was related to Richard Cock, of Norwich, author of "English Law, or a Summary Survey of the Household of God upon Earth " (London, 1651). The author of "The Rights of Man" may therefore be a confutation of his own dictum: "An hereditary governor is as inconsistent as an hereditary author." One Thomas Payne, of the Norfolk County family, was awarded £20 by the Council of State (1650) "for his sufferings by printing a book for the cause of Parliament." Among the sequestrators of royalist church livings was Charles George Cock, "student of Christian Law, of the Society of the Inner Temple, now [1651] resident of Norwich." In Blomefield's "History of Norfolk County" other notes may be found suggesting that whatever may have been our author's genealogy he was spiritually descended from these old radicals. At Thetford I explored a manuscript -- "Freeman's Register Book" (1610-1756) -- and found that Joseph Paine (our author's father) was made a freeman of Thetford April 18, 1737, and Henry Cock May 16, 1740. The freemen of this borough p.3 -- EARLY INFLUENCES [1737] were then usually respectable tradesmen. Their privileges amounted to little more than the right of pasturage on the commons. The appointment did not imply high position, but popularity and influence. Frances Cocke had no doubt resided in Euston Parish, where she was married. She was a member of the Church of England and daughter of an attorney of Thetford. Her husband was a Quaker and is said to have been disowned by the Society of Friends for being married by a priest. A search made for me by official members of that Society in Norfolk County failed to discover either the membership or disownment of any one of the name. Joseph's father, a farmer, was probably a Quaker. Had the son (b. 1708) been a Quaker by conversion he would hardly have defied the rules of the Society at twenty-six. Joseph was eleven years younger than his wife. According to Oldys he was "a reputable citizen and though poor an honest man," but his wife was "a woman of sour temper and an eccentric character." Thomas Paine's writings contain several affectionate allusions to his father, but none to his mother. "They say best men are moulded out of faults," and the moulding begins before birth. Thomas Paine was born January 29, 1736-7, at Thetford. The plain brick house was in Bridge Street (now White Hart) and has recently made way for a pretty garden. I was inclined to adopt a more picturesque tradition that the birthplace was in old Heathenman Street, as more appropriate for a païen (no doubt the origin of Paine's name), who also bore the name of the p.4 -- EARLY INFLUENCES [1737] doubting disciple. An appeal for allowances might be based on such a conjunction of auspices, but a manuscript of Paine's friend Rickman, just found by Dr. Clair J. Grece, identifies the house beyond question. Thomas Paine is said by most of his biographers to have never been
baptized. This rests solely on a statement by Oldys: "It arose probably from the tenets of the father, and from the eccentricity of the mother, that our author was never baptized, though he was privately named; and never received, like true Christians, into the bosom of any church, though he was indeed confirmed by the bishop of Norwich: This last circumstance was owing to the orthodox zeal of Mistress Cocke, his aunt, a woman of such goodness, that though she lived on a small annuity, she imparted much of this little to his mother.
p.5 -- EARLY INFLUENCES [1738] (John Price) died, and his successor (Thomas Vaughan) appears to have entered on his duties in March, 1737. A little before and during this interregnum the registers were neglected. In St. Cuthbert's register is the entry: Elizabeth, Daughter of Joseph Payne and Frances is wife of this parish, was born Aug't the 29th, 1738, baptized September ye 20, 1738." This (which Oldys has got inaccurately, suo more) renders it probable that Thomas Paine was also baptized. Indeed, he would hardly have been confirmed otherwise. The old historian of Norfolk County, Francis Blomefield, introduces
us to Thetford (Sitomagus, Tedford, Theford, "People of the Ford") with a
strain of poetry: "No situation but may envy thee,
Evelyn, visiting his friend Lord Arlington at Euston in September, 1677, writes:
"I went to Thetford, the Burrough Towne, where stand the ruines of a religious house; there is a round mountaine artificially raised, either for some castle or monument, which, makes a pretty landscape. As we went and return'd, a tumbler shew'd his extraordinary addresse in the Warren. I also saw the Decoy, much pleas'd with the stratagem."
Evelyn leaves his own figure, his princely friends, and the tumbler
in the foreground of "a pretty landscape" visible to the antiquarian all
around Thetford, whose roads, fully followed, would lead past the great scenes
of English history. In general appearance the town (population
under five thousand) conveys the pleasant impression of a fairly composite
picture of its eras and generations. There is a continuity between
the old Grammar School, occupying the site of the ancient cathedral, and
a new Mechanics' Institute in the old Guildhall. The old churches
summon their flocks from eccentric streets suggestive of literal sheep-paths.
Of the ignorance with which our democratic age sweeps away as cobwebs fine
threads woven by the past around the present, Thetford showed
few signs, but it is sad to find "Guildhall " effacing "Heathenman" Street,
which pointed across a thousand years to the march of the "heathen men" (Danes)
of Anglo-Saxon chronicles. "A. 870. This year the (heathen army rode across Mercia into East Anglia, and took up their winter quarters in Thetford; and the same winter King Edmund fought against them, and the Danes got the victory, and slew the king, and subdued all the land, and destroyed all the ministers which they came to. The names of their chiefs who slew the king were Hingwar and Habba."
p.7 -- EARLY INFLUENCES [1742- ?]
"A. 1094. Then at Candlemas the king [William Rufus] went to Hastings, and whilst he waited there for a fair wind he caused the monastery, on the field of battle to be consecrated; and he took the staff from Herbert Losange, bishop of Thetford."
Thetford was, in a way, connected with the first newspaper enterprise. Its member of Parliament, Sir Joseph Williamson, edited the London Gazette, established by the Crown to support its own policy. The Crown claimed the sole right to issue any journal, and its license was necessary for every book. In 1674 Sir Joseph, being Secretary of State (he bought the office for £5,000), had control of the Gazette and of literature. In that year, when Milton died, his treatise on "Christian Doctrine" was brought to Williamson for license. He said he could "countenance nothing of Milton's writings," and the treatise was locked up by this first English editor, to be discovered a hundred and forty-nine years later. On his way to the Grammar School (founded by bequest of Sir Richard Fulmerston, 1566) Paine might daily read an inscription set in the Fulmerston almshouse wall: "Follow peace and holines with all men without the which no man shall see the Lord." But many memorials would remind p.8 -- EARLY INFLUENCES [1742- ?] him of how Williamson, a poor rector's son, had sold his talent to a political lord and reached power to buy and sell Cabinet offices, while suppressing Milton. Thomas Paine, with more talent than Williamson to dispose of, was born in a time semi-barbaric at its best, and savage at its worst. Having got in the Quaker meeting an old head on his young shoulders, he must bear about a burden against most things around him. The old churches were satanic steeple-houses, and if he strolled over to that in which his parents were married, at Euston, its new splendors were accused by surrounding squalor. Mr. F. H. Millington of Thetford, who has told Williamson's story [1], has made for me a search into Paine's time there.
"In Paine's boyhood [says Mr. Millington in a letter I have from him] the town (about 2,000 inhabitants) possessed a corporation with mayor, aldermen, sword-bearers, macemen, recorder. The corporation was a corrupt body, under the dominance of the Duke of Grafton, a prominent member of the Whig government. Both members of Parliament (Hon. C. Fitzroy, and Lord Augustus Fitzroy) were nominees of Gafton. The people had no interest and no power, and I do not think politics were of any account in Paine's childhood. From Paine's `Rights of Man' (Part ii., p. 108) it is clear that his native town was the model in his mind when he wrote on charters and corporations. The Lent Assizes for the Eastern Circuit were held here, and Paine would be familiar with the procedure and pomp of a court of justice. He would also be familiar with the sight of men and women hung for trivial offences. Thetford was on the main road to London, and was a posting centre. Paine [1] "Sir Joseph Williamson, Knt., A.D. 1630-1701. A Page in the History of Thetford." A very valuable contribution to local history. p.9 -- EARLY INFLUENCES [1742- ?] would be familiar with the faces and equipages of some of the great Whig nobles in Norfolk. Walpole might pass through on his way to Houghton. The river Ouse was navigable to Lynn, and Paine would probably go on a barge to that flourishing seaport. Bury St. Edmunds was a provincial capital for the nobility and gentry of the district. It was twelve miles from Thetford, and in closest connection with it. The religious life of Thetford would be quiet. The churches were poor, having been robbed at the reformation. The Quakers were the only non-conformists in the town. There is a tradition that Wesley visited the town; if he did Paine would no doubt be among his hearers. On the whole, I think it easy to trace in Paine's works the influence of his boyhood here. He would see the corrupting influence of the aristocracy, the pomp of law, the evils of the unreformed corporations; the ruins of great ecclesiastical establishments, much more perfect than now, would bring to his mind what a power the church had been. Being of a mechanical turn of mind no doubt he had often played about the paper-mill which was, and is, worked by water-power."
p.10 -- EARLY INFLUENCES [1742- ?] and his eminent son has repeatedly mentioned his own training in the principles of that Society. Remembering the extent to which Paine's Quakerism had influenced his political theories, and instances of their bearing on great events, I found something impressive in the little meetinghouse in Cage Lane, Thetford. This was his more important birthplace. Its small windows and one door open on the tombless graveyard at the back, -- perhaps that they might not be smashed by the mob, or admit the ribaldry of the street. The interior is hardly large enough to seat fifty people: Plymouth Brethren have for some years occupied the place, but I was told that the congregation, reduced to four or five, would soon cease to gather there. Adjoining the meetinghouse, and in contact with it, stands the ancient Cage, which still remains to explain the name "Cage Lane." In its front are two arches, once iron-grated; at one stood the pillory, at the other the stocks, -- the latter remembered by some now living. On "first day," when his schoolmates went in fine clothes to grand churches, to see gay people, and hear fine music, little Thomas, dressed in drab, crept affrighted past the stocks to his childhood's pillory in the dismal meeting-house. For him no beauty or mirth, no music but the paths of the pilloried, or shrieks of those awaiting the gallows. There could be no silent meeting in Cage Lane. Testimonies of the "Spirit" against inhumanity, delivered beside instruments of legal torture, bred pity in the child, who had a poetic temperament. The earliest glimpses we have of his childhood are p.11 -- EARLY INFLUENCES [1745] in lines written on a fly caught in a spider's web, and an epitaph for a crow which he buried in the garden:
"Here lies the body of John Crow,
"Though I reverence their philanthropy, I cannot help smiling at the conceit, that if the taste of a Quaker had been consulted at the creation, what a silent and drab-coloured creation it would have been! Not a flower would have blossomed its gaieties, nor a bird been permitted to sing."
There is a pathos under his smile at this conceit. Paine wrote it in later life, amid the flowers and birds of his garden, which he loved, but whose gaieties he could never imitate. He with difficulty freed himself from his early addiction to an unfashionable garb; he rarely entered a theatre, and could never enjoy cards. By the light of the
foregoing facts we may appreciate the few casual reminiscences of his school-days
found in Paine's writings: "My parents were not able to give me a shilling, beyond what they gave me in education; and to do this they distressed themselves.
p.13 -- EARLY INFLUENCES [1749] have had more reasons than he has assigned. The poetic temperament and power, repressed in the purely literary direction, are apt to break out in glowing visions of ideal society and fiery denunciations of the unlovely world. Paine was not under the master of Thetford
School (Colman), who taught Latin, but under the usher, Mr. William Knowler,
who admitted the Quaker lad to some intimacy, and related to him his adventures
while serving on a man-of-war. Paine's father had a small farm,
but he also carried on a stay-making business in Thetford, and his son was
removed from school, at the age of thirteen, to be taught the art and mystery
of making stays. To that he stuck for nearly five years.
But his father became poorer, his mother probably more discontented, and
the boy began to dream over the adventures of Master Knowler on a man-of-war.
p.14 EARLY STRUGGLES
IN the middle of the eighteenth century England and France were contending for empire in India and in America. For some service the ship Terrible, Captain Death, was fitted out, and Thomas Paine made an effort to sail on her. It seems, however, that he was overtaken by his father on board, and carried home again. "From this adventure I was happily prevented by the affectionate and moral remonstrances of a good father, who from the habits of his life, being of the Quaker profession, looked on me as lost." This privateer lost in an engagement one hundred and seventy-five of its two hundred men. Thomas was then in his seventeenth year. The effect of the paternal remonstrances, unsupported by any congenial outlook at Thetford, soon wore off, and, on the formal declaration of war against France (1756), he was again seized with the longing for heroic adventure, and went to sea on the King of Prussia, privateer, Captain Mendez. Of that he soon got enough, but he did not return home. Of Paine's adventures with the privateer there is no record. Of yet more momentous events of his life for some years there is known nothing beyond p.15 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1756] the barest outline. In his twentieth year he found work in London (with Mr. Morris, stay-maker, Hanover Street, Longacre), and there remained near two years. These were fruitful years. "As soon as I was able I purchased a pair of globes, and attended the philosophical lectures of Martin and Ferguson, and became afterwards acquainted with Dr. Bevis, of the society called the Royal Society, then living in the Temple, and an excellent astronomer." In 1758 Paine found employment at Dover
with a stay-maker named Grace. In April, 1759, he repaired to
Sandwich, Kent, where he established himself as a master stay-maker.
There is a tradition at Sandwich that he collected a congregation in his
room in the market-place, and preached to them "as an independent, or a Methodist."
Here, at twenty-two, he married Mary Lambert. She was an orphan
and a waiting-woman to Mrs. Richard Solly, wife of a woollen-draper in Sandwich.
The Rev. Horace Gilder, Rector of St. Peter's, Sandwich, has kindly referred
to the register, and finds the entry: "Thomas Pain, of the parish of St. Peters, in the town of Sandwich, in Kent, bachelor, and Mary Lambert, of the same parish, spinster, were married in this church, by licence, this 27th day of Sept., 1759, by me William Bunce, Rector." Signed "Thomas Pain, Mary Lambert. In the presence of Thomas Taylor, Maria Solly, John Joslin."
p.16 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1759] Paine then concluded to abandon the stay-making business. His wife's father had once been an exciseman. Paine resolved to prepare himself for that office, and corresponded with his father on the subject. The project found favor, and Paine, after passing some months of study in London, returned to Thetford in July, 1761. Here, while acting as a, supernumerary officer of excise, he continued his studies, and enjoyed the friendship of Mr. Cocksedge, the Recorder of Thetford. On 1 December, 1762, he was appointed to guage brewers' casks at Gantham. On 8 August, 1764, he was set to watch smugglers at Alford. Thus Thomas Paine, in his twenty-fifth year, was engaged in executing Excise Acts, whose application to America prepared the way for independence. Under pressure of two great hungers -- for bread, for science -- the young exciseman took little interest in politics. "I had no disposition for what is called politics. It presented to my mind no other idea than is contained in the word jockeyship." The excise, though a Whig measure, was odious to the people, and smuggling was regarded as not only venial but clever. Within two years after an excise of £1 per gallon was laid on spirits (1746), twelve thousand persons were convicted for offences against the Act, which then became a dead letter. Paine's post at Alford was a dangerous one. The exciseman who pounced on a party of smugglers got a special reward, but he risked his life. The salary was only fifty pounds, the promotions few, and the excise service had fallen into usages of negligence and corruption to which Paine p.17 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1762] was the first to call public attention. "After tax, charity, and fitting expenses are deducted, there remains very little more than forty-six pounds; and the expenses of housekeeping in many places cannot be brought under fourteen pounds a year, besides the purchase at first, and the hazard of life, which reduces it to thirty-two pounds per annum, or one shilling and nine-pence farthing per day." It is hardly wonderful that Paine with his globes and scientific books should on one occasion have fallen in with the common practice of excisemen called "stamping," -- that is, setting down surveys of work on his books, at home, without always actually travelling to the traders' premises and examining specimens. These detective rounds were generally offensive to the warehouse people so visited, and the scrutiny had become somewhat formal. For this case of "stamping," frankly confessed, Paine was discharged from office, 27 August, 1765 [1]. ----------------------- [1]. I am indebted to Mr. G. J. Holyoake for documents that
shed full light on an incident which Oldys has carefully left in the half-light
congenial to his insinuations. The minute of the Board of Excise,
dated 27 August, 1765, is as follows: "Thomas Paine, officer of Alford (Lincolnshire), Grantham collection, having on July 11th stamped the whole ride, as appears by the specimens not being signed in any part thereof, though proper entry was shown in journal, and the victualler's stocks drawn down in his books as if the same had been surveyed that day, as by William Swallow, Supervisor's letter of 3rd instant, and the collector's report thereon, also by the said Paine's own confession of the 13th instant, ordered to be discharged; that Robert Peat, dropped malt assistant in Lynn collection, succeed him. The following is Paine's petition for restoration:
"LONDON, July 3, 1766. Board's minute: "July 4, 1766. Ordered that he be restored on a proper vacancy." Mr. B. F. Dun, for thirty-three years an officer of excise, discovered the facts connected with Paine 's discharge, and also saw Paine's letter and entry books. In a letter before me he says: "I consider Mr. Paine's restoration as creditable to him as to the then Board of Excise." p.18 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1765] After Paine's dismission he supported himself as a journeyman with Mr. Gudgeon, a stay-maker of Diss, Norfolk, where he is said to have frequently quarrelled with his fellow-workmen. To be cast back on the odious work, to be discharged and penniless at twenty-eight, could hardly soothe the poor man's temper, and I suppose he did not remain long at Diss. He is traceable in 1766 in Lincolnshire, by his casual mention of the date in connection with an incident related in his fragment on "Forgetfulness." He was on a visit at the house of a widow lady in a village of the Lincolnshire fens, and as they were walking in the garden, in the summer evening, they beheld at some distance a white figure moving. He quitted Mrs. E. and pursued the figure, and when he at length reached out his hand, "the idea struck me," he says, "will my hand pass through the air, or shall feel anything?" It proved to be a love-distracted maiden who, on hearing of the marriage of one she supposed her lover, meant to drown herself in a neighboring pond. p.19 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1766] That Thomas Paine should sue for an office worth, beyond its expenses, thirty-two pounds, argues not merely penury, but an amazing unconsciousness, in his twenty-ninth year, of his powers. In London, for some months there stood between him and starvation only a salary of twenty-five pounds, given him by a Mr. Noble for teaching English in his academy in Goodman's Fields. This was the year 1766, for though Paine was restored to the excise on July 11th of this year no place was found for him. In January, 1767, he was employed by Mr. Gardiner in his school at Kensington. Rickman and others have assigned to this time Paine's attendance of lectures at the Royal Society, which I have however connected with his twentieth year. He certainly could not have afforded globes during this pauperized year 1766. In reply to Rickman's allusion to the lowly situations he had been in at this time, Paine remarked: "Here I derived considerable information; indeed I have seldom passed five minutes of my life, however circumstanced, in which I did not acquire some knowledge." According to Oldys he remained in the school at Kensington but three months. "His desire of preaching now returned on him," says the same author, "but applying to his old master for a certificate of his qualifications, to the bishop of London, Mr. Noble told his former usher, that since he was only an English scholar he could not recommend him as a proper candidate for ordination in the church." It would thus appear that Paine had not parted from his employer in Goodman's Fields in any unpleasant way. Of his relation with his p.20 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1766] pupils only one trace remains -- a letter in which he introduces one of them to General Knox, September 17, 1783: "Old friend, I just take the opportunity of sending my respects to you by Mr. Darby, a gentleman who was formerly a pupil of mine in England." Oldys says that Paine, "without regular orders," preached in Moorfields and elsewhere in England, "as he was urged by his necessities or directed by his spirit." Although Paine's friendly biographers have omitted this preaching episode, it is too creditable to Paine's standing with the teacher with whom he had served a year for Oldys to have invented it. It is droll to think that the Church of England should ever have had an offer of Thomas Paine's services. The Quakerism in which he had been nurtured had never been formally adopted by him, and it offered no opportunities for the impulse to preach which seems to mark a phase in the life of every active Fnglish brain. On May 15, 1767, Paine was appointed excise officer at Grampound, Cornwall, but "prayed leave to wait another vacancy." On February 19, 1768, he was appointed officer at Lewes, Sussex, whither, after a brief visit to Thetford, he repaired. Not very unlike the old Norfolk borough in which Paine was born was Lewes, and with even literally an Ouse flowing through it. Here also marched the "Heathen Men," who have left only the legend of a wounded son of Harold nursed into health by a Christian maiden. The ruined p.21 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1768] castle commands a grander landscape than the height of Thetford, and much the same historic views. Seven centuries before Paine opened his office in Lewes came Harold's son, possibly to take charge of the excise as established by Edward the Confessor, just deceased. "Paine" was an historic name in Lewes also. In 1688 two French refugees, William and Aaron Paine, came to the ancient town, and found there as much religious persecution as in France. It was directed chiefly against the Quakers. But when Thomas Paine went to dwell there the Quakers and the "powers that be" had reached a modus vivendi, and the new exciseman fixed his abode with a venerable Friend, Samuel Ollive, a tobacconist. The house then adjoined a Quaker meetinghouse, now a Unitarian chapel. It is a quaint house, always known and described as "the house with the monkey on it." The projecting roof is supported by a female nondescript rather more human than anthropoid. I was politely shown through the house by its occupant, Mr. Champion, and observed in the cellar traces of Samuel Ollive's -- afterward Paine's -- tobacco mill. The best room upstairs long bore on its wall "Tom Paine's study." The plaster has now flaked off, but the proprietor, Mr. Alfred Hammond, told me that he remembers it there in 1840. Not far from the house is the old mansion of the Shelleys, -- still called "The Shelleys," -- ancestors of a poet born with the "Rights of Man," and a child of Paine's revolution. And -- such are the moral zones and poles in every English town -- here in the graveyard of p.22 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1768] Jireh Chapel -- is the tomb of William Huntington S. S. [Sinner Saved] bearing this epitaph:
"Here lies the Coalheaver, beloved of God, but abhorred of men: the omniscient judge, at the grand assize, shall ratify and confirm that to the confusion of many thousands; for England and its metropolis shall know that there hath been a prophet among them. W. H : S. S."
"And here I remember to have heard my mistress reprove me for something wrong, telling me that God Almighty took notice of children's sins. It stuck to my conscience a great while; and who this God Almighty could be I could not conjecture; and how he could know my sins without asking my mother I could not conceive. At that time there was a person named Godfrey, an exciseman in the town, a man of a stern and hard-favoured countenance, whom I took notice of for having a stick covered with figures, and an ink-bottle hanging at the button-hole of his coat. I imagined that man to be employed by God Almighty to take notice, and keep an account of children's sins; and once I got into the market-house, and watched him very narrowly, and found that he was always in a hurry by his walking so fast; and I thought he had need to hurry, as he must have a deal to do to find out all the sins of children. I watched him out of one shop into another, all about the town, and from that time eyed him as a most formidable being, and the greatest enemy I had in all the world."
To the shopkeepers this exciteman was really an adversary and an accuser, and one can well believe that his very physiognomy would be affected by such work, and the chronic consciousness of being unwelcome. We may picture Paine among the producers of Lewes -- with but four or five thousand people, then a notorious seat of smugglers -- with his stick and ink-bottle; his face prematurely aged, and gathering the lines and the keen look which mask for casual eyes the fundamental candor and kindliness of his face. Paine's surveys extended to Brighton; the brilliant city of our time being then a small fishingtown known as Brighthelmston. It was scarce ten miles distant, and had no magistrates, offenders being taken to Lewes. There was a good deal of religious excitement in the neighborhood about the time Paine went there to reside, owing to the preaching of Rev. George Whitefield, chaplain of Lady Huntingdon, at a chapel built by her ladyship at Brighthelmston. Lady Huntingdon already had a quasi-miraculous fame which in Catholic times would have caused her to be honored as St. Selina. In those days a pious countess was more miraculous than the dream that foretold about Lady Huntingdon's coming. Surrounded by crowds, she had to send for her chaplain, Whitefield, who preached in a field till a chapel was built. At the time when Lady Huntingdon was exhorting the poor villagers of Brighton, two relatives of hers, Governor Shirley of Massachusetts and his aide-de-camp Colonel George Washington, were preparing the way for the great events in which Paine was to bear a part. p.24 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1769] When Paine went on his survey he might have observed the Washington motto, possibly a trace of the pious countess, which long remained on a house in Brighton: Exitus acta probat. There was an ancient Washington who fought at the battle of Lewes; but probably if our exciseman ever thought of any Washington at all it was of the anomalous Colonel in Virginia founding a colonial association to disuse excisable articles imported from England. But if such transatlantic phenomena, or the preaching of Whitefield in the neighborhood, concerned Paine at all, no trace of their impression is now discoverable. And if there were any protest in him at that time, when the English government had reached its nadir of corruption, it cannot be heard. He appears to have been conventionally patriotic, and was regarded as the Lewes laureate. He wrote an election song for the Whig candidate at New Shoreham, for which the said candidate, (Rumbold by name) paid him three guineas; and he wrote a song on the death of General Wolfe, which, when published some years later, was set to music, and enjoyed popularity in the Anacreontic and other societies. While Britannia mourns for her Wolfe, the sire of the gods sends his messengers to console "the disconsolate dame," assuring her that her hero is not dead but summoned to lead "the armies above" against the proud giants marching against Heaven. The ballad recalls Paine the païen, but the Thetford Quaker is not apparent. And, indeed, there are various indications about this time that some reaction had set in after the preaching phase. p.25 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1770] "Such was his enterprise on the water," says Oldys, "and his intrepidity on the ice that he became known by the appellation of Commodore." William Carver (MS.) says he was at this time "tall and slim, about five feet eight inches." At Lewes, where the traditions concerning Paine
are strong, I met Miss Rickman, a descendant of Thomas "Clio" Rickman --
the name Clio, under which his musical contributions to the Revolution were
published, having become part of his name. Rickman was a youth
in the Lewes of Paine's time, and afterwards his devoted friend.
His enthusiasm was represented in children successively named Paine, Washington,
Franklin, Rousseau, Petrarch, Volney. Rickman gives an account
of Paine at Lewes: "In this place he lived several years in habits of intimacy with a very respectable, sensible, and convivial set of acquaintance, who were entertained with his witty sallies and informed by his more serious conversations. In politics he was at this time a Whig, and notorious for that quality which has been defined perseverance in a good cause and obstinacy in a bad one. He was tenacious of his opinions, which were bold, acute, and independent, and which he maintained with ardour, elegance, and argument. At this period, at Lewes, the White Hart evening club was the resort of a social and intelligent circle who, out of fun, seeing that disputes often ran very warm and high, frequently had what they called the `Headstrong Book.' This was no other than an old Greek Homer which was sent the morning after a debate vehemently maintained, to the most obstinate haranguer in the Club this book had the following title, as implying that Mr. Paine the best deserved and the most frequently obtained it:p.26 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1771] "`Immortal PAINE, while mighty reasoners jar, "My friend Mr. Lee, of Lewes, in communicating this to me in September, 1810, said: `This was manufactured nearly forty years ago, as applicable to Mr. Paine, and I believe you will allow, however indifferent the manner, that I did not very erroneously anticipate his future celebrity.' " It was probably to amuse the club at the White Hart, an ancient tavern, that Paine wrote his humorous poems. On the 26 March, 1771, Paine married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Ollive, with whom he had lodged. This respected citizen had died in July, 1769, leaving in Lewes a widow and one daughter in poor circumstances. Paine then took up his abode elsewhere, but in the following year he joined the Ollives in opening a shop, and the tobacco-mill went on as before. His motive was probably compassion, but it brought him into nearer acquaintance with the widow and her daughter. Elizabeth is said to have been pretty, and, being of Quaker parentage, she was no doubt fairly educated. She was ten years younger than Paine, and he was her hero. They were married in St. Michael's Church, Lewes, on the 26th of March, 1771, by Robert Austen, curate, the witnesses being Henry Verrall and Thomas Ollive, the lady's brother. Oldys is constrained to give Paine's ability recognition. "He had risen by superior energy, p.27 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1772] more than by greater honesty, to be a chief among the excisemen." They needed a spokesman at that time, being united in an appeal to Parliament to raise their salaries, and a sum of money, raised to prosecute the matter, was confided to Paine. In 1772 he prepared the document, which was printed, but not published until 1793 [1]. Concerning the plea for the excisemen it need only be said that it is as clear and complete as any lawyer could make it. There was, of course, no room for originality in the simple task of showing that the ill-paid service must be badly done, but the style is remarkable for simplicity and force. Paine put much time and pains into this composition, and passed the whole winter of 1772-3 trying to influence members of Parliament and others in favor of his cause. "A rebellion of the excisemen," says Oldys, "who seldom have the populace on their side, was not much feared by their superiors." Paine's pamphlet and two further leaflets of his were printed. The best result of his pamphlet was to secure him an acquaintance with Oliver Goldsmith, to whom he addressed the following letter: -------------------------- [1] The document was revived as a pamphlet, though its subject was no longer of interest, at a time when Paine's political writings were under prosecution, and to afford a vehicle for an "introduction," which gives a graphic account of Paine's services in the United States. On a copy of this London edition (1793) before me, one of a number of Paine's early pamphlets bearing marks of his contemporary English editor, is written with pencil: "With a preface (Qy. J. Barlow )." From this, and some characteristics of the composition, I have no doubt that the vigorous introduction was Barlow's. The production is entitled, "The Case of the Officers of Excise; with remarks on the qualifications of Officers; and of the numerous evils arising to the Revenue, from the insufficiency of the present salary. Humbly addressed to the Hon. and Right Hon. Members of both Houses of parliament." p.28 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1772]
"HONORED SIR, [1] Goldsmith responded to Paine's desire for his acquaintance. I think Paine may be identified as the friend to whom Goldsmith, shortly before his (p.299) death, gave the epitaph first printed in Paine's Pennsylvania Magazine, January, 1775, beginning: "Here Whitefoord reclines, and deny it who can, In giving it Goldsmith said, " It will be of no use to me where I am going." p.29 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1774] To one who reads Paine's argument, it appears wonderful that a man of such ability should, at the age of thirty-five, have had his horizon filled with such a cause as that of the underpaid excisemen. Unable to get the matter before Parliament, he went back to his tobacco-mill in Lewes, and it seemed to him like the crack of doom when, 8 April, 1774, he was dismissed from the excise. The cause of Paine's second dismission from the excise being ascribed by his first biographer (Oldys) to his dealing in smuggled tobacco, without contradiction by Paine, his admirers have been misled into a kind of apology for him on account of the prevalence of the custom. But I have before me the minutes of the Board concerning Paine, and there is no hint whatever of any such accusation [1]. The order of discharge from Lewes is as follows:
------------------------ [1] I am indebted for these records to the Secretary of Inland Revenue, England, and to my friend, Charles Macrae, who obtained them for me. p.30 -- EARLY STRUGGLES [1774] unsold, and his wife and her mother had been supported from the bank of flattering hope. No sooner was it known that the hope of an increased salary for the excisemen had failed than he found himself in danger of arrest for debt. It was on this account that he left Lewes for a time, but it was only that he might take steps to make over all of his possessions to his creditors. This was done. The following placard appeared:
p.31 DOMESTIC TROUBLE
THE break-up of Paine's business at Lewes brought to a head a more serious trouble. On June 4th of the same miserable year, 1774, Paine and his wife formally separated. The causes of their trouble are enveloped in mystery. It has been stated by both friendly and hostile biographers that there was from the first no cohabitation, and that concerning the responsibility for this neither of them was ever induced to utter a word. Even his friend Rickman was warned off the subject by Paine, who, in reply to a question as to the reason of the separation, said: "It is nobody's business but my own; I had cause for it, but I will name it to no one." William Huntington, in his "Kingdom of Heaven," mentions a usage of some Quakers in his time, "that when a young couple are espoused, they are to be kept apart for a season to mourn"; this being their interpretation of Zech. xii., 12-14. As Huntington was mainly acquainted with this Sussex region, it is not inconceivable that Elizabeth Ollive held some such notion, and that this led to dissension ending in separation. Nor is it inconceivable that Paine himself, finding his excise p.32 -- DOMESTIC TROUBLE [1774] office no support, and his shop a failure, resolved that no offspring
should suffer his penury or increase it. It is all mere uesswork.
Mr. Alfred Hammond, of Lewes, who owns the property, showed me the documents
connected with it. After the death of Samuel Ollive in 1769,
Esther, his widow, enjoyed the messuage until her own death, in 1800, when
a division among the heirs became necessary. Among the documents
is one which recites some particulars of the separation between Paine and
his wife. "Soon after the Testator's death, his daughter Elizabeth married Thos. Pain from whom she afterwards lived separate under articles dated 4th June 1774, and made between the said Thos. Pain of the first part, the said Elizabeth of the 2nd part, and the Rev. James Castley, Clerk, of the 3d part, by which Articles, after reciting (inter alia) that Dissentions had arisen between the said Thos. Pain and Elizabeth his wife, and that they bad agreed to live separate. And also reciting the Will of the said Saml. Ollive and that the said Thomas Pain had agreed that the said Elizabeth should have and take her share of the said Monies of the said House when the same should become due and payable and that he would give any Discharge that should then be required to and for the use of the said Elizabeth: The said Thos. Pain did covenant to permit the said Elizabeth to live separate from him and to carry on such Trade and Business as she should think fit, notwithstanding her coverture and as if she were a Feme. Sole. And that he would not at any time thereafter claim or demand the said monies which she should be entitled to at the time of the sale of the said House in Lewes aforesaid, or any of the Monies Rings Plate Cloathes Linen Woollen Household Goods or Stock in Trade which the said Elizabeth should or might at any time thereafter buy or purchase or which should be devised or given to her or she should otherwise acquire and that she should and might enjoy and absolutelyp.33 -- DOMESTIC TROUBLE [1774] dispose of the same as if she were a Feme. Sole and unmarried. And also that it should and might be lawful for the said Elizabeth to have receive and take to her own separate use and benefit her said share of the Monies for which the said Messuage or Tenement in Lewes should be sold when the same should become due and payable."
"That the said Elizabeth Pain had ever since lived separate from him the said Thos. Pain, and never had any issue, and the said Thomas Pain had many years quitted this kingdom and resided (if living) in parts beyond the seas, but had not since been heard of by the said Elizabeth Pain, nor was it known for certain whether he was living or dead."
p.34 -- DOMESTIC TROUBLE [1774] argues that they had not followed his career or the course of public events with much interest. One would be glad to believe that Elizabeth cherished kindly remembrance of the man who considering his forlorn condition, had certainly shown generosity in the justice with which he renounced all of his rights in the property she had brought him, and whose hand she might naturally have suspected behind the monies anonymously sent her. We will therefore hope that it was from some other member of the family that Oldys obtained, -- unless, like his "A. M. of the University of Philadelphia," it was invented, the letter said to have been written by Paine's mother to his wife [1]. The letter may have been manipulated, but it is not improbable that rumors, "exaggerated by enmity or misstated ----------------------- [1] "THETFORD, NORFOLK, 27th July, 1774.
by malice," as Oldys confesses, elicited some such outburst from
Thetford [1]. The excisemen, angry at the failure to get their
case before Parliament, and having fixed on Paine as their scapegoat, all
other iniquities were naturally laid on him. Eighteen years later,
when the scapegoat who had gone into the American wilderness returned with
the renown of having helped to make it a nation, he addressed a letter to
Lewes, which was about to hold a meeting to respond to a royal proclamation
for suppressing seditious writings. His tone is not that of a
man who supposed that Lewes had aught against him on the score of his wife.
"It is now upwards of eighteen years since I was a resident inhabitant of the town of Lewes. My situation among you as an officer of the revenue, for more than six years, enabled me to see into the numerous and various distresses which the weight of taxes even at that time of day occasioned; and feeling, as I then did, and as it is natural for me to do, for the hard condition of others, it is with pleasure I can declare, and every person then under my survey, and now living, can witness the exceeding candor, and even tenderness, with which that part of the duty that fell to my share was executed. The name of Thomas Paine is not to be found in the records of the Lewes justices, in any one act of contention with, or severity of any kind whatever towards, the persons whom he surveyed, either in the town or in the country; of this Mr. Fuller and Mr. Shelley, who will probably attend the meeting, can, if they please, give full testimony. It is, however, not in their power to contradict it. Having thus indulged myself in recollecting a place where I formerly had, and even now have, many friends, rich and poor, and most probably some enemies, [1] When Paine had the money he did forward twenty pounds to his parents, and made provision for his mother when she was a widow. As to writing to her, in those unhappy years, he probably thought it better to keep his burdens to himself. He may also have been aware of his mothers severity without knowing her interest in him. p.36 -- DOMESTIC TROUBLE [1774]
I proceed to the import of my letter. Since my departure from Lewes, fortune or providence has thrown me into a line of action which my first setting out in life could not possibly have suggested to me. Many of you will recollect that, whilst I resided among you, there was not a man more firm and open in supporting the principles of liberty than myself, and I still pursue, and ever will, the same path."
While Paine was in London, trying
to get before Parliament a measure for the relief of excisemen, he not only
enjoyed the friendship of Goldsmith, but that of Franklin. In
the Doctor's electrical experiments he took a deep interest; for Paine was
devoted to science, and the extent of his studies is attested by his description
of a new electrical machine and other scientific papers, signed "Atlanticus,"
in the Pennsylvania Magazine. The sale of his effects
in Lewes paid his debts, but left him almost penniless. He came
to London, and how he lived is unknown -- that is, physically, for we do
find some intimation of his mental condition. In a letter written
many years after to John King, a political renegade, Paine says: "When I first knew you in Ailiffe-street, an obscure part of the City, a child, without fortune or friends, I noticed you; because I thought I saw in you, young as you was, a bluntness of temper, a boldness of opinion, and an originality of thought, that portended some future good. I was pleased to discuss,p.37 -- DOMESTIC TROUBLE [1774] with you, under our friend Oliver's lime-tree, those political notions, which I have since given the world in my 'Rights of Man.' You used to complain of abuses, as well as me, and write your opinions on them in free terms -- What then means this sudden attachment to Kings?"
p.38 -- DOMESTIC TROUBLE [1774] rights of his constituents against the authority arrogated by the Commons to exclude him. Burke then stood by Wilkes, as John Bright stood by Bradlaugh at a later day. And while Paine was laboring to carry his excise bill through Parliament he had good opportunity to discover how completely that body's real opinions were overruled by royal dictation. It was at that time that George III., indifferent to his brother's profligacies, would not forgive his marriage with a commoner's sister, and forced on Parliament a Marriage Act which made all marriages in the royal family illegitimate without his consent. The indignant resignation of Fox modified the measure slightly, limiting the King's interference at the twenty-sixth year of the marrying parties, and then giving the veto to Parliament. For this the King turned his wrath on Fox. This was but one of the many instances of those years -- all told in Trevelyan's admirable work [1] -- which added to Paine's studies of the Wilkes conflicts a lasting lesson in the conservation of despotic forces. The barbaric eras of prerogative had returned under the forms of ministerial government. The Ministry, controlled by the Court, ruled by corruption of commoners. It was a regime almost incredible to us now, when England is of all nations most free from corruption and court influence in politics; and it was little realized in English colonies before the Revolution. But Franklin was in London to witness it, and Paine was there to grow familiar with the facts. To both of them the systematic in ----------------------- [1] "The Early History of Charles James Fox," 1880. p.39 -- DOMESTIC TROUBLE [1774] humanity and injustice were brought home personally. The discharged and insulted postmaster could sympathize with the dismissed and starving exciseman. Franklin recognized Paine's ability, and believed he would be useful and successful in America. So on this migration Paine decided, and possibly the determination brought his domestic discords to a crisis.
p.40 THE NEW WORLD
PAINE left England in October and arrived in America
November 30, 1774. He bore a letter of introduction from Dr.
Franklin to Richard Bache, his son-in-law, dated September 30, 1774: "The bearer Mr. Thomas Paine is very well recommended to me as an ingenious worthy young man. He goes to Pennsylvania with a view of settling there. I request you to give him your best advice and countenance, as he is quite a stranger there. If you can put him in a way of obtaining employment as a clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or assistant surveyor, of all of which I think him very capable, so that he may procure a subsistence at least, till he can make acquaintance and obtain a knowledge of the country, you will do well, and much oblige your affectionate father."
"Your countenancing me has obtained for me many friends and much reputation, for which please accept my sincere thanks. I have been applied to by several gentlemen to instruct their sons on very advantageous terms to myself, and a printer and bookseller here, a man of reputation and property, Robert Aitkin, has lately attempted a magazine, but having little or no turn that way himself, he has applied to me for assistance. He had not above six hundred subscribers when I first assisted him. We have now upwards of fifteen hundred,p.41 -- THE NEW WORLD [1775] and daily increasing. I have not entered into terms with him. This is only the second number. The first I was not concerned in."
"About the year 1773 [says Dr. Rush -- the date is an error for 1774] I met him accidentally in Mr. Aitkin's bookstore, and was introduced to him by Mr. Aitkin. We conversed a few minutes, and I left him. Soon afterwards I read a short essay with which I was much pleased, in one of Bradford's papers, against the slavery of the Africans in our country, and which I was informed was written by Mr. Paine. This excited my desire to be better acquainted with him. We met soon afterwards in Mr. Aitkin's bookstore, where I did homage to his principles and pen upon the subject of the enslaved Africans. He told me the essay to which I alluded was the first thing he had ever published in his life. After this Mr. Aitkin employed him as the editor of his Magazine, with a salary of fifty pounds currency a year. This work was well supported by him. His song upon the death of Gen. Wolfe, and his reflections upon the death of Lord Clive, gave it a sudden currency which few works of the kind have since had in our country."
The first number of the Pennsylvania Magazine, or American Museum, appeared at the end of January, 1775. Though not concerned" in it pecuniarily, not yet being editor, his contributions increased the subscription list, and he was at once engaged. For eighteen months Paine edited this magazine, and probably there never was an equal p.42 -- THE NEW WORLD [1775] amount of good literary work done on a salary of fifty pounds a year. It was a handsome magazine, with neat vignette-book, plough, anchor, and olive-twined shield, -- the motto, Fuval in sylvis habilare. The future author of the "Rights of Man" and "Age of Reason" admonishes correspondents that religion and politics are forbidden topics! The first number contains a portrait of Goldsmith and the picture of a new electrical machine. A prefatory note remarks that "the present perplexities of affairs" have "encompassed with difficulties the first number of the magazine, which, like the early snowdrop, comes forth in a barren season, and contents itself with modestly foretelling that choicer flowers are preparing to appear." The opening essay shows a fine literary touch, and occasionally a strangely modern vein of thought. "Our fancies would be highly diverted could we look back and behold a circle of original Indians haranguing on the sublime perfections of the age; yet 't is not impossible but future times may exceed us as much as we have exceeded them." Here is a forerunner of Macaulay's New Zealander sketching the ruins of St. Paul's. It is followed by a prediction that the coming American magazine will surpass the English, "because we are not exceeded in abilities, have a more extended field for inquiry, and whatever may be our political state, our happiness will always depend upon ourselves." A feature of the magazine was the description, with plates, of recent English inventions not known in the new world -- threshing-machine, spinning-machine, etc., -- such papers p.43 -- THE NEW WORLD [1775] being by Paine. These attracted the members of the Philosophical Society, founded by Franklin, and Paine was welcomed into their circle by Rittenhouse, Clymer, Rush, Muhlenberg, and other representatives of the scientific and literary metropolis. Many a piece composed for the Headstrong Club at Lewes first saw the light in this magazine, -- such as the humorous poems, "The Monk and the Jew," "The Farmer and Short's Dog, Porter"; also the famous ballad "On the Death of General Wolfe," printed March, 1775, with music Lewes had not, indeed, lost sight of him, as is shown by a communication in April from Dr. Matthew Wilson, dated from that town, relating to a new kind of fever raging in England. The
reader who has studied Paine's avowed and well-known works finds no difficulty
in tracking him beneath the various signatures by which he avoided an appearance
of writing most of the articles in the Pennsylvania Magazine, though he really
did. He is now "Atlanticus," now "Vox Populi," or "Æsop,"
and oftener affixes no signature. The Thetford Quaker is still
here in "Reflections on the Death of Lord Clive" (reprinted as a pamphlet in England), "A New Anecdote of Alexander the Great," and "Cursory Reflections on the Single Combat or Modern Duel." The duel was hardly yet challenged in America when Paine wrote (May, 1775):
"From the peculiar prevalence of this custom in countries where the religious system is established which, of all others, most expressly prohibits the gratification of revenge, with every species of outrage and violence, we too plainly seep.44 -- THE NEW WORLD [1775] how little mankind are in reality influenced by the precepts of the religion by which they profess to be guided, and in defence of which they will occasionally risk even their lives." But with this voice from Thetford meeting-house mingles the testimony of "common sense." In July, 1775, he writes: "I am thus far a Quaker, that I would gladly agree with all the world to lay aside the use of arms, and settle matters by negotiations; but, unless the whole world wills, the matter ends, and I take up my musket, and thank heaven he has put it in my power. . . . We live not in a world of angels. The reign of Satan is not ended, neither can we expect to be defended by miracles."
"The Honourable plunderer of his country, or the Right Honourable murderer of mankind, create such a contrast of ideas as exhibit a monster rather than a man. The lustre of the Star, and the title of My Lord, overawe the superstitious vulgar, and forbid them to enquire into the character of the possessor: Nay more, they are, as it were, bewitched to admire in the great the vices they would honestly condemn in themselves. . . . The reasonable freeman sees through the magic of a title, and examines the man before he approves him. To him the honours of the worthless seem to write their masters' vices in capitals, and their Stars shine to no other end than to read them by. Modesty forbids men separately, or collectively, to assume titles. But as all honours, even that of kings, originated from the public, the public may justly be called the true fountain of honour. And it is with much pleasure I have heard the title `Honourable' applied to a body of men, who nobly disregarding private ease and interest for public welfare, have justly merited the address of The Honourable Continental Congress." p.45 -- THE NEW WORLD [1775] whose rights Christendom was then not awakened. His pen is unmistakable in "Reflections on Unhappy Marriages" (June, 1775): "As extasy abates coolness succeeds, which often makes way for indifference, and that for neglect. Sure of each other by the nuptial bond, they no longer take any pains to be mutually agreeable. Careless if they displease, and yet angry if reproached; with so little relish for each other's company that anybody else's is more welcome, and more entertaining." It is a more pointed statement of the problem already suggested, in the April magazine, by his well-known fable "Cupid and Hymen," whose controversies are now settled in the Divorce Court. In his August (1775) number is found the earliest American plea for woman. It is entitled "An Occasional Letter on the Female Sex,"
and unsigned, but certainly by Paine. His trick of introducing
a supposititious address from another person, as in the following extract,
appears in many examples. "Affronted in one country by polygamy, which gives them their rivals for inseparable companions; inslaved in another by indissoluble ties, which often join the gentle to the rude, and sensibility to brutality: Even in countries where they may be esteemed most happy, constrained in their desires in the disposal of their goods, robbed of freedom of will by the laws, the slaves of opinion, which rules them with absolute sway, and construes the slightest appearances into guilt, surrounded on all sides by judges who are at once their tyrants and seducers, and who after having prepared their faults, punish every lapse with dishonour -- nay usurp the right of degrading them on suspicion! -- who does not feel for the tender sex? Yet such I am sorry to say is the lot of woman over the whole earth. Man with regard to them, in all climates and inp.46 -- THE NEW WORLD [1775] all ages, has been either an insensible husband or an oppressor; but they have sometimes experienced the cold and deliberate oppression of pride, and sometimes the violent and terrible tyranny of jealousy. When they are not beloved they are nothing; and when they are they are tormented. They have almost equal cause to be afraid of indifference and love. Over three quarters of the globe Nature has placed them between contempt and misery."
"How great is your injustice! If we have an equal right
with you to virtue, why should we not have an equal right to praise?
The public esteem ought to wait upon merit. Our duties are different
from yours, but they are not less difficult to fulfil, or of less consequence
to society: They are the foundations of your felicity, and the
sweetness of life. We are wives and mothers. "'T is we who form the union and the cordiality of families; 't is we who soften that savage rudeness which considers everything as due to force, and which would involve man with man in eternal war. We cultivate in you that humanity which makes you feel for the misfortunes of others, and our tears forewarn you of your own danger. Nay, you cannot be ignorant that we have need of courage not less than you: More feeble in ourselves, we have perhaps more trials to encounter. Nature assails us with sorrow, law and custom press us with constraint, and sensibility and virtue alarm us by their continual conflict. Sometimes also the name of citizen demands from us the tribute of fortitude. When you offer your blood to the state, think that it is ours. In giving it our sons and our husbands we give it more than ourselves. You can only die on the field of battle, but we have the misfortune to survive those whom we love the most. Alas!p.47 -- THE NEW WORLD [1775] while your ambitious vanity is unceasingly laboring to cover the earth with statues, with monuments, and with inscriptions to eternize, if possible, your names, and give yourselves an existence when this body is no more, why must we be condemned to live and to die unknown? Would that the grave and eternal forgetfulness should be our lot. Be not our tyrants in all: Permit our names to be sometime pronounced beyond the narrow circle in which we live: Permit friendship, or at least love, to inscribe its emblems on the tomb where our ashes repose; and deny us not the public esteem which, after the esteem of one's self, is the sweetest reward of welldoing."
p.48 -- THE NEW WORLD [1775] what brilliants would our modern reformers have contributed to a coronet
for that man's brow, had he not presently worshipped the God of his fathers
after the way that theologians called heresy! "Be not righteous
overmuch," saith cynical Solomon; "neither make thyself over-wise: why shouldest
thou destroy thyself?" p.49 LIBERTY AND EQUALITY
WITH regard to Paine's earliest publication there has been needless confusion. In his third Crisis he says to Lord Howe: "I have likewise an aversion to monarchy, as being too debasing to the dignity of man; but I never troubled others with my notions till very lately, nor ever published a syllable in England in my life." It has been alleged that this is inconsistent with his having written in 1772 "The Case of the Officers of Excise." But this, though printed (by William Lee of Lewes) was not published until 1793. It was a document submitted to Parliament, but never sold. The song on Wolfe, and other poetical pieces, though known to the Headstrong Club in Lewes, were first printed in Philadelphia. [1] -------------------------- [1] (p.49-50) Mr. W. H. Burr maintains that Paine wrote in the English Crisis (1775) under the name of "Casca." As Casca's articles bear intrinsic evidence of being written in London -- such as his treating as facts General Gage's fictions about Lexington -- the theory supposes Paine to have visited England in that year. But besides the facts that Rush had an interview with Paine near the middle of March, and Franklin in October, the accounts of Aitkin, preserved in Philadelphia, show payments to Paine in May, July, and August, 1775. As Mr. Burr's further theory, that Paine wrote the letters of Junius, rests largely on the identification with "Casca," it might be left to fall with disproof of the latter. It is but fair, however, to the labors of a courageous writer, and to the many worthy people who have adopted his views, to point out the impossibilities of their case. An able (p.50) summary of the facts discoverable concerning the personality of Junius, in Macaulay's "Warren Hastings," says: "As to the position, pursuits, and connexions of Junius, the following are the most important facts which can be considered as clearly proved: first, that he was acquainted with the technical forms of the Secretary of State's office; secondly, that he was intimately acquainted with the business of the war Office; thirdly, that he, during the year 1770, attended debates in the House of Lords, and took notes of speeches, particularly of the speeches of Lord Chatham; fourthly, that he bitterly resented the appointment of Mr. Chamier to the place of Deputy Secretary of War; fifthly, that lie was bound by some strong tie to the first Lord Holland." Now during the period of Junius' letters (Jan. 21, 1769 to Jan. 21, 1772) Paine was occupied with his laborious duties as exciseman at Lewes, and with the tobacco mill from which he vainly tried to extort a living for himself and wife, and her mother. Before that period there was no time at which Paine could have commanded the leisure or opportunities necessary to master the political and official details known to Junius, even had he been interested in them. He declares that he had no interest in politics, which he regarded as a species of "jockeyship." How any one can read a page of Junius and then one of Paine, and suppose them from the same pen appears to me inconceivable. Junius is wrapped up in the affairs of Lord This and Duke That, and a hundred details. I can as easily imagine Paine agitated with the movements of a battle of chessmen. But apart from this, the reader need only refer to the facts of his life before coming to America to acquit him of untruth in saying that he lead published nothing in England, and that the cause of America made him an author. p.50 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] In America Wolfe again rises before Paine's imagination. In the Pennsylvania Journal, January 4th, appears a brief "Dialogue between General Wolfe and General Gage in a Wood near Boston." Wolfe, from the Elysian Fields, approaches Gage with rebuke for the errand on which he has come to America, and reminds him that he is a citizen as well as a soldier. "If you have any regard for the glory of the British name, and if you prefer the society of Grecian, Roman, and British heroes in the world of spirits to the company of Jeffries, Kirk, and other royal executioners, I conjure you immediately to resign your commission." Although this "Dialogue" was the first writing p.51 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] of Paine published, it was not the first written for publication. The cause that first moved his heart and pen was that of the negro slave. Dr. Rush's date of his meeting with Paine, 1773, -- a year before his arrival, -- is one of a number of errors in his letter, among these being his report that Paine told him the anti-slavery essay was the first thing he had ever published. Paine no doubt told him it was the first thing he ever wrote and offered for publication; but it was not published until March 8th. Misled by Rush's words, Paine's editors and our historians of the anti-slavery movement have failed to discover this early manifesto of abolitionism. It is a most remarkable article. Every argument and appeal, moral, religious, military, economic, familiar in our subsequent anti-slavery struggle, is here found stated with eloquence and clearness. Having pointed out the horrors of the slave-trade and of slavery, he combats the argument that the practice was permitted to the Jews. Were such a plea allowed it would justify adoption of other Jewish practices utterly unlawful "under clearer light." The Jews indeed had no permission to enslave those who never injured them, but all such arguments are unsuitable "since the time of reformation came under Gospel light. All distinctions of nations, and privileges of one above others, are ceased. Christians are taught to account all men their neighbours, and love their neighbours as themselves; and do to all men as they would be done by; to do good to all men; and man-stealing is ranked with enormous crimes." Bradford might naturally hesitate some weeks p.52 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] before printing these pointed reproofs. "How just, how suitable to our crime is the punishment with which Providence threatens us? We have enslaved multitudes, and shed much innocent blood, and now are threatened with the same." In the conclusion, a practical scheme is proposed for liberating all except the infirm who need protection, and settling them on frontier lands, where they would be friendly protectors instead of internal foes ready to help any invader who may offer them freedom. This wonderful article is signed "Justice and Humanity." Thomas Paine's venture in this direction was naturally welcomed by Dr. Rush, who some years before had written a little pamphlet against the slave trade, and deploring slavery, though he had not proposed or devised any plan for immediate emancipation. Paine's paper is as thorough as Garrison himself could have made it. And, indeed, it is remarkable that Garrison, at a time when he shared the common prejudices against Paine, printed at the head of his Liberator a motto closely resembling Paine's. The motto of Paine was: '"The world is my country, my religion is to do good"; that of the Liberator: "Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind." Garrison did characteristic justice to Paine when he had outgrown early prejudices against him. [1] On April 12th, thirty-five days after Paine's plea for emancipation, the first American Antislavery Society was formed, in Philadelphia. ------------------------ [1] It will be seen by the "Life of William Lloyd Garrison," i., p. 219, and iii., p. 145, that Mr. Garrison did not know of Paine's motto ("Rights of Man," i., chap. v.). His review of Paine's works appeared November 21, 1845, The Liberator first appeared January 1, 1831. p.53 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] Although the dialogue between Wolfe and Gage (January 4th) shows that Paine shared the feeling of America, the earlier numbers of his Pennsylvania Magazine prove his strong hope for reconciliation. That hope died in the first collision; after Lexington he knew well that separation was inevitable. A single sentence in the magazine intimates the change. The April number, which appeared soon after the "Lexington massacre," contains a summary of Chatham's speech, in which he said the crown would lose its lustre if "robbed of so principal a jewel as America." Paine adds this footnote: "The principal jewel of the crown actually dropt out at the coronation." There was probably no earlier printed suggestion of independence by any American. [1] There are three stages in the evolution of the Declaration of Independence. The colonies reached first the resolution of resistance, secondly of separation, and thirdly of republicanism. In the matter of resistance the distribution of honors has been rather literary than historical. In considering the beginnings of the Revolution our minds fly at once to the Tea-party in Boston harbor, then to Lexington, where seven Massachusetts men fell dead, and seven years of war followed. But two years before the tea was thrown overboard, --------------------- [1] The London Chronicle, of October 25, 1774, printed Major Cartwright's "American Independence the Interest and Glory of Great Britain," and it was reprinted in the Pennsylvania Journal. Although it has little relation to the form in which the question presently suggested itself, the article is interesting as an indication that separation was then more talked of in England than in America. Twelve years before the Revolution a pamphlet in favor of separation was written by Josiah Tucker of Bristol, England. Then as now colonists were more loyal than the English at home. p.54 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] and four years before the Lexington massacre, North Carolinians had encountered British troops, had left two hundred patriots fallen, and seen their leaders hanged for treason. Those earliest martyrs are almost forgotten because, in the first place, North Carolina produced no historians, poets, magazines, to rehearse their story from generation to generation. In the second place, the rebellion which Governor Tryon crushed at Alamance, though against the same oppressions, occurred in 1771, before the colonies had made common cause. Governmental anachronisms have a tendency to take refuge in colonies. Had Great Britain conceded to Americans the constitutional rights of Englishmen there could have been no revolution. Before the time of George III. British governors had repeatedly revived in America prerogatives extinct in England, but the colonists had generally been successful in their appeals to the home government. Even in 1774 the old statesmen in America had not realized that a king had come who meant to begin in America his mad scheme of governing as well as reigning. When, in September, 1774, the first Continental Congress assembled, its members generally expected to settle the troubles with the "mother country" by petitions to Parliament. There is poetic irony in the fact that the first armed resistance to royal authority in America was by the North Carolina "Regulators." On the frontiers, before official courts were established, some kind of law and order had to be maintained, and they were protected by a volunteer police called Regulators." In p.55 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] the forests of Virginia, two hundred years ago, Peter Lynch was appointed judge by his neighbors because of his wisdom and justice, and his decisions were enforced by "Regulators." Judge Lynch's honorable name is now degraded into a precedent for the cowardly ruffians who hunt down unarmed negroes, Italians, and Chinamen, and murder them without trial, or after their acquittal. But such was not the case with our frontier courts and "Regulators," which were civilized organizations, though unauthorized. For several years before the Revolution lawful and civilized government in some of the colonies depended on unauthorized administrations. The authorized powers were the "lynchers," as they would now be called, with traditional misrepresentation of Peter Lynch. The North Carolina Regulators of 1771 were defending the English constitution against a king and a governor acting as lawlessly as our vile lynchers and "White Caps." It was remarked, by Paine among others that after the royal authority was abolished, though for a long time new governments were not established, "order and harmony were preserved as inviolate as in any country in Europe." [1] In the dialogue between Wolfe and Gage, Paine writes as an Englishman; he lays no hand on the constitution, nor considers the sovereign involved in ministerial iniquities. Apart from his Quaker sentiments he felt dismay at a conflict which interrupted his lucrative school, and the literary opportunities afforded by his magazine. "For my own part," he wrote to Franklin, "I thought it very --------------------------- [1] "The Rights of Man," part ii., chapter i. p.56 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] hard to have the country set on fire about my ears almost the moment I got into it." And indeed there was a general disgust among the patriots during the year 1775, while as yet no great aim or idea illumined the smoke of battle. They were vehemently protesting that they had no wish for separation from England, just as in the beginning of our civil war leading Unionists declared that they would not interfere with slavery. In March, 1775, Franklin maintained the assurance he had given Lord Chatham in the previous year, that he had never heard in America an expression in favor of independence, "from any person drunk or sober." Paine says that on his arrival he found an obstinate attachment to Britain; "it was at that time a kind of treason to speak against it." "Independence was a doctrine scarce and rare even towards the conclusion of the year 1775." In May, George Washington, on his way to Congress, met the Rev. Jonathan Boucher, in the middle of the Potomac; while their boats paused, the clergyman warned his friend that the path on which he was entering might lead to separation from England. "If you ever hear of my joining in any such measures," said Washington, "you have my leave to set me down for everything wicked." [1] Although Paine, as we shall see, had no reverence for the crown, and already foresaw American independence, he abhorred the method of war. In the first number of his magazine he writes: "The speeches of the different governors pathetically lament the present ----------------------- [1] Notes and Queries (Eng.), series 3 and 5. See also in Lippincott's Magazine, May, 1889, my paper embodying the correspondence of Washington, and Boucher. p.57 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] distracted state of affairs. Yet they breathe a spirit of mildness as well as tenderness, and give encouragement to hope that some happy method of accommodation may yet arise." But on April 19th came the "massacre at Lexington," as it was commonly called. How great a matter is kindled by a small fire! A man whose name remains unknown, forgetful of Captain Parker's order to his minutemen not to fire until fired on, drew his trigger on the English force advancing to Concord; the gun missed fire, but the little flash was answered by a volley; seven men lay dead. In the blood of those patriots at Lexington the Declaration of Independence was really written. From town-meetings throughout the country burning resolutions were hurled on General Gage in Boston, who had warned Major Pitcairn, commander of the expedition, not to assume the offensive. From one county, Mecklenburg, North Carolina, were sent to Congress twenty resolutions passed by its committee, May 31st, declaring "all laws and commissions confirmed by or derived from the authority of the King and Parliament are anulled and vacated," and that, "whatever person shall hereafter receive a commission from the crown, or attempt to exercise any such commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an enemy to his country." [1] [1] These resolutions further organized a provisional government to be in force until "the legislative body of Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pretensions with respect to America." In 1819 a number of witnesses stated that so early as May 10th Mecklenburg passed an absolute Declaration of Independence, and it is possible that, on receipt of the tidings from Lexington, some popular meeting at Charlottetown gave vent to its indignation in expressions, or even resolutions, which were tempered by p.58 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] Many years after the independence of America had been achieved, William
Cobbett, on his return to England after a long sojourn in the United States,
wrote as follows: "As my Lord Grenville introduced the name of Burke, suffer me, my Lord, to introduce that of a man who put this Burke to shame, who drove him off the public stage to seek shelter in the pension list, and who is now named fifty million times where the name of the pensioned Burke is mentioned once. The cause of the American colonies was the cause of the English Constitution, which says that no man shall be taxed without his own consent. . . . A little thing sometimes produces a great effect; an insult offered to a man of great talent and unconquerable perseverance has in many instances produced, in the long run, most tremendous effects; and it appears to me very clear that some beastly insults, offered to Mr. Paine while he was in the Excise in England, was the real cause of the Revolution in America; for, though the nature of the cause of America was such as I have before described it; though the principles were firm in the minds of the people of that country; still, it was Mr. Paine, and Mr. Paine alone, who brought those principles into action."
p.59 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] was that he raised the Revolution into an evolution.
After the "Lexington massacre" separation was talked of by many, but had
it then occurred America might have been another kingdom. The
members of Congress were of the rich conservative "gentry," and royalists.
Had he not been a patriot, Peyton Randolph, our first president, would probably
have borne a title like his father, and Washington would certainly have been
knighted. Paine was in the position of the abolitionists when
the secession war began. They also held peace principles, and
would have scorned a war for the old slave-holding union, as Paine would
have scorned a separation from England preserving its political institutions.
The war having begun, and separation become probable, Paine hastened to connect
it with humanity and with republicanism. As the abolitionists
resolved that the secession war should sweep slavery out of the country,
Paine made a brave effort that the Revolution should clear away both slavery
and monarchy. It was to be in every respect a new departure for
humanity. So he anticipated the Declaration of Independence by
more than eight months with one of his own, which was discovered by Moreau
in the file of the Pennsylvania Journal, October 18th. [1]
"A SERIOUS THOUGHT [1] Mr. Moreau mentions it as Paine's in his MS. notes in a copy of Cheetham's book, now owned by the Pennsylvania Historical Society. No one familiar with Paine's style at the time can doubt its authorship. p.60 -- LIBERTY AND EQUALITY [1775] of the wretched natives being blown away, for no other crime than because, sickened with the miserable scene, they refused to fight -- When I reflect on these and a thousand instances of similar barbarity, I firmly believe that the Almighty, in compassion to mankind, will curtail the power of Britain.
p.61 "COMMON SENSE"
IN furrows ploughed deep by lawless despotism, watered with blood of patriots, the Thetford Quaker sowed his seed -- true English seed. Even while he did so he was suspected of being a British spy, and might have been roughly handled in Philadelphia had it not been for Franklin. Possibly this suspicion may have arisen from his having, in the anti-slavery letter, asked the Americans "to consider with what consistency or decency they complain so loudly of attempts to enslave them, while they hold so many thousands in slavery." Perfectly indifferent to this, Paine devoted the autumn of 1775 to his pamphlet "Common Sense," which with the new year "burst from the press with an effect which has rarely been produced by types and paper in any age or country." So says Dr. Benjamin Rush, and his assertion, often quoted, has as often been confirmed. Of the paramount influence of Paine's "Common Sense" there can indeed be no question. [1] It reached Washington soon after tidings that Norfolk, Virginia, had been burned (Jan. 1st) by Lord Dunmore, ----------------------- [1] "This day was published, and is now selling by Robert Bell, in Third Street, [Phil.] price two shillings, 'Common Sense,' addressed to the inhabitants of North America," -- Pennsylvania Journal, Jan. 10, 1776, p.62 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] as Falmouth (now Portland), Maine, had been, Oct. 17, 1775, by ships under Admiral Graves. The General wrote to Joseph Reed, from Cambridge, Jan. 31st: "A few more of such flaming arguments as were exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk, added to the sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning contained in the pamphlet `Common Sense,' will not leave numbers at a loss to decide upon the propriety of separation." [1] Henry Wisner, a New York delegate in Congress, sent the pamphlet to John McKesson, Secretary of the Provincial Congress sitting in New York City, with the following note: "Sir, I have only to ask the favour of you to read this pamphlet, consulting Mr. Scott and such of the Committee of Safety as you think proper, particularly Orange and Ulster, and let me know their and your opinion of the general spirit of it. I would have wrote a letter on the subject, but the bearer is waiting." In pursuance of this General Scott suggested a private meeting, and McKesson read the pamphlet aloud. New York, the last State to agree to separation, was alarmed by the pamphlet, and these leaders at first thought of answering it, but found themselves without the necessary arguments. Henry Wisner, however, required arguments rather than orders, and despite the instructions of his State gave New York the honor of having one name among those who, on July 4th, voted for independence. [2] Joel Barlow, ----------------------- [1] "The Writings of George Washington." Collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford, vol. iii., p.396. [2] Mag. Am. Hist., July, 1880, p. 62, and Dec., 1888, p.479. The Declaration passed on July 4th was not signed until Aug. 2d, the postponement being for the purpose of removing the restrictions placed by New York [p.63] p.63 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] a student in Yale College at the beginning of the Revolution, has
borne testimony to the great effect of Paine's pamphlet, as may be seen in
his biography by Mr. Todd. An original copy of Paine's excise
pamphlet (1792) in my possession contains a note in pencil, apparently contemporary,
suggesting that the introduction was written by Barlow. In this
introduction -- probably by Barlow, certainly by a competent observer of
events in America -- it is said: "On this celebrated publication [`Common Sense'], which has received the testimony of praise from the wise and learned of different nations, we need only remark (for the merit of every work should be judged by its effect) that it gave spirit and resolution to the Americans, who were then wavering and undetermined, to assert their rights, and inspired a decisive energy into their counsels: we may therefore venture to say, without fear of contradiction, that the great American cause owed as much to the pen of Paine as to the sword of Washington." [1]
---------------------- [1] And yet -- such was the power of theological intimidation -- even heretical Barlow could find no place for Paine in his Columbiad (1807), p.64 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] the Atlantic, from the ease with which it insinuated itself into the hearts of the people who were unlearned, or of the learned." [1] This is from a devout churchman, writing after Paine's death. Paine's malignant biographer, Cheetham (1809) is constrained to say of "Common Sense" : "Speaking a language which the colonists had felt but not thought, its popularity, terrible in its consequences to the parent country, was unexampled in the history of the press." [2] Let it not be supposed that Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Randolph, and the rest, were carried away by a meteor. Deep answers only unto deep. Paine's ideas went far because they came far. He was the authentic commoner, representing English freedom in the new world. There was no dreg in the poverty of his people that he had not tasted, no humiliation in their dependence, no outlook of their hopelessness, he had not known, and with the addition of intellectual hungers which made his old-world despair conscious. The squalor and abjectness of Thetford, its corporation held in the hollow of Grafton's hand, its members of Parliament also, the innumerable villages equally helpless, the unspeakable corruptions of the government, the repeated and always baffled efforts of the outraged people for some redress, -- these had been brought home to Paine in many ways, had finally driven him to America, where he arrived on the ---------------------- [1] Randolph's "History" (MS.), a possession of the Virginia Historical Society, has been confided to my editorial care for publication. [2] See also the historians, Ramsay (Rev., i., p.336, London, 1793), Gordon (Rev., ii., p.78, New York, 1794), Bryant and Gay (U. S., iii„ p.471, New York, 1879). p.65 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] hour for which none had been so exactly and thoroughly trained.
He had thrown off the old world, and that America had virtually done the
same constituted its attraction for him. In the opening essay
in his magazine, written within a month of his arrival in the country (Nov,
30, 1774), Paine speaks of America as a "nation," and his pregnant sentences
prove how mature the principles of independence had become in his mind long
before the outbreak of hostilities. "America has now outgrown the state of infancy. Her strength and commerce make large advances to manhood; and science in all its branches has not only blossomed, but even ripened upon the soil. The cottages as it were of yesterday have grown to villages, and the villages to cities; and while proud antiquity, like a skeleton in rags, parades the streets of other nations, their genius, as if sickened and disgusted with the phantom, comes hither for recovery . . . America yet inherits a large portion of, her first-imported virtue. Degeneracy is here almost a useless word. Those who are conversant with Europe would be tempted to believe that even the air of the Atlantic disagrees with the constitution of foreign vices; if they survive the voyage they either expire on their arrival, or linger away in an incurable consumption. There is a happy something in the climate of America which disarms them all their power both of infection and attraction."
"The object contended for ought always to bear some just proportion to the expence. The removal of North, or thep.66 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] whole detestable junto, is a matter unworthy the millions we have expended. A temporary stoppage of trade was an inconvenience which would have sufficiently ballanced the repeal of all the acts complained of, had such repeals been obtained; but if the whole Continent must take up arms, if every man must be a soldier, 't is scarcely worth our while to fight against; a contemptible ministry only. Dearly, dearly do we pay for the repeal of the acts, if that is all we fight for; for, in a just estimation, 't is as great a folly to pay a Bunker-hill price for law as for land . . . . It would be policy in the king, at ''this time, to repeal the acts for the sake of reinstating himself in the government of the provinces, in order that he may'' accomplish by craft and subtlety, in the long run, what he cannot do by force and violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related."
No other pamphlet published during the Revolution is comparable with "Common Sense" for; interest to the reader of to-day, or for value as an historical document. Therein as in a mirror is beheld the almost incredible England, against which the colonies contended. And therein is reflected the moral, even religious, enthusiasm which raised the struggle above the paltriness of a rebellion against taxation to a great human movement, -- a war for p.67 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] an idea. The art with which every sentence is feathered for its aim is consummate. The work was for a time generally attributed to Franklin. It is said the Doctor was reproached by a loyal lady for using in it such an epithet as "the royal brute of Britain." He assured her that he had not written the pamphlet, and would never so dishonor the brute creation. In his letter to Cheetham (1809) already referred to, Dr. Rush claims
to have suggested the work to Paine, who read the sheets to him and also
to Dr. Franklin. This letter, however, gives so many indications
of an enfeebled memory, that it cannot be accepted against Paine's own assertion,
made in the year following the publication of "Common Sense," when Dr. Rush and Dr. Franklin might have denied it.
"In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin proposed giving me such materials as were in his hands towards completing a history of the present transactions, and seemed desirous of having the first volume out the next spring. I had then formed the outlines of `Common Sense,' and finished nearly the first part; and as I supposed the doctor's design in getting out a history was to open the new year with a new system, I expected to surprise him with a production on that subject much earlier than he thought of; and without informing him of what I was doing, got it ready for the press as fast as I conveniently could, and sent him the first pamphlet that was printed off."
p.68 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] "Common Sense" he himself mentions (Penn. Jour., April 10, 1776) having shown parts of the MS. to a "very few." Dr. Rush is correct in his statement that Paine had difficulty in finding "a printer who had boldness enough to publish it," and that he (Rush) mentioned the pamphlet to the Scotch bookseller, Robert Bell. For Bell says, in a contemporary leaflet: "When the work was at a stand for want of a courageous Typographer, I was then recommended by a gentleman nearly in the following words: 'There is Bell, he is a Republican printer, give it to him, and I will answer for his courage to print it.' " Dr. Rush probably required some knowledge of the contents of the pamphlet before he made this recommendation. That Dr. Rush is mistaken in saying the manuscript was submitted to Franklin, and a sentence modified by him, is proved by the fact that on February 19th, more than a month after the pamphlet appeared, Franklin introduced Paine to Gen. Charles Lee with a letter containing the words, "He is the reputed and, I think, the real author of 'Common sense.' " Franklin could not have thus hesitated had there been in the work anything of his own, or anything he had seen. Beyond such disclosures to Dr. Rush, and one or two others, as were necessary to secure publication, Paine kept the secret of his authorship as long as he could. His recent arrival in the country might have impaired the force of his pamphlet. The authorship of "Common Sense" was guessed by the "Tory" President of the University of Philadelphia, the Rev. William Smith, D.D., who p.69 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] knew pretty well the previous intellectual resources of that city. Writing under the name of "Cato" he spoke of "the foul pages of interested writers, and strangers intermeddling in our affairs." To which "The Forester" (Paine) answers: "A freeman, Cato, is a stranger nowhere, -- a slave, everywhere."' The publication of "Common Sense"
had been followed by a number of applauding pamphlets, some of them crude
or extravagant, from Bell's press. "Cato" was anxious to affiliate
these "additional doses" on the author of "Common Sense," who replies:
"Perhaps there never was a pamphlet, since the use of letters were known, about which so little pains were taken, and of which so great a number went off in so short a time. I am certain that I am within compass when I say one hundred and twenty thousand. The book was turned upon the world like an orphan to shift for itself; no plan was formed to support it, neither hath the author ever published a syllable on the subject from that time till after the appearance of Cato's fourth letter."
-------------------- [1] "The writer of 'Common Sense' and 'The Forester' is the same person. His name is Paine, a gentleman about two years ago from England, -- a man who, General Lee says, has genius in his eyes." -- John Adams to his wife. p.70 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] gave away a fortune in that pamphlet alone. It never brought him a penny; he must even have paid for copies himself, as the publisher figured up a debt against him, on account of "Common Sense," for £29 12s. 1d. Notwithstanding this experience and the popularity he had acquired, Paine also gave to the States the copyright of his Crisis (thirteen numbers), was taunted by Tories as a "garreteer," ate his crust contentedly, peace finding him a penniless patriot, who might easily have had fifty thousand pounds in his pocket. The controversy between "Cato" and "The Forester"
was the most important that preceded the Declaration of Independence.
The president of the University represented "Toryism" in distress.
The "massacre at Lexington" disabled him from justifying the government,
which, however, he was not prepared to denounce. He was compelled
to assume the tone of an American, while at the same time addressing his
appeal "To the People of Pennsylvania," trying to detach its non-resident
Quakers and its mercantile interest from sympathy with the general cause.
Having a bad case, in view of Lexington, he naturally resorted to abuse of
the plaintiff's attorney. He soon found that when it came to
Quaker sentiment and dialect, his unknown antagonist was at home. "Remember, thou hast thrown me the glove, Cato, and either thee or I must tire. I fear not the field of fair debate, but thou hast stepped aside and made it personal. Thou hast tauntingly called me by name; and if I cease to hunt thee from every lane and lurking hole of mischief, and bring thee not a trembling culprit before the public bar, then brand me with reproach by naming me in the list of your confederates."
"The Forester" declares his respect for the honest and undisguised opponents of independence. "To be nobly wrong is more manly than to be meanly right." But "Cato" wears the mask of a friend, and shall be proved a foe. The so-called "Tories" of the American Revolution have never had justice done them. In another work I have told the story of John Randolph, King's Attorney in Virginia, and there were many other martyrs of loyalty in those days [1]. Four months after the affair at Lexington, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Randolph, in London: "Looking with fondness towards a reconciliation with Great Britain, I cannot help hoping you may be able to contribute towards expediting the good work." This was written on August 25, 1775; and if this was the feeling of Jefferson only ten months before the Declaration, how many, of more moderate temper, surrounded "Cato" and "The Forester" in loyal and peace-loving Philadelphia? But "Cato" was believed ungenuine. The Rev. Dr. William Smith, who wrote under that name, a native of Aberdeen with an Oxonian D.D., had been a glowing Whig patriot until June, 1775. But his wife was a daughter of the loyalist, William Moore. This lady of fashion was distinguished by her contempt for the independents, and her husband, now near fifty, was led into a false position. [2] He held the highest literary position in ----------------------- [1] "Omitted Chapters of History, Disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph," p. 20. [2] (p.71-72) R. H. Lee, in a letter to his brother (July 5, 1778) says: "We had a magnificent celebration of the anniversary of independence. The Whigs of the city dressed up a woman of the town with the monstrous head-dress of the Tory ladies, and escorted her through the town with a great concourse (p.72) of people. Her head was elegantly and expensively dressed, I suppose about three feet high and proportionate width, with a profusion of curls, etc. The figure was droll, and occasioned much mirth. It has lessened some heads already, and will probably bring the rest within the bounds of reason, for they are monstrous indeed. The Tory wife of Dr. Smith has christened this figure Continella, or the Duchess of Independence, and prayed for a pin from her head by way of relic. The Tory omen are very much mortified, notwithstanding this." -- "Omitted Chapters of History," p.40. "Cato's" brilliant wife had to retire before "Continella" in the following year. The charter of the College of Philadelphia was taken away, and its president retired to an obscure living at Chestertown, Maryland. He had, however, some of the dexterity of the Vicar of Bray; when the cause he had reviled was nearly won he founded a "Washington" college in Maryland. He was chosen by that diocese for a bishop (1783), but the General Convention refused to recommend him for consecration. In 1789 he managed to regain his place as college president in Philadelphia. p.72 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] Philadelphia, and perhaps felt some jealousy of Paine's fame. He picked out all the mistakes he could find in "Common Sense,"
and tried in every way to belittle his antagonist. Himself a
Scotchman, his wife an Englishwoman, he sneered at Paine for being a foreigner;
having modified his principles to those of the loyalist's daughter, he denounced
Paine as an "interested writer." He was out of his element in
the controversy he began with personalities. He spoke of the
trouble as a lovers' quarrel. Paine answers: "It was not in the power of France or Spain, or all the other powers in Europe, to have given such a wound, or raised us to such mortal hatred as Britain hath done. We see the same kind of undescribed anger at her conduct, as we would at the sight of an animal devouring its young."
p.73 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776]
"Cato discovers a gross ignorance of the British Constitution in supposing that these men can be empowered to act as ambassadors. To prevent his future errors, I will set him right. The present war differs from every other, in this instance, viz., that it is not carried on under the prerogative of the crown, as other wars have always been, but under the authority of the whole legislative power united; and as the barriers which stand in the way of a negotiation are not proclamations, but acts of Parliament, it evidently follows that were even the King of England here in person, he could not ratify the terms or conditions of a reconciliation; because, in the single character of King, he could not tipulate for the repeal of any acts of Parliament, neither can the Parliament stipulate for him. There is no body of men more jealous of their privileges than the Commons: Because they sell them."
On May 8th a fourth letter, signed "The Forester," appeared in the same paper (Pennsylvania Journal), which I at first suspected of not being from Paine's pen. [1] This was because of a sentence ------------------- [1] A theft of Paine's usual signature led to his first public identification of himself (Feb. 13, 1779). "As my signature, `Common Sense,' has been counterfeited, either by Mr. [Silas] Deane, or some of his adherents in Mr. Bradford's paper of Feb. 3, I shall subscribe this with my name, Thomas Paine." He, however, in Almon's Remembrancer (vol. viii.) is indexed by name in connection with a letter of the previous year signed "Common Sense." p.74 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] beginning: "The clergy of the English Church, of which I profess myself a member," etc. There is no need to question the truth of this, for, as we have seen, Paine had been confirmed, and no doubt previously baptized; nor is there reason to disbelieve the statement of Oldys that he wished to enter holy orders. There was a good deal of rationalism in the American church at that time, and that Paine, with his religious fervor and tendency to inquire, should have maintained his place in that scholarly church is natural. His quakerism was a philosophy, but he could by no means have found any home in its rigid and dogmatic societies in Philadelphia. The casual sentence above quoted was probably inserted for candor, as the letter containing it opens with a censure on the attitude of the Quakers towards the proposal for independence. The occasion was an election of four burgesses to represent Philadelphia in the State Assembly, a body in which Quakers (loyalists) preponderated. Had the independents been elected they must have taken the oath of allegiance to the crown, with which the State was at war. Indeed Paine declares that the "Tories" succeeded in the election because so many patriots were absent for defence of their country. Under these circumstances Paine urges the necessity of a popular convention. The House of Assembly is disqualified from "sitting in its own case." The extracts given from this letter are of historic interest as reflecting the conflict of opinions in Pennsylvania amid which the Declaration was passed two months later. p.75 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776]
"Whoever will take the trouble of attending to the progress and changeability of times and things, and the conduct of mankind thereon, will find that extraordinary circumstances do sometimes arise before us, of a species, either so purely natural or so perfectly original, that none but the man of nature can understand them. When precedents fail to assist us, we must return to the first principles of things for information, and think, as if we were the first men that thought. And this is the true reason, that in the present state of affairs, the wise are become foolish, and the foolish wise. I am led to this reflection by not being able to account for the conduct of the Quakers on any other; for although they do not seem to perceive it themselves, yet it is amazing to hear with what unanswerable ignorance many of that body, wise in other matters, will discourse on the present one. Did they hold places or commissions under the king, were they governors of provinces, or had they any interest apparently distinct from us, the mystery would cease; but as they have not, their folly is best attributed to that superabundance of worldly knowledge which in original matters is too cunning to be wise. Back to the first plain path of nature, friends, and begin anew, for in this business your first footsteps were wrong. You have now travelled to the summit of inconsistency, and that, with such accelerated rapidity as to acquire autumnal ripeness by the first of May. Now your rotting time comes on."
"He that is wise will reflect, that the safest asylum, especially in times of general convulsion, when no settled form of government prevails, is the love of the people. All property is safe under their protection. Even in countries where the lowest and most licentious of them have risen into outrage, they have never departed from the path of natural honor.p.76 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] Volunteers unto death in defence of the person or fortune of those who had served or defended them, division of property never entered the mind of the populace. It is incompatible with that spirit which impels them into action. An avaricious mob was never heard of; nay, even a miser, pausing in the midst of them, and catching their spirit, would from that instant cease to be covetous."
"O ye partial ministers of your own acknowledged principles! If the bearing arms be sinful, the first going to war must be more so, by all the difference between wilful attack and unavoidable defence. Wherefore, if ye really preach from conscience, and mean not to make a political hobbyhorse of your religion, convince the world thereof by proclaiming your doctrine to our enemies, for they likewise bear arms. Give us proof of your sincerity by publishing it at St. James's, to the commanders in chief at Boston, to the admirals and captains who are piratically ravaging our coasts, and to all the murdering miscreants who are acting in authority under HIM whom ye profess to serve. Had ye the honest soul of Barclay ye would preach repentance to your king; ye wouldp.77 -- "COMMON SENSE" [1776] tell the Royal Wretch his sins, and warn him of eternal ruin; ye would not spend your partial invectives against the injured and insulted only, but, like faithful ministers, cry aloud and spare none." [1] Paine was not then aware of the extent of the intrigues of leading Quakers with the enemy. The State archives of England and France contain remarkable evidences on this subject. Paul Wentworth, in a report to the English government (1776 or 1777) mentions the loyalty of Pemberton and the Quakers. Wentworth says that since the publication of "Common Sense" it had become hard to discover the real opinions of leading men. "Mr. Payne," he says, "should not be forgot. He is an Englishman, was schoolmaster in Philadelphia; must be driven to work; naturally indolent; led by His passions." These "passions," chiefly for liberty and humanity, seem to have so driven the indolent man to work that, according to Wentworth, his pamphlet "worked up [the people] to such a high temper as fitted them for the impression of the Declaration, etc." The Quakers, however, held out long, though more covertly, M. Gérard de Rayneval, in a letter from Philadelphia, Sept. 18, 1778, reports to his government: "During the occupation of Philadelphia by the English, proofs were obtained of the services rendered them by the Quakers; some of these were caught acting as spies, etc." La Luzerne writes (May 4, 1781): "All the Quakers in Philadelphia who have taken up arms, or voluntarily paid war taxes, have been excommunicated; these, increasing in number, declare themselves loyal." See for further information on this matter, "New Materials for the History of the American Revolution," etc., by John Durand. New York, 1889. p.78 UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE
AS in North Carolina had occurred the first armed resistance to British oppressions (1771), and its Mecklenburg County been the first to organize a government independent of the Crown, so was that colony the first to instruct its delegates in Congress to vote for national independence. She was followed in succession by South Carolina [1], Virginia [2], Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Georgia, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Maryland passed patriotic resolutions, but not sufficiently decisive for its delegates. --------------------- [1] Colonel Gadsden, having left the Continental Congress to take command in South Carolina, appeared in the provincial Congress at Charleston February 10, 1776. "Col. Gadsden (having brought the first copy of Paine's pamphlet 'Common Sense,' etc.,) boldly declared himself . . . for the absolute Independence of America. This last sentiment came like an explosion of thunder on the members " (Rev. John Drayton's Memoirs, etc., p, 172). The sentiment was abhorred, and a member "called the author of 'Common Sense' "; but on March 21st the pamphlet was reinforced by tidings of an Act of Parliament (Dec. 21, 1775) for seizure of American ships, and on March 23d South Carolina instructed its delegates at Philadelphia to agree to whatever that Congress should "judge necessary, etc." [2] A thousand copies of "Common Sense" were at once ordered from Virginia, and many more followed. On April 1st Washington writes to Joseph Reed: "By private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find 'Common Sense' is working a wonderful change there in the minds of many men." On June 29th union with England was "totally dissolved" by Virginia. p.79 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1776] to act. New York alone forbade its delegates to vote for independence. Meanwhile, on June 7th, Richard Henry Lee, in behalf of the Virginians, had submitted resolutions of independence; but as six States hesitated, Congress adjourned the decision until July 1st, appointing, however, (June 11th) a committee to consider the proper form of the probable Declaration -- Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. But this interval, from June 7th to July 1st, was perilous for independence. News came of the approach of Lord Howe bearing from England the "olive branch." The powerful colonies New York and Pennsylvania were especially anxious to await the proposals for peace. At this juncture Paine issued one of his most effective pamphlets, "A Dialogue between the Ghost of General Montgomery, Just Arrived from the Elysian Fields, and an American Delegate, in a Wood near Philadelphia." Montgomery, the first heroic figure fallen in the war, reproaches the hesitating delegate for willingness to accept pardon from a royal criminal for defending "the rights of humanity." He points out that France only awaits their declaration of independence to come to their aid, and that America "teems with patriots, heroes, and legislators who are impatient to burst forth into light and importance." The most effective part of the pamphlet, however, was a reply to the commercial apprehensions of New York and Pennsylvania. "Your dependance upon the Crown is no advantage, but rather an injury, to the people of Great Britain, as it increases the power and influence p..80 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1776] of the King. The people are benefited only by your trade, and this they may have after you are independant of the Crown." There is a shrewd prescience of what actually happened shown in this opportune work. Of course the gallant ghost remarks that "monarchy and aristocracy have in all ages been the vehicles of slavery." The allusion to the arming of negroes and Indians against America, and other passages, resemble clauses in one of the paragraphs eliminated from the original Declaration of Independence. At this time Paine saw much of Jefferson,
and there can be little doubt that the anti-slavery clause struck out of
the Declaration was written by Paine, or by some one who had Paine's anti-slavery
essay before him. In the following passages it will be observed
that the antitheses are nearly the same -- "infidel and Christian," "heathen
and Christian."
p.81 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1776]
p.82 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1776] his country, and America having founded its independence on such universal interests, Paine could not hesitate to become a soldier for mankind. [1] His Quaker principles, always humanized, were not such as would applaud a resistance in which he was not prepared to participate. While the signers of the Declaration of Independence were affixing their names -- a procedure which reached from August 2d into November -- Paine resigned his Pennsylvania Magazine, and marched with his musket to the front. He enlisted in a Pennsylvania division of the Flying Camp of ten thousand men, who were to be sent wherever needed. He was under General Roberdeau, and assigned at first to service at Amboy, afterwards at Bergen. The Flying Camp was enlisted for a brief period, and when that had expired Paine travelled to Fort Lee, on the Hudson, and renewed his enlistment. Fort Lee was under the command of General Nathaniel Greene who, on or about September 19th, appointed Paine ----------------------- [1] Professor John Fiske (whose "American Revolution" suffers from ignorance of Paine's papers) appreciates the effect of Paine's "Common Sense" but not its cause. He praises the pamphlet highly, but proves that he has only glanced at it by his exception: "The pamphlet is full of scurrilous abuse of the English people; and resorts to such stupid arguments as the denial of the English origin of the Americans" (i, p.174). Starting with the principle that the cause of America is "the cause of all mankind," Paine abuses no people, but only their oppressors. As to Paine's argument,, it might have appeared less "stupid" to Professor Fiske had he realized that in Paine's mind negroes were the equals of whites. However, Paine does not particularly mention negroes; his argument was meant to carry its point, and it might have been imprudent for him, in that connection, to have classed the slaves with the Germans, who formed a majority in Pennsylvania, and with the Dutch of New York. In replying to the "Mother-Country" argument it appears to me far from stupid to point out that Europe is our parent country, and that if English descent made men Englishmen, the descendants of William the Conqueror and half the peers of England were Frenchmen, and, if the logic held, should be governed by France. p.83 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1776] a Volunteer Aide-de-camp, General Greene in a gossipy letter to his wife (November 2d) says: "Common Sense (Thomas Paine) and Colonel Snarl, or Cornwell, are perpetually wrangling about mathematical problems." On November 10th came the surprise of Fort Lee; the boiling kettles and baking ovens of a dinner to be devoured by the British were abandoned, with three hundred tents, for a retreat made the more miserable by hunger and cold. By November 22d the whole army had retreated to Newark, where Paine began writing his famous first Crisis. [1] He could only write at night; during the day there was constant work for every soldier of the little force surrounding Washington. "I am wearied almost to death with the retrograde motion of things," wrote Washington to his brother (November 9th), "and I solemnly protest that a pecuniary reward of twenty thousand pounds a year would not induce me to undergo what I do; and after all, perhaps to lose my character, as it is impossible, under such a variety of distressing circumstances, to conduct matters agreeably to public expectation." On November 27th he writes from Newark to ----------------------- [1] See Almon's Remembrancer, 1777, p.28, for Paine's graphic journal of this retreat, quoted from the Pennsylvania Journal . In reply to those who censured the retreat as pusillanimous, he states that "our army was at one time less than a thousand effective men and never more than 4,000," the pursuers being "8,000 exclusive of their artillery and light horse"; he declares that posterity will call the retreat "glorious -- and the names of Washington and Fabius will run paralell to eternity." In the Pennsylvania Packet (March 20, 1779) Paine says: "I had begun the first number of the Crisis while on the retreat, at Newark, with a design of publishing it in the Jersies, as it was General Washington's intention to have made a stand at Newark, could he have been timely reenforced; instead of which nearly half the army left him at that place, or soon after, their time being out." p.84 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1776] General Lee: "It has been more owing to the badness of the weather
that the enemy's progress has been checked, than to any resistance we could
make." Even while he wrote the enemy drew near, and the next
day (November 28th) entered one end of Newark as Washington left the other.
At Brunswick he was joined by General Williamson's militia, and on the Delaware
by the Philadelphia militia, and could muster five thousand against Howe's
whole army. "I tremble for Philadelphia," writes Washington to
Lund Washington (December 10th). "Nothing in my opinion, but
General Lee's speedy arrival, who has been long expected, though still at
a distance (with about three thousand men), can save it." On
December 13th Lee was a prisoner, and on the 17th Washington writes to the
same relative: "Your imagination can scarce extend to a situation more distressing than mine. Our only dependence now is upon the speedy enlistment of a new army. If this fails, I think the game will be pretty well up, as from disaffection and want of spirit and fortitude, the inhabitants, instead of resistance, are offering submission and taking protection from Gen. Howe in Jersey."
"You can form no idea of the perplexity of my situation. No man, I believe, ever had a greater choice of difficulties, and less means to extricate himself from them. However,p.85 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1776] under a full persuasion of the justice of our cause, I cannot entertain an Idea that it will finally sink, tho' it may remain for some time under a cloud."
"Christmas-day, at night, one hour before day, is the time fixed upon for our attempt on Trenton. For Heaven's sake keep this to yourself, as the discovery of it may prove fatal to us; our numbers, sorry I am to say, being less than I had any conception of; but necessity, dire necessity will, nay must, justify any attempt."
------------------------ [1] The pamphlet was dated December 23rd, but it had appeared on the 19th in the Pennsylvania Journal. p.86 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1776] the pen none have achieved such vast results as Paine's "Common Sense" and his first Crisis.
Before the battle of Trenton the half-clad, disheartened soldiers of Washington
were called together in groups to listen to that thrilling exhortation.
The opening words alone were a victory. "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph what we obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly; 't is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated." Not a chord of faith, or love, or hope was left untouched. The very faults of the composition, which the dilettanti have picked out, were effective to men who had seen Paine on the march, and knew these things were written in sleepless intervals of unwearied labors. He speaks of what Joan of Arc did in "the fourteenth century," and exclaims: "Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment!" Joan was born in 1410, but Paine had no cyclopædia in his knapsack. The literary musket reaches its mark. The pamphlet was never surpassed for true eloquence -- that is, for the power that carries its point. With skilful illustration of lofty principles by significant details, all summed with simplicity and sympathy, three of the most p.87 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1776] miserable weeks ever endured by men were raised into epical dignity. The wives, daughters, mothers, sisters, seemed stretching out appealing hands against the mythically monstrous Hessians. The great commander, previously pointed to as "a mind that can even flourish upon care," presently saw his dispirited soldiers beaming with hope, and bounding to the onset, -- their watchword: These are the times that try men's souls! Trenton was won, the Hessians captured, and a New Year broke for America on the morrow of that Christmas Day, 1776 [1]. Paine's Trenton musket had hardly cooled, or the pen of his first Crisis dried, before he began to write another. It appeared about four weeks after the battle and is addressed to Lord Howe. The Thetford mechanic has some pride in confronting this English lord who had offered the Americans mercy. "Your lordship, I find, has now commenced author, and published a Proclamation; I have published a Crisis." The rumors of his being a hireling scribe, or gaining wealth by his publications, made it necessary for Paine to speak of himself at the conclusion --------------------- [1] Paine's enemy, Cheetham, durst not, in the face of Washington's expression of his "lively sense of the importance of your [Paine's] works," challenge well known facts, and must needs partly confess them: "The number was read in the camp, to every corporal's guard, and in the army and out of it had more than the intended effect. The convention of New York, reduced by dispersion, occasioned by alarm, to nine members, was rallied and reanimated. Militiamen who, already tired of the war, were straggling from the army, returned. Hope succeeded to despair, cheerfulness to gloom, and firmness to irresolution. To the confidence which it inspired may be attributed much of the brilliant little affair which in the same month followed at Trenton." Even Oldys is somewhat impressed by Paine's courage: "The Congress fled. All were dismayed. Not so our author." p.88 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1777]
"What I write is pure nature, and my pen and my soul have ever gone together. My writings I have always given away, receiving only the expense of printing and paper, and sometimes not even that. I never counted either fame or interest, and my manner of life, to those who know it, will justify what I say. My study is to be useful, and if your lordship loves mankind as well as I do, you would, seeing you cannot conquer us, cast about and lend your hand towards accomplishing a peace. Our independence, with God's blessing, we will maintain against all the world; but as we wish to avoid evil ourselves, we wish not to inflict it on others. I am never over-inquisitive into the secrets of the cabinet, but I have some notion that, if you neglect the present opportunity, it will not be in our power to make a separate peace with you afterwards; for whatever treaties or alliances we form we shall most faithfully abide by; wherefore you may be deceived if you think you can make it with us at any time."
If Howe, as is most likely, considered this mere impudence, he presently had reason to take it more seriously. For there were increasing indications that Paine was in the confidence of those who controlled affairs. On January 21st he was appointed by the Council of Safety in Philadelphia secretary to the commission sent by Congress to treat with the Indians at Easton, Pennsylvania. The commissioners, with a thousand dollars' worth of presents, met the Indian chiefs in the German Reformed Church (built 1776), and, as they reported to Congress, "after shaking hands, drinking rum, while the organ played, we proceeded to business." [1] ------------------------- [1] Condit's "History of Easton," pp. 60, 118, p.89 -- UNDER THE BANNER OF INDEPENDENCE [1777] The report was, no doubt, written by Paine, who for his services
was paid £300 by the Pennsylvania Assembly (one of its advances for
Congress, afterwards refunded). In a public letter, written in
1807, Paine relates an anecdote concerning this meeting with the Indians.
"The chief of the tribes, who went by the name of King Last-night, because his tribe had sold their lands, had seen some English men-of-war in some of the waters of Canada, and was impressed with the power of those great canoes; but he saw that the English made no progress against us by land. This was enough for an Indian to form an opinion by. He could speak some English, and in conversation with me, alluding to the great canoes, he gave me his idea of the power of a king of England, by the following metaphor. `The king of England,' said he, `is like a fish. When he is in the water he can wag his tail; when he comes on land he lays down on his side.' Now if the English government had but half the sense this Indian had, they would not have sent Duckworth to Constantinople, and Douglas to Norfolk, to lay down on their side."
p.90 SOLDIER AND SECRETARY
AFTER their disaster at Trenton, the English forces suspended hostilities for a long time. Paine, maintaining his place on General Greene's staff, complied with the wish of all the generals by wielding his pen during the truce of arms. He sat himself down in Philadelphia, "Second Street, opposite the Quaker meeting," -- as he writes the address. The Quakers regarded him as Antichrist pursuing them into close quarters. Untaught by castigation, the leaders of the Society, and chiefly one John Pemberton, disguised allies of the Howes, had put forth, November 20, 1776, a second and more dangerous "testimony." In it they counsel Friends to refuse obedience to whatever "instructions or ordinances" may be published, not warranted by "that happy constitution under which they and others long enjoyed tranquillity and peace." In his second Crisis (January 13, 1777) Paine refers to this document, and a memorial, from "a meeting of a reputable number of the inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia," called attention of the Board of Safety to its treasonable character. The Board, however, not having acted, Paine devoted his next three months to a treatment p.91 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1777] of that and all other moral and political problems which had been developed by the course of the Revolution, and must be practically dealt with. In reading this third Crisis, one feels in every sentence its writer's increased sense of responsibility. Events had given him the seat of a lawgiver. His first pamphlet had dictated the Declaration of Independence, his second had largely won its first victory, his third had demonstrated the impossibility of subjugation, and offered England peace on the only possible terms. The American heart had responded without a dissonant note; he held it in his hand; he knew that what he was writing in that room "opposite the Quaker meeting" were Acts of Congress. So it proved. The third Crisis was dated April 19, 1777, the second anniversary of the first collision (Lexington). It was as effective in dealing with the internal enemies of the country as the first had been in checking its avowed foes. It was written in a city still largely, if not preponderantly, "tory," and he deals with them in all their varieties, not arraigning the Friends as a Society. Having carefully shown that independence, from being a natural right, had become a political and moral necessity, and the war one "on which a world is staked," he says that "Tories" endeavoring to insure their property with the enemy should be made to fear still more losing it on the other side. Paine proposes an "oath or affirmation" renouncing allegiance to the King, pledging support to the United States. At the same time let a tax of ten, fifteen, or twenty percent. believed on all property. Each who takes p.92 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1777] the oath may exempt his property by holding himself ready to do what
service he can for the cause; they who refuse the oath will be paying a tax
on their insurance with the enemy. "It would not only be good policy but strict justice to raise fifty or one hundred thousand pounds, or more, if it is necessary, out of the estates and property of the King of England's votaries, resident in Philadelphia, to be distributed as a reward to those inhabitants of the city and State who should turn out and repulse the enemy should they attempt to march this way."
Paine was really the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. His election had not been without opposition, and, according to John Adams, there was a suggestion that some of his earlier writings had been unfavorable to this country. What the reference was I cannot understand unless it was to his anti-slavery essay, in which he asked Americans with what consistency they could protest against being enslaved while they were enslaving others. That essay, I have long believed, caused a secret, silent, hostility p.93 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1777] to the author by which he suffered much without suspecting it.
But he was an indefatigable secretary. An example of the care
with which foreign representatives were kept informed appears in a letter
to William Bingham, agent of Congress at Martinique. "PHILADELPHIA, July 16th, 1777.
----------------------- [1] MS., for which I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz, Philadelphia. p.94 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1777] when the Pennsylvania Assembly and President (Thomas Wharton, Jr.,)
confided to him the delicate and arduous task assigned by the following from
Timothy Matlack, Secretary of the Assembly: "LANCASTER, Oct. 10, 1777.
The subjoined letter sheds fresh light on a somewhat obscure point in our revolutionary history, -- the obscurity being due to the evasions of American -------------------- [1] Pa. Arch., 1779, p. 659. Paine at once set to work: p. 693, 694. p.95 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1777] historians on an episode of which we have little reason to be proud.
An article of Burgoyne's capitulation (October 17th) was as follows: "A free passage to be granted to the army under General Burgoyne to Great Britain, upon condition of not serving again in North America during the present contest: and the port of Boston to be assigned for entry of transports to receive the troops whenever General Howe shall so order."
"Headquarters, fourteen miles from Philadelphia,p.96 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1777] equal footing by staking the faith and honor of the former for the performance of a Contract entered into with the latter. p.97 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1777] "The Army was to have marched yesterday about 2 or 3 Miles but the weather has been so exceedingly bad for three days past as to prevent any kind of movement, the waters are so much out and the rivulets so high there is no passing from one part of ye Camp to another.
--------------------------- [1] I am indebted for this letter to Dr. John S. H. Fogg of Boston. It bears the superscription: "Honbl. Richd. Henry Lee Esq. (in Congress) York Town. Forwarded by yr humble Servt. T. Matlack, Nov. 1, 1777." Endorsed in handwriting of Lee: "Oct: 1777. Mr. Paine, Author of `Common Sense.'" p.98 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1777] on the history of our Revolution might have been prevented. The time required to march the prisoners to Boston and prepare the transports would have given England opportunity to ratify the articles of capitulation. Washington, with characteristic inability to see injustice in anything advantageous to America, desired Congress to delay in every possible way the return of the prisoners to England, "since the most virtuous adhesion to the articles would not prevent their replacing in garrison an equal number of soldiers who might be sent against us." The troops were therefore delayed on one pretext and another until Burgoyne declared that "the publick faith is broke." Congress seized on this remark to resolve that the embarkation should be suspended until an "explicit ratification of the Convention of Saratoga shall be properly ratified by the Court of Great Britain." This resolution, passed January 8, 1778, was not communicated to Burgoyne until February 4th. If any one should have suffered because of a remark made in a moment of irritation it should have been Burgoyne himself; but he was presently allowed to proceed to England, while his troops were retained, -- a confession that Burgoyne's casual complaint was a mere pretext for further delay. It may be added that the English government behaved to its surrendered soldiers worse than Congress. The question of ratifying the Saratoga Convention was involved in a partisan conflict in Parliament, the suffering prisoners in America were forgotten, and they were not released until the peace, -- five years after they had marched "with p.99 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1777] the honours of war," under a pledge of departure conceded by Gen.
Gates in reply to a declaration that unless conceded they would Concerning this ugly business there is a significant silence in Paine's public writings. He would not have failed to discuss the matter in his Crisis had he felt that anything honorable to the American name or cause could be made out of it. [1] In his letter to Hon. R. H. Lee (October 30, 1 777) Paine mentions
that he is about leaving the head-quarters near Philadelphia for Fort Mifflin.
Mr. Asa Bird Gardener, of New York, who has closely studied Paine's military
career, writes me some account of it. "Major-Gen. Greene was charged with the defence of the Delaware, and part of Brig.-Gen. Varnum's brigade was placed in garrison at Fort Mercer, Red Bank, and at Fort Mifflin, Mud Island. A bloody and unsuccessful assault was made by Count Donop and 1,200 Hessians on Fort Mercer, defended by the 1st and 2d Reg'ts. R I. Continental Inf'y. The entire British fleet was then brought up opposite Fort Mifflin, and the most furious cannonade, and most desperate but finally unsuccessful defence of the place was made. The entire works were demolished, and most of the garrison killed and wounded. Major-Gen. Greene being anxious for the garrison and desirous of knowing its ability to resist sent Mr. Paine to ascertain. He accordingly went to Fort Mercer, and from thence, on Nov. 9 (1777) went with Col. Christopher Greene, commanding Fort Mercer, in an open boat to Fort Mifflin, during the cannonade, and were there when the enemy opened with two-gun batteries and a mortar battery. This very gallant act [1] Professor Fiske ("Am. Revolution," i., p. 341) has a ferocious attack on Congress for breaking faith in this matter, but no doubt he has by this time read, in Ford's "Writings of Washington," (vol. vi.) the letters which bring his attack on the great commander's own haloed head. p.100 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] shows what a fearless man Mr. Paine was, and entitles him to the same credit for service in the Revolution as any Continental could claim."
------------------------- [1] See his letter to the President of Congress. Ford's "Writings of Washington," vol. vi., p. 82. p.101 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] inhabitants of America," sounded a note of courage, and gave good reasons for it. Never was aid more artistic than that Paine's pen now gave Washington. The allusions to him are incidental, there is no accent of advocacy. While mentioning "the unabated fortitude of a Washington," he lays a laurel on the brow of Gates, on that of Herkimer, and even on the defeated. While belittling all that Howe had gained, telling him that in reaching Philadelphia, he "mistook a trap for a conquest," he reunites Washington and Gates, in the public mind, by showing the manœuvres of the one near Philadelphia part of the other's victory at Saratoga. It is easy for modern eulogists of Washington to see this, but when Paine said it, -- apparently aiming only to humiliate Howe, -- the sentence was a sunbeam parting a black cloud. Coming from a member of Greene's staff, from an author whose daring at Fort Mifflin had made him doubly a hero; from the military correspondent of the Pennsylvania Council, and the Secretary of the Congressional Committee of Foreign Affairs, -- Paine's optimistic view of the situation had immense effect. He hints his official knowledge that Britain's "reduced strength and exhausted coffers in a three years' war with America hath given a powerful superiority to France and Spain," and advises Americans to leave wrangling to the enemy. "We never had so small an army to fight against, nor so fair an opportunity of final success as now." This fifth Crisis was written mainly at Lancaster, Pa., at the house of William Henry, Jr., where he several times found shelter while dividing his p.102 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] time between Washington's head-quarters and York. [1] Every number of the Crisis was thus written with full information from both the military and political leaders. This Crisis
was finished and printed at York, and there Paine begins No. VI.
The "stone house on the banks of the Cadorus," at York, is still pointed
out by a trustworthy tradition as that to which he bore the chest of congressional
papers with which he had fled to Trenton, when Howe entered Philadelphia.
[2] It is a pleasant abode in a picturesque country, and no doubt
Paine would have been glad to remain there in repose. But whoever
slept on his watch during the Revolution Paine did not. The fifth
Crisis printed, be goes to forward the Crisis he will publish
next. In April he is again at Lancaster, and on the 11th writes
thence to his friend Henry Laurens, President of Congress [3]. "LANCASTER, April 11th, 17 [1] This I learn by a note from Mr. Henry's descendant, John W. Jordan. At this time Paine laid before Henry his scheme for steam-navigation. [2] The house is marked "B. by J. B. Cookis in the year 1761." It is probable that Congress deemed it prudent to keep important documents a little way from the edifice in the centre of the town where it met, a building which no longer stands. [3] I am indebted to Mr, Simon Gratz, of Philadelphia, for this and several other letters of Paine to Laurens. p.103 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] explained the word `emitted' to have only a retrospect meaning by supplying the Idea of 'which have been' `emitted by Congress.' Therefore say they the Act cannot be applied to any money emitted after the date of the Act. I believe the words `emitted by Congress' means only, and should be understood, to distinguish Continental Money from other Money, and not one Time from another Time. It has, as I conceive, no referrence to any Particular Time, but only to the particular authority which distinguishes Money so emitted from Money emitted by the State. It is meant only as a discription of the Money, and not of the Time of striking it, but includes the Idea of all Time as inseparable from the Continuance of the authority of Congress. But be this as it may; the offence is Continental and the consequences of the same extent. I can have no Idea of any particular State pardoning an offence against all, or even their letting an offender slip legally who is accountable to all and every State alike for his crime. The place where he commits it is the least circumstance of it. It is a mere accident and has nothing or very little to do with the crime itself. I write this hoping the Information will point out the necessity of the Congress supporting their emissions by claiming every offender in this line where the present deficiency of the Law or the Partial Interpretation of it operates to the Injustice and Injury of the whole Continent.p.104 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] "Since writing the foregoing the Prisoners have had their Tryal, the one is acquitted and the other convicted only of a Fraud; for as the law now stands, or rather as it is explained, the counterfeiting -- or circulating counterfeits -- is only a fraud. I do not believe it was the intention of the Act to make it so, and I think it misapplied Lenity in the Court to suffer such an Explanation, because it has a tendency to invite and encourage a Species of Treason, the most prejudicial to us of any or all the other kinds. I am aware how very difficult it is to make a law so very perfect at first as not to be subject to false or perplexed conclusions. There never was but one Act (said a Member of the House of Commons) which a man might not creep out of, i.e. the Act which obliges a man to be buried in woollen.
"Your favor of Oct. 7th did not come to me till March. I was at Camp when Capt. Folger, arrived with the Blank Packet. The private Letters were, I believe, all safe. Mr. Laurens for. warded yours to York Town where I afterwards recd. it.p.105 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] the two Armies were drawn up in order of battle near the White Horse on the Lancaster road, when a most violent and incessant storm of rain prevented an action. Our Army sustained a heavy loss in their Ammunition, the Cartouch Boxes, especially as they were not of the most seasoned leather, being no proof agst. the almost incredible fury of the weather, which obliged Genl. Washn. to draw his Army up into the country till those injuries could be repaired, and a new supply of ammunition procured. The Enemy in the mean time kept on the West Side of Schuylkill. On Fryday the 19th about one in the morning the first alarm of their crossing was given, and the confusion, as you may suppose, was very great. It was a beautiful still moonlight morning and the streets as full of men women and children as on a market day. On the eveng, before I was fully persuaded that unless something was done the City would be lost; and under that anxiety I went to Col. Bayard, speaker of the house of Assembly, and represented, as I very particularly knew it, the situation we were in, and the probability of saving the City if proper efforts were made for that purpose. I reasoned thus -- Genl. Washn. was about 30 Miles up the Schuylkill with an Army properly collected waiting for Ammunition, besides which, a reinforcement of 1500 men were marching from the North River to join him; and if only an appearance of defence be made in the City by throwing up works at the heads of streets, it will make the Enemy very suspicious how they throw themselves between the City and Genl. Washington, and between two Rivers, which must have been the case; for notwithstanding the knowledge which military gentlemen are supposed to have, I observe they move exceedingly cautiously on new ground, are exceedingly suspicious of Villages and Towns, and more perplexed at seemingly little things which they cannot clearly understand than at great ones which they are fully acquainted with. And I think it very probable that Genl. Howe would have mistaken our necessity for a deep laid scheme and not have ventured himself in the middle of it. But admitting that he had, he must either have brought his whole Army down, or a part of it. If the whole, Gen. W. would have followed him, perhaps the same day, in two or three days at most, and our assistance in the City would have been material. If only a part of it, we should have been a p.106 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] match for them, and Gen. W. superior to those which remained above. The chief thing was, whether the cityzens would turn out to defend the City. My proposal to Cols. Bayard and Bradford was to call them together the next morning, make them fully acquainted with the situation and the means and prospect of preserving themselves, and that the City had better voluntarily assess itself 50,000 for its defence than suffer an Enemy to come into it. Cols. Bayard and Bradford were in my opinion, and as Genl. Mifflin was then in town, I next went to him, acquainted him with our design, and mentioned likewise that if two or three thousand men could be mustered up whether we might depend on him to command them, for without some one to lead, nothing could be done. He declined that part, not being then very well, but promised what assistance he could. -- A few hours after this the alarm happened. I went directly to Genl. Mifflin but he had set off, and nothing was done. I cannot help being of opinion that the City might have been saved, but perhaps it is better otherwise.p.107 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] miles lower down that morning. The next day they made a movement about the same distance, to the 21 Mile Stone on the Skippach Road-Head Quarters at John Wince's. On the 3d Octr. in the morning they began to fortify the Camp, as a deception; and about 9 at Night marched for German Town. The Number of Continental Troops was between 8 and 9000, besides Militia, the rest remaining as Guards for the security of Camp. Genl. Greene, whose Quarters I was at, desired me to remain there till Morning. I set off for German Town about 5 next morning. The Skirmishing with the Pickets began soon after. I met no person for several miles riding, which I concluded to be a good sign; after this I met a man on horseback who told me he was going to hasten on a supply of ammunition, that the Enemy were broken and retreating fast, which was true. I saw several country people with arms in their hands running cross a field towards German Town, within about five or six miles, at which I met several of the wounded on waggons, horseback, and on foot. I passed Genl. Nash on a litter made of poles, but did not know him. I felt unwilling to ask questions lest the information should not be agreeable, and kept on. About two miles after this I passed a promiscuous crowd of wounded and otherwise who were halted at a house to refresh. Col. Biddle D.Q.N.G. was among them, who called after me, that if I went farther on that road I should be taken, for that the firing which I heard ahead was the Enemy's. I never could, and cannot now learn, and I believe no man can inform truly the cause of that day's miscarriage.p.108 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] German Town, than anxious to get to their rendezvous. I was so lucky that night to get to a little house about 4 miles wide of Perkiominy, towards which place in the morning I heard a considerable firing, which distressed me exceedingly, knowing that our army was much harassed and not collected. However, I soon relieved myself by going to see. They were discharging their pieces, wch. tho' necessary, prevented several Parties going till next day. I breakfasted next morning at Genl. W. Quarters, who was at the same loss with every other to account for the accidents of the day. I remember his expressing his Surprise, by saying, that at the time he supposed every thing secure, and was about giving orders for the Army to proceed down to Philadelphia; that he most unexpectedly saw a Part (I think of the Artillery) hastily retreating. This partial Retreat was, I believe, misunderstood, and soon followed by others. The fog was frequently very thick, the Troops young and unused to breaking and rallying, and our men rendered suspicious to each other, many of them being in Red. A new Army once disordered is difficult to manage, the attempt dangerous. To this may be added a prudence in not putting matters to too hazardous a tryal the first time. Men must be taught regular fighting by practice and degrees, and tho' the expedition failed, it had this good effect -- that they seemed to feel themselves more important after it than before, as it was the first general attack they had ever made.p.109 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] Schuylkill. The Enemy threw up a two Gun Battery on the point of the river's mouth opposite the Pest House. The next morning was a thick fog, and as soon as it cleared away, and we became visible to each other, they opened on the Galley, who returned the fire. The Commodore made a signal to bring the Galley under the Jersey shore, as she was not a match for the Battery, nor the Battery a sufficient Object for the Galley. One Shot went thro' the fore sail, wch. was all. At noon I went with Col. [Christopher] Greene, who commanded at Red Bank, over to fort Mifflin (Mud Island). The Enemy opened that day 2 two-gun Batteries, and a Mortar Battery, on the fort. They threw about 30 Shells into it that afternoon, without doing any damage; the ground being damp and spongy, not above five or six burst; not a man was killed or wounded. I came away in the evening, laid on board the Galley, and the next day came to Col. Kirkbride's [Bordentown N. J.] ; staid a few days, and came again to Camp. An Expedition was on foot the evening I got there in which I went as Aid-de-Camp to Genl. Greene, having a Volunteer Commission for that purpose. The Occasion was -- a Party of the Enemy, about 1500, lay over the Schuylkill at Grey's ferry. Genl. McDougall with his Division was sent to attack them; and Sullivan & Greene with their Divisions were to favor the enterprise by a feint on the City, down the German Town road. They set off about nine at night, and halted at day break, between German Town and the City, the advanced Party at the three Miles Run. As I knew the ground I went with two light horse to discover the Enemy's Picket, but the dress of the light horse being white made them, I thought, too visible, as it was then twilight; on which I left them with my horse, and went on foot, till I distinctly saw the Picket at Mr. Dickerson's place, -- which is the nearest I have been to Philadelphia since Sepr., except once at Coopers ferry, as I went to the forts. Genl. Sullivan was at Dr. Redman's house, and McDougall's beginning the attack was to be the Signal for moving down to the City. But the Enemy either on the approach of McDougall, or on information of it, called in their Party, and the Expedition was frustrated.p.110 --SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] supposed to be the Signal; but was soon undeceived, there being no small Arms. After waiting two hours beyond the time, we marched back, the cannon was then less frequent; but on the road between German Town and White marsh we were stuned with a report as loud as a peal from a hundred Cannon at once; and turning round I saw a thick smoke rising like a pillar, and spreading from the top like a tree. This was the blowing up of the Augusta. I did not hear the explosion of the Berlin.p.111 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] who commanded the remains of the fleet at Trenton, acquainted me with a scheme of his for burning the Enemy's Shipping, which was by sending a charged boat across the river from Cooper's ferry, by means of a Rocket fixt in its stern. Considering the width of the river, the tide, and the variety of accidents that might change its direction, I thought the project trifling and insufficient; and proposed to him, that if he would get a boat properly choyed, and take a Batteau in tow, sufficient to bring three or four persons off, that I would make one with him and two other persons who might be relied on to go down on that business. One of the Company, Capn. Blewer of Philadelphia, seconded the proposal, but the Commodore, and, what I was more surprized at, Col. Bradford, declined it. The burning of part of the Delaware fleet, the precipitate retreat of the rest, the little service rendered by them and the great expence they were at, make the only national blot in the proceedings of the last Campaign. I felt a strong anxiety for them to recover their credit, wch., among others, was one motive for my proposal. After this I came to camp, and from thence to York Town, and published the Crisis No. 5, To Genl. Howe. I have began No. 6, which I intend to address to Ld. North.p.112 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] days, and is a curious collection of buildings in the true rustic order. [1] The arrival of the Commissioners caused Paine to address his Crisis VI to them instead of to Lord North, as he tells Franklin is his intention. The above letter was no doubt written in the old stone house at York. p..113 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] "Please, Sir, to accept this, rough and incorrect as it is, as I have [not] time to copy it fair, which was my design when I began it; besides which, paper is most exceedingly scarce.
"York Town, June 5th, 1778.p.114 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] "This being admitted, their apprehension of being doubly attacked, or of being wanted elsewhere, cease of consequence; and they will then endeavor to hold all they can, that they may have something to restore, in lieu of something else which they will demand; as I know of no Instance where conquered Plans were surrendered up prior to, but only in consequence of a Treaty of Peace. Shortly after this letter to Washington tidings came that a French fleet, under Count d'Estaing, had appeared on the coast, and was about to blockade the Delaware. The British apparently in panic, really by order from England, left Philadelphia, June 18th. This seeming flight was a great encouragement. Congress was soon comfortably seated in Philadelphia, where Paine had the pleasure of addressing his next Crisis to the British Peace Commissioners. In Philadelphia Congress was still surrounded by a hostile population; Paine had still to plead that there should be no peace without republican independence. Even so late as November 24, 1778, the French Minister (Gérard) writes to his government: "Scarcely one quarter of the ordinary inhabitants of Philadelphia now here favour the cause (of independence). Commercial and family ties, together with an aversion to popular government, seem to account for this. The same feeling exists in New York and Boston, which is not the case in the rural p.115 -- SOLDIER AND SECRETARY [1778] districts." While Franklin was offered in Paris the bribe of a peerage, and the like for several revolutionary leaders, similar efforts were made in America to subdue the "rebellion" by craft. For that purpose had come the Earl of Carlisle, Sir George Johnstone, and William Eden. Johnstone had retired from the Commission in disgust. Referring to the invitation of the Peace Commissioners, that America should join them against France, he says "Unless you were capable of such conduct yourselves, you would never have supposed such a character in us." He reminds the commissioners, who had threatened that America must be laid waste so as to be useless to France, that increased wants of America must make her a more valuable purchaser in France. Paine mentions Sir H. Clinton with some significance, and suspects the truth that he had brought orders, received from England, overruling an intention of the peace envoys to burn Philadelphia if their terms were rejected. He says he has written a Crisis for the English people because there was a convenient conveyance; "for the Commissioners -- poor Commissioners! -- having proclaimed that `yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown,' have waited out the date, and, discontented with their God, are returning to their gourd. And all the harm I wish them is that it may not wither about their ears, and that they may not make their exit in the belly of a whale."
p.116 FRENCH AID, AND THE PAINE-DEANS CONTROVERSY
IN Bell's addenda to "Common Sense," which contained Paine's Address to the Quakers (also letters by others),
appeared a little poem which I believe his, and the expression of his creed.
"THE AMERICAN PATRIOT'S PRAYER"p.117 -- THE PAINE-DEANS CONTROVERSY [1778] "Let me not faction's partial hate
"Single to serve th' erroneous throng,
p.118 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1778] resignation of the secretaryship of its Foreign Affairs Committee. It has been traditionally asserted that, in this controversy, Paine
violated his oath of office. Such is not the fact.
His official oath, which was prepared for Paine himself -- the first secretary
of a new committee, -- was framed so as to leave him large freedom as a public
writer. "That the said secretary, previous to his entering on his office, take an oath, to be administered by the president, well and faithfully to execute the trust reposed in him, according to his best skill and judgment; and to disclose no matter, the knowledge of which shall be acquired in consequence of his office, that he shall be directed to keep secret."
--------------------- [1] "Beaumarchais et son Temps," par M. De Lomenie, Paris, 1856, "Histoire de la Participation de la France à l'Établissement des Etats Unis d'Amérique," par M. Doniol, Paris. "Beaumarchais and `The Lost Million'," by Charles J. Stillé (privately printed in Philadelphia). "New Materials for the History of the American Revolution," by John Durand, New York, 1889. Magazine of American History, vol. ii., p. 663. "Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin," by James Parton, New York, 1864. "Papers in Relation to the Case of Silas Deane," Philadelphia, printed for the Seventy-Six Society, 1855 p.119 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1778] to explore the subject will find an ample literature concerning it, but with confusing omissions, partly due to a neglect of Paine's papers. The suggestion of French aid to America was first made in May, 1775, by Dubourg, and a scheme was submitted by Beaumarchais to the King. This was first brought to light in November, 1878, in the Magazine of American History, where it is said: "It is without date, but must have been written after the arrival of the American Commissioners in Paris." This is an error. A letter of December 7, 1775, from Beaumarchais proves that the undated one had been answered. Moreover, on June 10, 1776, a month before Deane had reached Paris, and six months before Franklin's arrival, the million for America had been paid to Beaumarchais and receipted. It was Deane's ruin that he appeared as if taking credit for, and bringing within the scope of his negotiations, money paid before his arrival. It was the ruin of Beaumarchais that he deceived Deane about that million. In 1763 France had suffered by her struggle with England humiliations and territorial losses far heavier than those suffered by her last war with Germany. With the revolt of the English colonies in America the hour of French revenge struck. Louis XVI. did not care much about it, but his minister Vergennes did. Inspired by him, Beaumarchais, adventurer and playwright, consulted Arthur Lee, secret agent of Congress in London, and it was arranged that Beaumarchais should write a series of letters to the King, to be previously revised by Vergennes. The letters are such as p.120 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1778] might be expected from the pen that wrote "The Marriage of Figaro."
He paints before the King the scene of France driven out of
America and India; he describes America as advancing to engage the conqueror
of France with a force which a little help would make sufficient to render
England helpless beside her European foes -- France and Spain.
Learning through Vergennes that the King was mindful of his treaty with England,
Beaumarchais made a proposal that the aid should be rendered as if by, a
commercial house, without knowledge of the government. This,
the most important document of the case, suppressed, until: 1878, was unknown
to any of the writers who have discussed this question, except Durand and
Stillé, the latter alone having recognized its bearing on the question
of Beaumarchais' good faith. Beaumarchais tells the King that
his "succor" is not to end the war in America, but "to continue and feed
it to the great damage of the English"; that "to, sacrifice a million to
put England to the expense of a hundred millions, is exactly the same as
if you advance a million to gain ninety-nine." Half of the million
(livres) is to be sent to America, in gold, and half in powder.
So far from this aid being, gratuitous, the powder is to be taken from French
magazines at "four to six sols per pound," and: sent to America "on the basis
of twenty sols per pound." "The constant view of the affair in which the mass of Congress ought to be kept is the certainly that your Majesty is not willing to enter in any way into the affair, but that a. company is vet generously about to turn over a certain sum to thep.121 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1778] prudent management of a faithful agent to give successive aid to the Americans by the shortest and the surest means of return in tobacco."
After receiving the million (June 10th) Beaumarchais wrote to Arthur Lee in London (June 12, 1776): "The difficulties I have found in my negotiations with the Minister have determined me to form a company which will enable the munitions p.122 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1778] and powder to be transmitted sooner to your friend on condition of his returning tobacco to Cape Francis." To Arthur Lee, whom he had met at the table of Lord Mayor John Wilkes, Beaumarchais had emphasized the "generous" side of his scheme. Tobacco was indeed to be sent, chiefly to give a commercial color to the transaction for the King's concealment, but there appeared no reason to do more with Lee, who had no power of contract, than impress him with the magnanimity and friendship of the French government. This Lee was to report to the Secret Committee of Congress, which would thus be prepared to agree to any arrangement of Beaumarchais' agent, without any suspicion that it might be called on to pay twenty sols a pound for powder that had cost from four to six. Lee did report it, sending a special messenger (Story) to announce to Congress the glad tidings of French aid, and much too gushingly its quasi-gratuitous character. A month later Silas Deane, belated since March 5th by wind and wave, reached Paris, and about July 17, 1776, by advice of Vergennes, had his first interview with Beaumarchais. Had Beaumarchais known that an agent, empowered by Congress to purchase munitions, was on his way to France, he would have had nothing to do with Lee; now he could only repudiate him, and persuade Deane to disregard him. Arthur Lee informed Deane that Beaumarchais had told him that he had received two hundred thousand pounds sterling of the French administration for the use of Congress, but Deane believed Beaumarchais, who "constantly p.123 -- THE PAINE-DEANS CONTROVERSY [1778] and positively denied having said any such thing." It had been better for Deane if he had believed Lee [1]. It turned out in the end that Beaumarchais had received the sum Lee named, and the French government -- more anxious for treaty concessions from America than for Beaumarchais' pocket assured the American Commissioners that the million was a royal gift. This claim to generosity, however, or rather the source of it, was a secret of the negotiation. In October, 1777, the commissioners wrote to Congress a letter which, being intercepted, reached that body only in duplicate, March, 1778, saying they had received assurances "that no repayment will ever be required from us for what has already been given us either in money or military stores." One of these commissioners was Silas Deane himself (the others Franklin and Lee). But meanwhile Beaumarchais had claimed of Congress, by an agent (De Francy) sent to America, payment of his bill, which included the million which his government declared had been a gift. This complication caused Congress to recall Deane for explanations. Deane arrived in America in July, 1778. There were suspicious circumstances around him. He had left his papers in Paris; he had borrowed --------------------- [1] M. Doniol and Mr. Durand are entirely mistaken in supposing that Lee was "substantially a traitor." That he wrote to Lord Shelburne that "if England wanted to prevent closer ties between France and the United States she must not delay," proves indeed the reverse. He wanted recognition of the independence of his country, and peace, and was as willing to get it from England as from France. He was no doubt well aware that French subsidies were meant, as Beaumarchais reminded the King, to continue the war in America, not to end it. Arthur Lee had his faults, but lack of patriotism was not among them. p.124 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1778] money of Beaumarchais for personal expenses, and the despatch he
had signed in October, saying the million was a gift, had been intercepted,
other papers in the same package having duly arrived. Thus appearances
were against Deane. The following statement, in Paine's handwriting,
was no doubt prepared for submission to Congress, and probably was read during
one of its secret discussions of the matter. It is headed "Explanatory Circumstances." "1st. The lost dispatches are dated Oct. 6th and Oct. 7th. They were sent by a private hand -- that is, they were not sent by the post. Capt. Folger had the charge of them. They were all under one cover containing five separate Packets; three of the Packets were on commercial matters only -- one of these was to Mr. R[obert] Morris, Chairman of the Commercial Committee, one to Mr. Hancock (private concerns), another to Barnaby Deane, S. Deane's brother. Of the other two Packets, one of them was to the Secret Committee, then stiled the Committee for Foreign Affairs, the other was to Richard H. Lee -- these two last Packets had nothing in them but blank white French Paper.p.125 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1778] because at that time the foreign Committee were dispersed and new members not appointed:
"PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 15th, 1778.p.126 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] fretted by Mr. Deane's address -- and this will appear the more necessary when I inform you that a proposal has been made for calling a Town Meeting to demand justice for Mr. Deane. I have been applied to smoothly and roughly not to publish this piece. Mr. Deane has likewise been with the Printer. I am, &c."
"If Mr. Deane or any other gentleman will procure an order from Congress to inspect an account in my office, or any of Mr. Deane's friends in Congress will take the trouble of coming themselves, I will give him or them my attendance, and shew them in handwriting which Mr. Deane is well acquainted with, that the supplies he so pompously plumes himself upon were promised and engaged, and that as a present, before he ever arrived in France; and the part that fell to Mr. Deane was only to see it done, and how he has performed that service the public are acquainted with."
p.127 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] so certain that they were gratuitous, and adds, in the same letter (January 2d): "The supplies here alluded to are those which were sent from France in the Amphitrite, Seine, and Mercury, about two years ago. They had at first the appearance of a present, but whether so or on credit the service was a great and a friendly one." To transfer the debt to the French government would secure such a long credit that the American cause would not suffer. Perhaps no official notice might have been taken of this, but in another letter (January 5th) Paine wrote: "Those who are now her [America's] allies, prefaced that alliance by an early and generous friendship; yet that we might not attribute too much to human or auxiliary aid, so unfortunate were these supplies that only one ship out of three arrived; the Mercury and Seine fell into the hands of the enemy." It was this last paragraph that constituted Paine's indiscretion. Unless we can suppose him for once capable of a rôle so Machiavellian as the forcing of France's hand, by revealing the connection between the King and the subsidies of Beaumarchais, we can only praise him for a too-impulsive and self-forgetting patriotism. It was of course necessary for the French Minister (Gérard) to complain, and for Congress to soothe him by voting the fiction that his most Christian Majesty "did not preface his alliance with any supplies whatever sent to America." But in order to do this, Paine had somehow to be dealt with. A serio-comical performance took place in Congress. The members knew perfectly well that Paine had p.128 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] documents to prove every word he had printed; but as they did not yet know these documents officially, and were required by their ally's minister to deny Paine's statement, they were in great fear that Paine, if summoned, might reveal them. As the articles were only signed "Common Sense," it was necessary that the Secretary should acknowledge himself their author, and Congress, in dread of discovering its own secrets, contrived that he should be allowed to utter at the bar only one word. Congress received
M. Gérard's complaint on January 5th, and on the 6th, to which action
thereon had been adjourned, the following memorial from Paine. "HONORABLE SIRS.p.129 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] which I have endeavored to do good in other respects, can be imputed to me as a crime, by such individuals as may have acted otherwise.
"HONORABLE SIRS.p.130 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] an attested copy of that charge, and in my present character as a freeman of this country, I demand it. I attended at the bar of this House yesterday as their servant, tho' the warrant did not express my official station, which I conceive it ought to have done, otherwise it could not have been compulsive unless backed by a magistrate. My hopes were that I should be made acquainted with the charge, and admitted to my defence, which I am all times ready to make either in writing or personally.
p.131 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] alliance to cover that speculator's demand. Paine, therefore,
pleaded in vain. Indeed, the foregoing memorial seems to have
been suppressed, as it is not referred to in the Journal of the House for
that day (January 7th). On the day following his resignation
was presented in the following letter: "HONORABLE SIRS.p.132 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] "I have betrayed no Trust because I have constantly employed that Trust to the public good. I have revealed no secrets because I have told nothing that was, or I conceive ought to be a secret. I have convicted Mr. Deane of error, and in so doing I hope I have done my duty.
p.133 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] that a private unwarrantable connection was formed between Mr. Deane
and certain Members of this Honorable House." On April 23d he again addresses
the, "HONORABLE SIRS:"
p.134 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] that he had been at much pains to convince Paine of his error in
saying that the supplies furnished by Beaumarchais had been "promised as
a gift"; but he had not retracted, and he (Gérard) then thought it
necessary to refer what he wrote to Congress. "Congress, however,
did not wait for this to show me its indignation." The journals
of Congress do not, however, reveal any reference to the matter previous
to M. Gérard's memorial of January 5th. In his next letter
M. Gérard asserts that Congress had dismissed Paine, whereas Paine
resigned, and a motion for his dismission was lost. This letter
is dated January 17th. "When I had denounced to Congress the assertions of M. Payne, I did not conceal from myself the bad effects that might result to a head puffed up by the success of his political writings, and the importance he affected. I foresaw the loss of his office, and feared that, separated from the support which has restrained him, he would seek only to avenge himself with his characteristic impetuosity and impudence. All means of restraining him would be impossible, considering the enthusiasm here for the license of the press, and in the absence of any laws to repress audacity even against foreign powers. The only remedy, my lord, I could imagine to prevent these inconveniences, and even to profit by the circumstances, was to have Payne offered a salary in the King's name, in place of that he had lost. He called to thank me, and I stipulated that he should publish nothing on political affairs, nor about Congress, without advising with me, and should employ his pen mainly in impressing on the people favorable sentiments towards France and the Alliance, of the kind fittest to foster hatred and defiance towards England. He appeared to accept the task with pleasure. I promised him a thousand dollars per annum, to begin from the time of his dismission by Congress. He has already begun his functions in declaring in the Gazette that the affair of the military effects has no reference to the Court andp.135 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] is not apolitical matter. You know too well the prodigious effects produced by the writings of this famous personage among the people of the States to cause me any fear of your disapproval of my resolution."
"A piece in a Gazette of the third by M. Payne, under his usual title of Common Sense proves his loss of it. In it he declares that he is the only honest man thus far employed in American affairs, and demands that the nation shall give him the title and authority of Censor-general, especially to purify and reform Congress. This bit of folly shows what he is capable of. He gives me marks of friendship, but that does not contribute to the success of my exhortations."
"I have had the honor to acquaint you with the project I had formed to engage Mr. Payne [le Sr. Payne] to insert in the public papers paragraphs relative to the Alliance, calculated to encourage the high idea formed by the people of the king, and its confidence in his friendship; but this writer having tarnished his reputation and being sold to the opposition, I have found another."
M. Gérard, in his statements concerning his relations with Paine, depended on the unfamiliarity of Vergennes with the Philadelphia journals. In these Paine had promptly made known the overtures made to him. p.136 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779]
"Had I been disposed to make money I undoubtedly had many opportunities for it. The single pamphlet `Common Sense' would at that time of day have produced a tolerable fortune, had I only taken the same profits from the publication which all writers have ever done; because the sale was the most rapid and extensive of anything that was ever published in this country, or perhaps in any other. Instead of which I reduced the price so low, that instead of getting, I stand £39, 11, 0 out of pocket on Mr. Bradford's books, exclusive of my time and trouble; and I have acted the same disinterested part by every publication I have made.
p.137 -- THE PAINE-DEANE CONTROVERSY [1779] entered on a controversy with "Americanus" on the terms upon which America should insist, in any treaty of peace. He intimates his suspicion that "Americanus" is a hireling. It should be 'mentioned that the English archives prove that in Paris Deane and Gérard had long been intimate, and often closeted with Vergennes. (See the reports of Wentworth and others in Stevens' Facsimiles.) Deane and Gérard came over together, on one of d'Estaing's ships. According to the English information Gérard was pecuniarily interested in the supplies sent to America, and if so had private reasons for resisting Paine's theory of their gratuitous character.
p.138 A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS
THE Paine-Deane incident had a number of curious
sequels, some of which are related in a characteristic letter of Gouverneur
Morris to John Randolph, which has not, I believe, hitherto been printed.
Gouverneur Morris had much to do with the whole affair; he was a member of
Congress during the controversy, and he was the Minister in France who, fifteen
years later, brought to light the receipt for the King's million livres charged
by Beaumarchais against this country. "WASHINGTON, Jany. 20, 1812.p.139 -- A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS [1779] Beaumarchais under the name of Roderique Hortalez and Co., a supposed mercantile name. But the operations were impeded by complaints of the British Ambassador, Lord Stormont, which obliged the French Court to make frequent denials, protestations, seizure of goods and detention of ships. Every step of this kind bound them more strongly to prevent a disclosure of facts. [1] Error. Paine signed "Common Sense," and in one instance "Thomas Paine." [2] Paine resigned. Several motions for his dismissal were lost. 140 -- A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS [1779] to Comte de Vergennes, from whom he would afterwards be obliged to solicit the means of payment. It was hoped that the French Court would then interfere and either lay hold of the bills or compel M. Beaumarchais to refund the money, so that no real deduction would on that account be afterwards made from the loans or subsidies to us. The death of all who were privy to it has spread an impenetrable veil over what passed on this occasion between M. Beaumarchais and his employer, but the bills were regularly paid, and we were thereby deprived in a critical moment of the resources which so large a sum would have supplied. When this happened, M. de la Luzerne, then Minister of France at Philadelphia, expressed himself with so much freedom and so much indignation respecting M. Beaumarchais and his claim, that there was reason to believe nothing more would have been heard of it. In that persuasion, perhaps, Dr. Franklin, when he came to settle our national accounts with M. de Vergennes, was less solicitous about a considerable item than he otherwise might have been. He acknowledged as a free gift to the United States the receipt on a certain day of one million livres, for which no evidence was produced. He asked indeed for a voucher to establish the payment, but the Count replied that it was immaterial whether we had received the money or not, seeing that we were not called on for repayment. With this reassuring the old gentleman seems to have been satisfied, and the account was settled accordingly. Perhaps the facts may have been communicated to him under the seal of secrecy, and if so he showed firmness in that he had shared in the plunder with Deane and Beaumarchais. [1] Gouverneur Morris himself. [2] This was the receipt dated June 10, 1776, on which the King had marked "Bon," and was obtained by Morris in 1794. p.141 -- A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS [1779] "So much, my dear Sir, for what memory can command. You will, I think, find papers containing a more accurate statement in the New York "Evening Post," about the time when Mr. Rodney's opinion was made public. At least I recollect having seen in that Gazette some facts with which I had not been previously acquainted, or which I had forgotten. A gentleman from Connecticut, who was on the Committee of Claims last year, can I believe give you the papers. I remember also to have been told by a respectable young gentleman, son of the late Mr. Richard Henry Lee, that important evidence on this subject, secured from his uncle Arthur, was in his possession, and I believe it may be obtained from Mr. Carroll of Annapolis, or his son-in-law Mr. Harper of Baltimore.'
-------------------- [1] The documents referred to are no doubt among the Lee Papers preserved at the University of Virginia, which I have examined. p.142 -- A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS [1779] The determination with which Paine, to his cost, withstood Deane, may seem at first glance quixotic. His attack was animated by a belief that the supplies sent from France were a covert gift, and, at any rate, that the demand for instant payment to agents was fraudulent. Evidence having been supplied, by the publication of Beaumarchais' notes to Arthur Lee, under pseudonym of "Mary Johnston," that returns in tobacco were expected, this, if not a mercantile mask, was still a matter of credit, and very different from payments demanded by Beaumarchais and Deane from the scanty treasury of the struggling colonies [1]. But there was something more behind the vehemence of Paine's letters. This he intimated, but his revelation ------------------- [1] In one of Deane's intercepted letters (May 20, 1781) there is an indication that he had found more truth in what Paine had said about the gratuitous supplies than Beaumarchais had led him to believe. "The first plan of the French government evidently was to assist us just so far as might be absolutely necessary to prevent an accommodation, and to give this assistance with so much secresy as to avoid any rupture with Great Britain. On this plan succors were first permitted to be sent out to us by private individuals, and only on condition of future payment, but afterward we were thought to be such cheap and effectual instruments of mischief to the British nation that more direct and gratuitous aids were furnished us." But now M. Doniol has brought to light the Reflexions and Considerations of the French Minister, Count de Vergennes, which led to his employment of Beaumarchais, which contain such propositions as these: "It is essential that France shall at present direct its care towards this end; she must nourish the courage and perseverance of the insurgents by flattering their hope of effectual assistance when circumstances permit." "It will be expedient to give the insurgents secret aid in munitions and money; utility suggests this small sacrifice." "Should France and Spain give succors, they should seek compensation only in the political object they have at heart, reserving to themselves subsequent decision, after the events and according to the situations." "It would be neither for the king's dignity or interest to bargain with the insurgents." It is certain that Beaumarchais was required to impress these sentiments on Arthur Lee, who continued to take them seriously, and made Paine take them so, after Beaumarchais was taking only his own interests seriously. p.143 -- A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS [1779] seems to have received no attention at the time. He says (January 5th): "In speaking of Mr. Deane's contracts with foreign officers, I concealed, out of pity to him, a circumstance that must have sufficiently shown the necessity of recalling him, and either his want of judgment or the danger of trusting him with discretionary power. It is no less than that of his throwing out a proposal, in one of his foreign letters, for contracting with a German prince to command the American army." This personage, who was "to supersede General Washington," he afterwards declares to be Prince Ferdinand. It is known that Count de Broglie had engaged Kalb and Deane to propose him as generalissimo of America, but the evidence of this other proposal has disappeared with other papers missing from Deane 's diplomatic correspondence. I find, however, that ex-provost Stillé, who has studied the proceedings of Beaumarchais thoroughly, has derived from another source an impression that he (Beaumarchais) made an earlier proposition of the same kind concerning Prince Ferdinand. It would be unsafe to affirm that Deane did more than report the proposals made to him, but his silence concerning this particular charge of his antagonist, while denying every other categorically, is suspicious. At that early period Washington had not loomed up in the eye of the world. The French and Germans appear to have thought of the Americans and their commander as we might think of rebellious red men and their painted chief. There is nothing in Deane's letters from Europe to suggest that he did not share their p.144 -- A STORY BY GOUVERNEUR MORRIS [1779] delusion, or that he appreciated the necessity of independence.
Paine, who conducted the foreign correspondence, knew that the secrets of
the American office in Paris were open to Lord Stormont, who stopped large
supplies prepared for America, and suspected Deane of treachery.
It now appears that one of Deane's assistants, George Lupton, was an English
"informer." (Stevens' Facsimiles, vii., No. 696.)
Deane had midnight meetings in the Place Vendome with an English "Unknown"
(now known as the informer Paul Wentworth) to whom he suggested that the
troubles might be ended by England's forming a "federal union" with America.
All of which shows Deane perilously unfit for his mission, but one is glad
to find him appearing no worse in Wentworth's confidental portraiture (January
4, 1778) of the American officials: "Dr. Franklin is taciturn, deliberate, and cautious; Mr. Deane is vain, desultory, and subtle; Mr. Arthur Lee, suspicious and indolent; Alderman Lee, peevish and ignorant; Mr. Izzard, costive and dogmatical -- all of these insidious, and Edwards vibrating between hope and fear, interest and attachment."
CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF
WHATEVER might be thought of Paine's course in the Deane-Beaumarchais affair, there could be no doubt that the country was saved from a questionable payment unjustly pressed at a time when it must have crippled the Revolution, for which the French subsidies were given. Congress was relieved, and he who relieved it was the sufferer. From the most important congressional secretaryship he was reduced to a clerkship in Owen Biddle's law office. Paine's patriotic interest in public affairs did not abate. In the summer of 1779 he wrote able articles in favor of maintaining our right to the Newfoundland fisheries in any treaty of peace that might be made with England. Congress was secretly considering what instructions should be sent to its representatives in Europe, in case negotiations should arise, and the subject was discussed by "Americanus" in a letter to the Pennsylvania Gazette, June 23d. This writer argued that the fisheries should not be mentioned in such negotiations; England would stickle at the claim, and our ally, France, should not be called on to guarantee a right which should be left to the determination p.146 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1779] of natural laws. This position Paine combated; he maintained
that independence was not a change of ministry, but a real thing; it should
mean prosperity as well as political liberty. Our ally would
be aggrieved by a concession to Great Britain of any means of making our
alliance useful. "There are but two natural sources of wealth -- the Earth and the Ocean, -- and to lose the right to either is, in our situation, to put up the other for sale." The fisheries are needed, "first, as an Employment. Secondly, as producing national Supply and Commerce, and a means of national wealth. Thirdly, as a Nursery for Seamen." Should Great Britain be in such straits as to ask for peace, that would be the right opportunity to settle the matter. "To leave the Fisheries wholly out, on any pretence whatever, is to sow the seeds of another war." (Pennsylvania Gazette, June 30th, July 14th, 21st.)
"Franklin, on returning to America from France, where he had been conducting great commercial and other concerns of great import and benefit to the States of America, on having his accounts looked over by the Committee appointed to do so, there was a deficit of £100,000. He was asked how this happened. 'I was taught,' said he very gravely, `when a boy to read the scriptures and to attend to them, and it is there said: muzzle not the ox that treadeth out his master's grain.' No further inquiry was ever made or mention of the deficient £100,000, which, it is presumed, he devoted to some good and great purpose to serve the people, -- his own aim through life."
Rickman, who named a son after Franklin, puts a more charitable construction
on the irregularities of the Doctor's accounts than Gouverneur Morris (p.140).
The anecdote may not be exact, but it was generally rumored, in congressional
circles, that Franklin had by no means been muzzled. Nor does
it appear to have been considered a serious matter. The standard
of political ethics being thus lowered, it is easy to understand that Paine
gave more offence by his Diogenes-lantern than if he had quietly taken his
share of the grain he trod out. The security of independence
and the pressure of poverty rendered it unnecessary to adhere to his quixotic
Quaker repugnance to the sale of his inspirations, and he now desired to
collect these into marketable shape. His plans are stated in
a letter to Henry Laurens. "PHILADELPHIA, Sepr. 14th, 1779. p.148 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1779] less than a mine to draw from -- What they have had from me they have got for nothing, and they consequently suppose I must be able to afford it. I know but one kind of life I am fit for, and that is a thinking one, and, of course, a writing one -- but I have confined myself so much of late, taken so little exercise, and lived so very sparingly, that unless I alter my way of life it will alter me. I think I have a right to ride a horse of my own, but I cannot now even afford to hire one, which is a situation I never was in before, and I begin to know that a sedentary life cannot be supported without jolting exercise. Having said thus much, which, in truth, is but loss of time to tell to you who so well know how I am situated, I take the liberty of communicating to you my design of doing some degree of justice to myself, but even this is accompanied with some present difficulties, but it is the easiest, and, I believe, the most useful and reputable of any I can think of. I intend this winter to collect all my Publications, beginning with "Common Sense" and ending with the fisheries, and publishing them in two volumes Octavo, with notes. I have no doubt of a large subscription. The principal difficulty will be to get Paper and I can think of no way more practicable than to desire Arthur Lee to send over a quantity from France in the Confederacy if she goes there, and settling for it with his brother. After that work is compleated, I intend prosecuting a history of the Revolution by means of a subscription -- but this undertaking will be attended with such an amazing expense, and will take such a length of Time, that unless the States individually give some assistance therein, scarcely any man could afford to go through it. Some kind of an history might be easily executed made up of daily events and triffling matters which would lose their Importance in a few years. But a proper history cannot even be began unless the secrets of the other side of the water can be obtained, for the first part is so interwoven with the Politics of England, that, that which will be the last to get at must be the first to begin with -- and this single instance is sufficient to show that no history can take place of some time. My design, if I undertake it, is to comprise it in three quarto volumes and to publish one each year from the time of beginning, and to make an abridgment afterwards in an easy agreeable language for a school book. p.149 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1779] All the histories of ancient wars that are used for this purpose, promotes no Moral Reflection, but like the beggars opera renders the villain pleasing in the hero. Another thing that will prolong the completion of an history is the want of Plates which only can be done in Europe, for that part of a history which is intended to convey discription of places or persons will ever be imperfect without them. I have now, Sir, acquainted you with my design, and unwilling, as you know I am, to make use of a friend while I can possibly avoid it, I am really obliged to say that I should now be glad to consult with two or three on some matters that regard my situation till such time as I can bring the first of those subscriptions to bear, or set them on foot, which cannot well be until I can get the paper; for should I [be] disappointed of that, with the subscriptions in my hand, I might be reflected upon, and the reason, tho' a true one, would be subject to other explanations.
--------------------- [1] I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia for a copy of this letter. p.150 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1779] he reminded the Excutive Council of Pennsylvania of his needs and
his uncompensated services, which, he declared, he could not afford to continue
without support. The Council realized the importance of Paine's
pen to its patriotic measures, but was afraid of offending the French Minister.
Its president, Joseph Reed, on the following day (September 29th) wrote to
that Minister intimating that they would like to employ Paine if he (the
minister) had no objection. On October 11th Gérard replies
with a somewhat equivocal letter, in which he declares that Paine had agreed
to terms he had offered through M. de Mirales, but had not fulfilled them.
"I willingly," he says, "leave M. Payne to enjoy whatever advantages he promises
himself by his denial of his acceptance of the offers of M. de Mirales and
myself. I would even add, Sir, that if you feel able to direct
his pen in a way useful to the public welfare -- which will perhaps not be
difficult to your zeal, talents, and superior lights, -- I will be the first
to applaud the success of an attempt in which I have failed."'
On the same date Paine, not having received any reply to his previous letter,
again wrote to the Council. "HONBLE. SIRS. [1] "Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed." By his grandson. 1847. p.151 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1779] at this board, I took up the defence of the Constitution, at a time when he declared to me that unless he could be assisted he must give it up and quit the state; as matters then pressed too heavy upon him, and the opposition was gaining ground; yet this Board has since suffered me to combat with all the inconveniences incurred by that service, without ny attention to my interest or my situation. For the sake of not dishonoring a cause, good in itself, I have hitherto been silent on these matters, but I cannot help expressing to this board the concern I feel on this occasion, and the ill effect which such discouraging examples will have on those who might otherwise be disposed to act as I have done.
p.152 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1779] rich and reactionary under the colonial government. In Stille's biography of John Dickinson the continued conflicts concerning this constitution are described. In 1805, when a constitutional convention was proposed in Pennsylvania, Paine pointed out the superiority of its constitution of 1776, which "was conformable to the Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Rights, which the present constitution [framed in 1790] is not [1]." The constitution of 1776, and Paine's exposure of the services rendered to the enemy by Quakers, cleared the Pennsylvania Assembly of the members of that society who had been supreme. This process had gone on. The oath of allegiance to the State, proposed by Paine in 1777, and adopted, had been followed in 1778 (April 1st) by one imposing renunciation of all allegiance to George III., his heirs and successors, to be taken by all trustees, provosts, professors, and masters. This was particularly aimed at the nest of "Tories" in the University of Philadelphia, whose head was the famous Dr. William Smith. This provost, and all members of the University except three trustees, took the oath, but the influence of those who had been opposed to independence remained the same. In 1779 the Assembly got rid of the provost (Smith), and this was done by the act of November --------------------- [1] Paine forgot the curious inconsistency in this constitution of 1776, between the opening Declaration of Rights in securing religious freedom and equality to all who "acknowledge the being of a God," and the oath provided for all legislators, requiring belief in future rewards and punishments, and in the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testaments. This deistical oath, however, was probably considered a victory of latitudiarianism, for the members of the convention had taken a rigid trinitarian oath on admission to their seats, p..153 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1779] which took away the charter of the University [1]. It was while this agitation was going on, and the Philadelphia "Tories" saw the heads of their chieftains falling beneath Paine's pen, that his own official head had been thrown to them by his own act. The sullen spite of the "Tories" did not fail to manifest itself. In conjunction with Deane's defeated friends, they managed to give Paine many a personal humiliation. This was, indeed, easy enough, since Paine, though willing to fight for his cause, was a non-resistant in his own behalf. It may have been about this time that an incident occurred which was remembered with gusto by the aged John Joseph Henry after the "Age of Reason" had added horns and cloven feet to his early hero. Mr. Mease, Clothier-General, gave a dinner party, and a company of his guests, on their way home, excited by wine, met Paine. One of them remarking, "There comes `Common Sense,' " Matthew Slough said, "Damn him, I shall common-sense him," and thereupon tripped Paine into the gutter [2]. But patriotic America was with Paine, and missed his pen; for no Crisis had appeared for nearly a year. Consequently on November 2, 1779, the Pennsylvania Assembly elected him its Clerk. ---------------------- [1] See "A Memoir of the Rev. William Smith, D.D.," by Charles J, Stillé, Philadelphia, 1869. Provost Stillé, in this useful historical pamphlet, states all that can be said in favor of Dr. Smith, but does not refer to his controversy with Paine, [2] This incident is related in the interest of religion in Mr. Henry's "Account of Arnold's Campaign against Quebec." The book repeats the old charge of drunkenness against Paine, but the untrustworthiness of the writer's memory is shown in his saying that his father grieved when Paine's true character appeared, evidently meaning his "infidelity." His father died in 1786, when no suspicion either of Paine's habits or orthodoxy had been heard. p.154 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] the same day there was introduced into that Assembly an act for the
abolition of slavery in the State, which then contained six thousand negro
slaves. The body of this very moderate measure was prepared by
George Bryan, but the much admired preamble has been attributed by tradition
to the pen of Paine [1]. That this tradition is correct is now
easily proved by a comparison of its sentiments and phraseology with the
antislavery writings of Paine presented in previous pages of this work.
The author, who alone seems to have been thinking of the negroes and their
rights during that revolutionary epoch, thus had some reward in writing the
first proclamation of emancipation in America. The act passed
March 1, 1780. The Preamble is as follows: "I. When we contemplate our abhorrence of that condition, to which the arms and tyranny of Great Britain were exerted to reduce us, when we look back on the variety of dangers to which we have been exposed, and how miraculously our wants in many instances have been supplied, and our deliverances wrought, when even hope and human fortitude have become unequal to the conflict, we are unavoidably led to a serious and grateful sense of the manifold blessings, which we have undeservedly received from the hand of that Being, from whom every good and perfect gift cometh. Impressed with these ideas, we conceive that is is our duty, and we rejoice that it is in our power, to extend a portion of that freedom to others, which hath been extended to us, and release from that state of thraldom, to which we ourselves were tyrannically doomed, and from which we have now every prospect of being delivered. It is not for us to enquire why, in the creation of mankind, the inhabitants of the several parts of the [1] "Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed," ii., p. 177; North American Review, vol. lvii., No. cxx. p.155 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] earth were distinguished by a difference in feature or complexion. It is sufficient to know that all are the work of the Almighty Hand. We find in the distribution of the human species, that the most fertile as well as the most barren parts of the earth are inhabited by men of complexions different from ours, and from each other; from whence we may reasonably as well as religiously infer, that He, who placed them in their various situations, hath extended equally his care and protection to all, and that it becometh not us to counteract his mercies. We esteem it a peculiar blessing granted to us, that we are enabled this day to add one more step to universal civilization, by removing, as much as possible, the sorrows of those, who have lived in undeserved bondage, and from which, by the assumed authority of the Kings of Great Britain, no effectual, legal relief could be obtained. Weaned, by a long course of experience, from those narrow prejudices and partialities we had imbibed, we find our hearts enlarged with kindness and benevolence towards men of all conditions and nations; and we conceive ourselves at this particular period particularly called upon by the blessings which we have received, to manifest the sincerity of our profession, and to give a substantial proof of our gratitude.
New Year, 1780, found Washington amid much distress at Morristown.
Besides the published letters which attest this I have found an extract from
one which seems to have escaped the attention of Washington's editors [1]
It was written at Morristown, January 5th. "It gives me extreme Pain that I should still be holding up to Congress our wants on the score of Provision, when I am convinced that they are doing all that they can for our relief. Duty and necessity, however, constrain me to it. The inclosed copies of Letters from Mr. Flint, the Assistant Commissary, and from Gen. Irvine, who commands at present our advanced troops, contain a just Representation of our situation. To add to our Difficulties very much fear that the late violent snow storm has so blocked up the Roads, that it will be some days before the scanty supplies in this quarter can be brought to camp. The troops, both officers and men, have borne their Distress, with a patience scarcely to be conceived. Many of the latter have been four or five days without meat entirely and short of Bread, and none but very scanty Supplies -- Some for their preservation have been compelled to maraud and rob from the Inhabitants, and I have it not in my power to punish or reprove the practice. If our condition should not undergo a very speedy and considerable change for the better, it will be difficult to point out all the consequences that may ensue. About forty of the Cattle mentioned by Mr. Flint got in last night."
---------------------- [1] It is in the Ward Collection at Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., copied by a (probably) contemporary hand. p.157 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] wrote. It was addressed to Reed, President of Pennsylvania, and the Clerk (Paine) read it to the Assembly. "I assure you," said the Commander's letter, "every idea you can form of our distresses will fall short of the reality. There is such a combination of circumstances to exhaust the patience of the soldiery that it begins at length to be worn out, and we see in every line of the army the most serious features of mutiny and sedition." There was throughout the long letter a tone of desperation which moved the Assembly profoundly. At the close there was a despairing silence, amid which a member arose and said, "We may as well give up first as last." The treasury was nearly empty, but enough remained to pay Paine his salary, and he headed a subscription of relief with $500 [1]. The money was enclosed to Mr. M'Clenaghan, with a vigorous letter which that gentleman read to a meeting held in a coffee-house the same evening. Robert Morris and M'Clenaghan subscribed £200 each, hard money. The subscription, dated June 8th, spread like wildfire, and resulted in the raising of £300,000, which established a bank that supplied the army through the campaign, and was incorporated by Congress on December 21st. Paine, by his timely suggestion of a subscription, and his "mite," as he called it, proved that he could meet a crisis as well as write one. He had written a cheery Crisis in March, had helped to make good its hopefulness in May, and was ---------------------- [1] The salary was drawn on June 7th, and amounted to $1,699. For particulars concerning Paine's connection with the Assembly I am indebted to Dr. William H. Egle, State Librarian of Pennsylvania. p.158 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] straightway busy on another. This was probably begun
on the morning when M'Clenaghan came to him with a description of the happy
effect and result produced by his letter and subscription on the gentlemen
met at the coffee-house. This Crisis (June 9, 1780) declares
that the reported fate of Charleston, like the misfortunes of 1776, had revived
the same spirit; that such piecemeal work was not conquering the continent;
that France was at their side; that an association had been formed for supplies,
and hard-money bounties. In a postscript he adds: "Charleston is gone, and I believe for the want of a sufficient supply of provisions. The man that does not now feel for the honor of the best and noblest cause that ever a country engaged in, and exert himself accordingly, is no longer worthy of a peaceable residence among a people determined to be free."
"SIR,p.159 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] "It is always dangerous to spread an alarm of danger unless the prospect of success be held out with it, and that not only as probable, but naturally essential. These things premised, I beg leave to mention, that suppose you were to send for some of the richer inhabitants of the City, and state to them the situation of the army and the treasury, not as arising so much from defect in the departments of government as from a neglect in the country generally, in not contributing the necessary support in time. If they have any spirit, any foresight of their own interest or danger, they will promote a subscription either of money or articles, and appoint a committee from among themselves to solicit the same in the several Counties; and one State setting the example, the rest, I presume, will follow. Suppose it was likewise proposed to them to deposit their plate to be coined for the pay of the Army, crediting the government for the value, by weight.p.160 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] should cost them a thousand pounds apiece, than not have a sufficient force, were it only for safety sake. Eight or ten thousand men, added to what we have now got, with the force that may arrive, would enable us to make a stroke at New York, to recover the loss of Charleston -- but the measure must be expeditious.
p.161 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] heading the subscription, and the inspiriting effect of his pamphlets of March and June, 1780. The University of the State of Pennsylvania, as it was now styled, celebrated the Fourth of July by conferring on him the degree of Master of Arts [1]. Among the trustees who voted to confer on him this honor were some who had two years before refused to take the American oath of allegiance. In the autumn appeared Paine's Crisis Extraordinary. It would appear by a payment made to him personally, that in order to make his works cheap he had been compelled to take his publications into his own hands [2]. The sum of $360 paid for ten dozen copies of this pamphlet was really at the rate of five cents per copy. It is a forcible reminder of the depreciation of the Continental currency. At one period Paine says he paid $300 for a pair of woollen stockings. Although the financial emergency had been tided over by patriotic sacrifices, it had disclosed a chaos. ---------------------- [1] Mr. Burk, Secretary of the University of Pennsylvania, sends me some interesting particulars. The proposal to confer the degree on Paine was unanimously agreed to by the trustees present, who were the Hon. Joseph Reed, President of the Province; Mr. Moore, Vice-President; Mr. Sproat (Presbyterian minister), Mr. White (the Bishop), Mr. Helmuth, Mr. Weiborg (minister of the German Calvinist Church), Mr. Farmer (Roman Catholic Rector of St. Mary's), Dr. Bond, Dr. Hutchkinson, Mr. Muhlenberg (Lutheran minister), There were seven other recipients of the honor on that day, all eminent ministers of religion; and M.D. was conferred on David Ramsay, a prisoner with the nemy. [2] "In Council, Philadelphia, October 10th, 1780. "SIR,
Congress, so far from being able to contend with Virginia on a point of sovereignty, was without power to levy taxes. "One State," writes Washington (May 31st) "will comply with a requisition of Congress; another neglects to do it; a third executes it by halves; and all differ either in the manner, the matter, or so much in point of time, that we are always working up hill, and ever shall be; and, while such a system as the present one or rather want of one prevails, we shall ever be unable to apply our strength or resources to any advantage." In the letter of May 28th, to the President of Pennsylvania, which led to the subscription headed by Paine, Washington pointed out that the resources of New York and Jersey were exhausted, that Virginia could spare nothing from the threatened South, and Pennsylvania was their chief dependence. "The crisis, in every point of view, is extraordinary." This sentence of Washington probably gave Paine his title, Crisis Extraordinary. It is in every sense a masterly production. By a careful estimate he shows that the war and the several governments cost two millions sterling annually. The population being 3,000,000, the amount would average 13s. 4d. per head. In England the taxation was £2 per head. With independence a peace establishment in America would cost 5s. per head; with the loss of it Americans would have to pay the £2 per head like other English subjects. Of the needed annual two millions, Pennsylvania's quota would be an eighth, or £250,000; that is, a shilling per month to her 375,000 inhabitants, -- which subjugation would p.163 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] increase to three-and-three-pence per month. He points out that the Pennsylvanians were then paying only £64,280 per annum, instead of their real quota of £250,000, leaving a deficiency of £185,720, and consequently a distressed army. After showing that with peace and free trade all losses and ravages would be speedily redressed, Paine proposes that half of Pennsylvania's quota, and £60,000 over, shall be raised by a tax of 7s. per head. With this sixty thousand (interest on six millions) a million can be annually borrowed. He recommends a war-tax on landed property, houses, imports, prize goods, and liquors. "It would be an addition to the pleasures of society to know that, when the health of the army goes round, a few drops from every glass become theirs." On December 30, 1780, Dunlap advertised Paine's pamphlet "Public Good." Under a charter given the Virginia Company in 1609 the State of Virginia claimed that its southern boundary extended to the Pacific; and that its northern boundary, starting four hundred miles above, on the Atlantic coast, stretched due northwest. To this Paine replies that the charter was given to a London company extinct for one hundred and fifty years, during which the State had never acted under that charter. Only the heirs of that company's members could claim anything under its extinct charter. Further, the State unwarrantably assumed that the northwestern line was to extend from the northern point of its Atlantic base; whereas there was more reason to suppose that it was to extend from the southern point, and meet a p.164 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] due west line from the northern point, thus forming a triangular territory of forty-five thousand square miles. Moreover, the charter of 1609 said the lines should stretch "from sea to sea." Paine shows by apt quotations that the western sea was supposed to be a short distance from the Atlantic, and that the northwestern boundary claimed by Virginia would never reach the said sea, "but would form a spiral line of infinite windings round the globe, and after passing over the northern parts of America and the frozen ocean, and then into the northern parts of Asia, would, when eternity should end, and not before, terminate in the north pole." Such a territory is nondescript, and a charter that describes nothing gives nothing. It may be remarked here that though the Attorney-General of Virginia, Edmund Randolph, had to vindicate his State's claim, he used a similar argument in defeating Lord Fairfax's claim to lands in Virginia which had not been discovered when his grant was issued [1]. All this, however, was mere fencing preliminary to the real issue. The western lands, on the extinction of the Virginia companies, had reverted to the Crown, and the point in which the State was really interested was its succession to the sovereignty of the Crown over all that territory. It was an early cropping up of the question of State sovereignty. By royal proclamation of 1763 the province of Virginia was defined so as not to extend beyond heads of rivers emptying in the Atlantic. Paine contended that to the sovereignty ------------------------ [1] "Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph," pp. 47, 60. p.165 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] of the Crown over all territories beyond limits of the thirteen provinces the United States had succeeded. This early assertion of the federal doctrine, enforced with great historical and legal learning, alienated from Paine some of his best Southern friends. The controversy did not end until some years later. After the peace, a proposal in the Virginia Legislature to present Paine with something for his services, was lost on account of this pamphlet [1]. The students of history will soon be enriched by a "Life of Patrick Henry," by his grandson, William Wirt Henry, and a "Life of George Mason," by his descendant, Miss Rowland. In these works by competent hands important contributions will be made (as I have reason to know) to right knowledge of the subject dealt with by Paine in his "Public Good." It can here only be touched on; but in passing I may say that Virginia ---------------------- [1] Of course this issue of State v. National sovereignty was adjourned to the future battle-field, where indeed it was not settled. Congress accepted Virginia's concession of the territory in question (March 1, 1784), without conceding that it was a donation; it accepted some of Virginia's conditions, but refused others, which the State surrendered. A motion that this acceptance did not imply endorsement of Virginia's claim was lost, but the contrary was not affirmed. The issue was therefore settled only in Paine's pamphlet, which remains a document of paramount historical interest. There was, of course, a rumor that Paine's pamphlet was a piece of paid advocacy. I remarked among the Lee MSS., at the University of Virginia, an unsigned scrap of paper saying he had been promised twelve thousand acres of western land. Such a promise could only have been made by the old Indiana, or Vandalia Company, which was trying to revive its defeated claim for lands conveyed by the Indians in compensation for property they had destroyed. Their agent, Samuel Wharton, may have employed Paine's pen for some kind of work. But there is no faintest trace of advocacy in Paine's "Public Good." He simply maintains that the territories belong to the United States, and should be sold to pay the public debt, -- a principle as fatal to the claim of a Company as to that of a State. p.166 -- CAUSE, COUNTRY, SELF [1780] had good ground for resisting even the semblance of an assertion
of sovereignty by a Congress representing only a military treaty between
the colonies; and that Paine's doctrine confesses itself too idealistic and
premature by the plea, with which his pamphlet closes, for the summoning
of a "continental convention, for the purpose of forming a continental constitution,
defining and describing the powers and authority of Congress." A JOURNEY TO FRANCE
THE suggestion of Franklin to Paine, in October, 1775, that he should write a history of the events that led up to the conflict, had never been forgotten by either. From Franklin he had gathered important facts and materials concerning the time antedating his arrival in America, and he had been a careful chronicler of the progress of the Revolution. He was now eager to begin this work. At the close of the first year of his office as Clerk of the Assembly, which left him with means of support for a time, he wrote to the Speaker (November 3, 1780) setting forth his intention of collecting materials for a history of the Revolution, and saying that he could not fulfil the duties of Clerk if re-elected [1]. ----------------------- [1] Dr. Egle informs me that the following payments to Paine appear in the Treasurer's account: 1779, November 27, £450. 1780, February 14. For public service at a treaty held at Easton in 1777, £300. February 14. Pay as clerk, £582. 10. 0. March 18. On account as clerk, £187. 10. 0. March 27, "for his services" (probably those mentioned on p. 94), £2,355. 7. 6. June 7, "for 60 days attendance and extra expenses," £1,699. 1. 6. (This was all paper money, and of much less value than it seems. The last payment was drawn on the occasion of his subscription of the $500, apparently hard money, in response to Washington's appeal.) In March, 1780, a Fee Act was passed regulating the payment of officers of the State in accordance with the price of wheat; but this was ineffectual to preserve the State paper from depreciation. In June, 1780, a list of lawyers and State officers willing to take paper money of the March issue as gold and silver was published, and in it appears "Thomas Paine, clerk to the General Assembly." p.168 -- A JOURNEY TO FRANCE [1780] This and another letter (September 14, 1780), addressed to the Hon. John Bayard, Speaker of the late Assembly, were read, and ordered to lie on the table. Paine's office would appear to have ended early in November; the next three months were devoted to preparations for his history. But events determined that Paine should make more history than he was able to chronicle. Soon after his Crisis Extraordinary (dated October 6, 1780) had appeared, Congress issued its estimate of eight million dollars (a million less than Paine's) as the amount to be raised. It was plain that the money could not be got in the country, and France must be called on for help. Paine drew up a letter to Vergennes, informing him that a paper dollar was worth only a cent, that it seemed almost impossible to continue the war, and asking that France should supply America with a million sterling per annum, as subsidy or loan. This letter was shown to M. Marbois, Secretary of the French Legation, who spoke discouragingly. But the Hon. Ralph Izard showed the letter to some members of. Congress, whose consultation led to the appointment of Col. John Laurens to visit France. It was thought that Laurens, one of Washington's aids, would be able to explain the military situation. He was reluctant, but agreed to go if Paine would accompany him. It so happened that Paine had for some months had a dream of crossing the Atlantic, with what purpose is shown in the following confidential letter (September 9, 1780), probably to Gen. Nathaniel Greene. p.169 -- A JOURNEY TO FRANCE [1780]
"SIR,p.170 -- A JOURNEY TO FRANCE [1780] of the pamphlet `Common Sense,' and the ground appears as open for the one now as it did for the other then.p.171 -- A JOURNEY TO FRANCE [1780] over, because the manner in which I mean to treat the subject would procure me protection.
Young Laurens
came near ruining the scheme by an imprudent advocacy, of which Vergennes
complained, while ascribing it to his experience. According to
Lamartine, the King "loaded Paine with favors." The gift of six
millions was "confided into the hands of Franklin and Paine."
The author now revealed to Laurens, and no doubt to Franklin, his plan for
going to England, but was dissuaded from it. From Brest, May
28th, he writes to Franklin in Paris: "I have just a moment to spare to bid you farewell. We go on board in an hour or two, with a fair wind and every thing ready. I understand that you have expressed a desirep.172 -- A JOURNEY TO FRANCE [1781] to withdraw from business, and I beg leave to assure you that every wish of mine, so far as it can be attended with any service, will be employed to make your resignation, should it be accepted, attended with every possible mark of honor which your long services and high character n life justly merit." [1]
The glad tidings
had long before reached Washington, then at New Windsor. On May
14, 1781, the General writes to Philip Schuyler: "I have been exceedingly distressed by the repeated accounts I have received of the sufferings of the troops on the frontier, and the terrible consequences which must ensue unless they were speedily supplied. What gave a particular poignancy to the sting I felt on the occasion was my inability to afford relief."
------------------------ [1] He confides to Franklin a letter to be forwarded to Bury St. Edmunds, the region of his birth. Perhaps he had already been corresponding with someone there about his projected visit. Ten years later the Bury Post vigorously supported Paine and his "Rights of Man." p.173 -- A JOURNEY TO FRANCE [1781] south brought on him complaints from Governor Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and others, who did not know the secret of that delay. Washington meant to carry to Virginia an army well-clad, with hard money in their pockets, and this he did. The arrival of the French supplies at Boston, August 25th, was quickly heralded, and while sixteen ox-teams were carrying them to Philadelphia, Washington was there getting, on their credit, all the money and supplies he wanted for the campaign that resulted in the surrender of Cornwallis. For this great service Paine
never received any payment or acknowledgment. The plan of obtaining
aid from France was conceived by him, and mainly executed by him.
It was at a great risk that he went on this expedition; had he been captured
he could have hoped for little mercy from the British. Laurens,
who had nearly upset the business, got the glory and the pay; Paine, who
had given up his clerkship of the Assembly, run the greater danger, and done
the real work, got nothing. But it was a role he was used to.
The young Colonel hastened to resume his place in Washington's family, but
seems to have given little attention to Paine's needs, while asking attention
to his own. so it would appear by the following friendly letter
of Paine, addressed to: "Col. Laurens, Head Quarters, Virginiap.174 -- A JOURNEY TO FRANCE [1781] whether after writing to me by post, you had not found the letter you wrote about, and took that opportunity to inform me about it. However, I have wrote to Gen. Heath in case the trunk should be there, and inclosed in it a letter to Blodget in case it should not. I have yet heard nothing from either. I have preferred forwarding the trunk, in case it can be done in a reasonable time, to the opening it, and if it cannot, then to open it agreeably to your directions, tho' I have no idea of its being there.
-------------------------- [1] The original is in Mr. W. F. Havermeyer's collection. p.175 -- A JOURNEY TO FRANCE [1781] with the Congressmen who had opposed him in the Deane matter.
The letter (in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania) is addressed to "Mr.
Jonathan Williams, Merchant, Nantz," per "Brig Betsey." "PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 26, 1781.p.176 -- A JOURNEY TO FRANCE [1781] already, otherwise I should send you the particulars. I think the enemy can hardly hold out another campaign. General Greene has performed wonders to the southward, and our affairs in all quarters have a good appearance. The French Ministry have hit on the right scheme, that of bringing their force and ours to act in conjunction against the enemy.
THE MUZZLED OX TREADING OUT THE GRAIN
WHILE Washington and Lafayette were in Virginia, preparing for their grapple with Cornwallis, Philadelphia was in apprehension of an attack by Sir Henry Clinton, for which it was not prepared. It appeared necessary to raise for defence a body of men, but the money was wanting. Paine (September 20th) proposed to Robert Morris the plan of "empowering the tenant to pay into the Treasury one quarter's rent, to be applied as above [i. e., the safety of Philadelphia], and in case it should not be necessary to use the money when collected, the sums so paid to be considered a part of the customary taxes." This drastic measure would probably have been adopted had not the cloud cleared away. The winter was presently made glorious summer by the sun of Yorktown. Washington was received with enthusiasm by Congress on November 28th. In the general feasting and joy Paine participated, but with an aching heart. He was an unrivalled literary lion; he had to appear on festive occasions; and he was without means. Having given his all, -- copyrights, secretaryship, clerkship, -- to secure the independence of a nation, he found himself in a state of p.178 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1781] dependence. He fairly pointed the moral of Solomon's
fable: By his wisdom he had saved the besieged land, yet none remembered
that poor man, so far as his needs were concerned. If in his
confidential letter to Washington, given below, Paine seems egotistical,
it should be borne in mind that his estimate of his services falls short
of their appreciation by the national leaders. It should not
have been left to Paine to call attention to his sacrifices for his country's
cause, and the want in which it had left him. He knew also that
plain speaking was necessary with Washington. "SECOND STREET, OPPOSITE THE QUAKER MEETINGHOUSE, Nov. 30th, 1781.p.179 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1781] lessens my opinion of the character of a country which once appeared so fair, and it hurts my mind to see her so cold and inattentive to matters which affect her reputation,p.180 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1781] my wish for her prosperity is no ways abated, and I shall be very happy to see her character as fair as her cause.
------------------- [1] I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia for a copy of this letter. p.181 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] what Paine had intended for the nation. After he had left Bell for Bradford, the former not only published another edition of "Common Sense," but with "large additions," as if from Paine's pen. When the perils of the cause seemed past Paine still desired to continue his literary record clear of any possible charge of payment, but he believed that the country would appreciate this sensitiveness, and, while everybody was claiming something for services, would take care that he did not starve. In this he was mistaken. In that very winter, after he had ventured across the Atlantic and helped to obtain the six million livres, he suffered want. Washington appears to have been the first to consider his case. In the diary of Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance, there is an entry of January 26,.1782, in which he mentions that Washington had twice expressed to him a desire that some provision should be made for Paine [1]. Morris sent for Paine and, in the course of a long conversation, expressed a wish that the author's pen should continue its services to the country; adding that though he had no position to offer him something might turn up. In February Morris mentions further interviews with Paine, in which his assistant, Gouverneur Morris, united; they expressed their high appreciation of his services to the country, and their desire to have the aid of his pen in promoting measures necessary to draw out the resources of the country for the completion of its purpose. They strongly disclaimed any private or partial ends, or a wish to bind his pen to any --------------------- [1] Sparks' "Diplomatic Correspondence," xii., p.95. p.182 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] particular plans. They proposed that he should be paid
eight hundred dollars per annum from some national fund. Paine
having consented, Robert Morris wrote to Robert R. Livingston on the subject,
and the result was a meeting of these two with Washington, at which the following
was framed: "PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 10, 1782.
p.183 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] boyhood at Thetford, was an effective comment on the King's expression of his desire "to restore the public tranquillity," though poor George III., who was born in the same year as Paine, would hardly have countenanced such vengeance. He then deals no doubt after consultation with Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance -- with the whole subject of finance and taxation, in the course of which he sounds a brave note for a more perfect union of the States, which must be the foundation-stone of their independence. As Paine was the first to raise the flag of republican independence he was the first to raise that of a Union which, above the States, should inherit the supremacy wrested from the Crown. These passages bear witness by their nicety to the writer's consciousness that he was touching a sensitive subject. The States were jealous of their "sovereignty," and he could only delicately intimate the necessity of surrendering it. But he manages to say that "each state with a small s) is to the United States what each individual is to the state he lives in. And it is on this grand point, this movement, upon one centre, that our existence as a nation, our happiness as a people, and our safety as individuals, depend." He also strikes the federal keynote by saying: "The United States will become heir to an extensive quantity of vacant land" -- the doctrine of national inheritance which cost him dear. Before the Declaration, Paine minted the phrases "Free and Independent States of America," and "The Glorious Union." In his second Crisis, dated January 13, 1777, he says to Lord Howe: The p.184 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] UNITED STATES of AMERICA will sound as pompously in the world or in history as `the kingdom of Great Britain.' " The friendliness of Robert Morris to the author is creditable to
him. In the Deane controversy, Paine had censured him and other
members of Congress for utilizing that agent of the United States to transact
their commercial business in Europe. Morris frankly stated the
facts, and, though his letter showed irritation, he realized that Paine was
no respecter of persons where the American cause was concerned [1].
In 1782 the Revolution required nicest steering. With the port
in sight, the people were prone to forget that it is on the coast that dangerous
rocks are to be found. Since the surrender of Cornwallis they
were over-confident, and therein likely to play into the hands of the enemy,
which had lost confidence in its power to conquer the States by arms.
England was now making efforts to detach America and France from each other
by large inducements. In France Paine was shown by Franklin and
Vergennes the overtures that had been made, and told the secret history of
the offers of mediation from Russia and Austria. With these delicate
matters he resolved to deal, but before using the documents in his possession
consulted Washington and Morris. This, I suppose, was the matter
alluded to in a note of March 17, 1782, to Washington, then in Philadelphia: "You will do me a great deal of pleasure if you can make it convenient to yourself to spend a part of an evening at my apartments, and eat a few oysters or a crust of bread and [1] Almon's Remembrancer 1778-9, p.382. p.185 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782]. cheese; for besides the favour you will do me, I want much to consult with you on a matter of public business, tho' of a secret nature, which I have already mentioned to Mr. Morris, whom I likewise intend to ask, as soon as yourself shall please to mention the evening when."
"General Conway," he says, "who made the motion in the British Parliament for discontinuing offensive war in America, is a gentleman of an amiable character. We have no personal quarrel with him. But he feels not as we feel; he is not in our situation, and that alone without any other explanation is enough. The British parliament suppose they have many friends in America, and that, when all chance of conquest is over, they will be able to draw her from her alliance with France. Now if I have any conception of the human heart, they will fail in this more than in anything that they have yet tried. This part of the business is not a question of policy only, but of honor and honesty."
p.186 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] capitulated with Cornwallis, though they were expressly relieved from liability to reprisals (Article 14). The lot fell upon one of these, young Captain Asgill (May 27th). It sufficiently proves the formidable character of the excitement Huddy's death had caused in the army that Washington did not at once send Asgill back. The fact that he was one of the capitulation officers was not known outside the military circle. Of this circumstance Paine seems ignorant when he wrote his letter to Sir Guy Carleton, in which he expresses profound sympathy with Captain Huddy, and warns Carleton that by giving sanctuary to the murderer he becomes the real executioner of the innocent youth. Washington was resolved to hang this innocent man, and, distressing as the confession is, no general appears to have warned him of the wrong he was about to commit [1]. But Paine, with well-weighed -------------------- [1] Historians have evaded this ugly business.
I am indebted to the family of General Lincoln, then Secretary of War, for
the following letter addressed to him by Washington, June 5, 1782: "Col. Hazen's sending me an officer under the capitulation of Yorktown for the purpose of retaliation has distressed me exceedingly. Be so good as to give me your opinion of the propriety of doing this upon Captain Asgill, if we should be driven to it for want of an unconditional prisoner. Presuming that this matter has been a subject of much conversation, pray with your own let me know the opinions of the most sensible of those with whom you have conversed. Congress by their resolve has unanimously approved of my determination to retaliate. The army have advised it, and the country look for it. But how far is it justifiable upon an officer under the faith of a capitulation, if none other can be had is the question? Hazen's sending Captain Asgill on for this purpose makes the matter more distressing, as the whole business will have the appearance of a farce, if some person is not sacrificed to the mains of poor Huddy; which will be the case if an unconditional prisoner cannot be found, and Asgill escapes. I write you in exceeding great haste; but beg your sentiments may be transmitted as soon as possible (by express), as I may be forced to a decision in the course of a few days. p.187 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] words, gently withstood the commander, prudently ignoring the legal point, if aware of it,
"For my own part, I am fully persuaded that a suspension of his fate, still holding it in terrorem, will operate on a greater quantity of their passions and vices, and restrain them more, than his execution would do. However, the change of measures which seems now to be taking place, gives somewhat of a new cast to former designs; and if the case, without the execution, can be so managed as to answer all the purposes of the last, it will look much better hereafter, when the sensations that now provoke, and the circumstances which would justify his exit shall be forgotten,"
In October came from Vergennes a letter, inspired by Marie Antoinette, to whom Lady Asgill had appealed, in which he reminds Washington that the Captain is a prisoner whom the King's arms contributed to surrender into his hands. That he had a right, therefore, to intercede for his life. This letter (of July 29, 1782) was laid before Congress, which at once set Asgill at liberty. Washington was relieved, and wrote the Captain a handsome congratulation. Although Paine could never find the interval of leisure necessary to write consecutively his "History of the Revolution," it is to a large extent distributed through his writings. From these and his letters a true history of that seven years can be gathered, apart from the details of battles; and even as regards these his contributions are of high p.188 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] importance, notably as regards the retreat across the Delaware, the affairs at Trenton and Princeton, and the skirmishes near Philadelphia following the British occupation of that city. The latter are vividly described in his letter to Franklin (p.104), and the former in his review of the Abbé Raynal. In his letter to Washington, of November 30, 1781, Paine mentioned that he had begun "some remarks" on the Abbé's work "On the Revolution of the English Colonies in North America." It was published early in September, 1782. The chief interest of the pamphlet, apart from the passages concerning the military events of 1776, lies in its reflections of events in the nine months during which the paper lingered on his table. In those months he wrote four numbers of the Crisis, one of urgent importance on the financial situation. The review of the Abbé's history was evidently written at intervals. As a literary production it is artistic. With the courtliness of one engaged in "an affair of honor," he shakes the Abbé's hand, sympathizes with his misfortune in having his manuscript stolen, and thus denied opportunity to revise the errors for which he must be called to account. His main reason for challenging the historian is an allegation that the Revolution originated in the question "whether the mother country had, or had not, a right to lay, directly or indirectly, a slight tax upon the colonies." The quantity of the tax had nothing to do with it. The tax on tea was a British experiment to test its declaratory Act affirming the right of Parliament p.189 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] "to bind America in all cases whatever," and that claim was resisted in the first stage of its execution. Secondly, the Abbé suffers for having described the affair at Trenton as accidental. Paine's answer is an admirable piece of history. Thirdly, the Abbé suggests that the Americans would probably have accommodated their differences with England when commissioners visited them in April, 1778, but for their alliance with France. Paine affirms that Congress had rejected the English proposals (afterwards brought by the commissioners) on April 22d, eleven days before news arrived of the French alliance [1]. The Abbé is metaphysically punished for assuming that a French monarchy in aiding defenders of liberty could have no such motive as "the happiness of mankind." Not having access to the archives of France, Paine was able to endow Vergennes with the enthusiasm of Lafayette, and to see in the alliance a new dawning era of international affection. All such alliances are republican. The Abbé is leniently dealt with for his clear plagiarisms from Paine, and then left for a lecture to England. That country is advised to form friendship with France and Spain; to -------------------- [1] Here Paine is more acute than exact. On June 3, 1778, the English Commissioners sent Congress the resolutions for negotiation adopted by Parliament, February 17th. Congress answered that on April 22d it had published its sentiments on these acts. But these sentiments had admitted a willingness to negotiate if Great Britain should "as a preliminary thereto, either withdraw their fleets and armies, or else, in positive and express terms, acknowledge he independence of the said States." But in referring the commissioners (June 6th) to its manifesto of April 22d, the Congress essentially modified the conditions: it would treat only as an independent nation, and with "sacred regard" to its treaties. On June 17th Congress returned the English Commissioners their proposal (sent on the 9th) unconsidered, because of its insults to their ally. p.190 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] expand its mind beyond its island, and improve its manners. This is the refrain of a previous passage.
"If we take a review of what part Britain has acted we shall find everything which should make a nation blush. The most vulgar abuse, accompanied by that species of haughtiness which distinguishes the hero of a mob from the character of. a gentleman; it was equally as much from her manners as her injustice that she lost the colonies. By the latter she provoked their principle, by the former she wore out their temper; and it ought to be held out as an example to the world, to show how necessary it is to conduct the business of government with civility."
In a letter dated "Bordentown, September 7, 1782," Paine says to Washington:
"I have the honour of presenting you with fifty copies of my Letter to the Abbé Raynal, for the use of the army, and to repeat to you my acknowledgments for your friendship.p.191 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] -- they elect their parliament for seven years -- they punish by seven years' transportation, or the duplicate or triplicate of that term -- they let their leases in the same manner, and they read that Jacob served seven years for one wife, and after that seven years for another; and the same term likewise extinguishes all obligations (in certain cases) of debt, or matrimony: and thus this particular period of time, by a variety of concurrences, has obtained an influence on their mind. They have now had seven years of war, and are no farther on the Continent than when they began. The superstitious and populous part will therefore conclude that it is not to be, and the rational part of them will think they have tried an unsuccessful and expensive experiment long enough, and that it is in vain to try it any longer, and by these two joining in the same eventual opinion the obstinate part among them will be beaten out, unless, consistent with their former sagacity, they get over the matter at once by passing a new declaratory Act to bind Time in all cases whatsoever, or declare him a rebel."
HEAD-QUARTERS, VERPLANK'S POINT, 18 September, 1782. p.192 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] them unavoidably into what they will esteem disagreeable and dishonorable terms of peace, -- such, for instance, as an absolute, unequivocal admission of American Independence, upon the terms on which she can accept it. For this reason, added to the obstinacy of the King, and the probable consonant principles of some of the principal ministers, I have not so full a confidence in the success of the present negociation for peace as some gentlemen entertain. Should events prove my jealousies to be ill founded, I shall make myself happy under the mistake, consoling myself with the idea of having erred on the safest side, and enjoying with as much satisfaction as any of my countrymen the pleasing issue of our severe contest.
Paine's prediction that it would be a seven years' war was nearly true. There was indeed a dismal eighth year, the army not being able to disband until the enemy had entirely left the country, -- a year when peace seemed to "break out" like p.193 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1782] another war. The army, no longer uplifted by ardors of
conflict with a foreign foe, became conscious of its hunger, its nakedness,
and the prospect of returning in rags to pauperized homes. They
saw all the civil officers of the country paid, while those who had defended
them were unpaid; and the only explanations that could be offered -- the
inability of Congress, and incoherence of the States -- formed a new peril.
The only hope of meeting an emergency fast becoming acute, was the unanimous
adoption by the States of the proposal of Congress for a five-per-cent. duty
on imported articles, the money to be applied to the payment of interest
on loans to be made in Holland. Several of the States had been
dilatory in their consent, but Rhode Island absolutely refused, and Paine
undertook to reason with that State. In the Providence Gazette, December 21st, appeared the following note, dated:
"PHILADELPHIA, November 27, 1782 "
----------------------- [1] It may be traced through the Providence Gazette of December 21, 28 (1782), January 4, 11, 18, 25, February 1 (1783); also in the Newport Mercury. Paine writes under the signature of "A Friend to Rhode Island and the Union." I am indebted to Professor Jamieson of Brown University for assistance in this investigation. p.194 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1783] Yet this controversy, which presently carried Paine to Providence,
where he wrote and published six letters, raised into general discussion
the essential principles of Union. Rhode Island's jealousy of
its "sovereignty" -- in the inverse ratio of its size, -- made it the last
to enter a Union which gave it equal legislative power with the greatest
States; it need not be wondered then that at this earlier period, when sovereignty
and self-interest combined, our pioneer of nationality had to undergo some
martyrdom. "What," he asked, "would the sovereignity of any individual
state be, if left to itself to contend with a foreign power?
It is on our united sovereignty that our greatness and safety, and the security
of our foreign commerce, rest. This united sovereignty then must
be something more than a name, and requires to be as completely organized
for the line it is to act in as that of any individual state, and, if anything,
more so, because more depends on it." He received abuse, and
such ridicule as this (February 1st): "In the Name of Common Sense, Amen, I, Thomas Paine, having according to appointment, proceeded with all convenient speed to answer the objections to the five per cent, by endeavouring to cover the design and blind the subject, before I left Philadelphia, and having proceeded to a convenient place of action in the State of Rhode Island, and there republished my first letter," etc.
p.195 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1783] him his war-horse, and an equally cordial one from General Nathaniel Greene, Rhode Island's darling hero, declaring that he should be rewarded for his public services. This visit to Rhode Island was the last work which Paine did in pursuance of his engagement, which ended with the resignation of Morris in January. Probably Paine received under it one year's salary, $800 -- certainly no more. I think that during the time he kept his usual signature, "Common Sense," sacred to his individual "testimonies." On his return to Philadelphia Paine wrote a memorial to Chancellor Livingston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Robert Morris, Minister of Finance, and his assistant Gouverneur Morris, urging the necessity of adding "a Continental Legislature to Congress, to be elected by the several States." Robert Morris invited the Chancellor and a number of eminent men to meet Paine at dinner, where his plea for a stronger union was discussed and approved. This was probably the earliest of a series of consultations preliminary to the constitutional Convention. The newspaper combat in Rhode Island, which excited general attention, and the continued postponement of all prospect of paying the soldiers, had a formidable effect on the army. The anti-republican elements of the country, after efforts to seduce Washington, attempted to act without him. In confronting the incendiary efforts of certain officers at Newburg to turn the army of liberty into mutineers against it, Washington is seen winning his p.196 -- THE MUZZLED OX [1783] noblest victory after the revolution had ended. He not only subdued the reactionary intrigues, but the supineness of the country, which had left its soldiers in a condition that played into the intriguers' hands. On April 18th Washington formally announced the cessation of hostilities. On April 19th -- eighth anniversary of the collision at Lexington -- Paine printed the little pamphlet entitled "Thoughts on Peace and the Probable Advantages Thereof," included in his works as the last Crisis. It opens with the words: "The times that tried men's souls are over -- and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished." He again, as in his first pamphlet, pleads for a supreme nationality, absorbing all cherished sovereignties. This is Paine's "farewell address." "It was the cause of America that
made me an author. The force with which it struck my mind, and
the dangerous condition in which the country was in, by courting an impossible
and an unnatural reconciliation with those who were determined to reduce
her, instead of striking out into the only line that could save her, a Declaration
of Independence, made it impossible for me, feeling as I did, to be silent;
and if, in the course of more than seven years, I have rendered her any service,
I have likewise added something to the reputation of literature, by freely
and disinterestedly employing it in the great cause of mankind . . . .
But as the scenes of war are closed, and every man preparing for home and
happier times, I therefore take leave of the subject. I have
most sincerely followed it from beginning to end, and through all its turns
and windings; and whatever country I may hereafter be in, I shall always
feel an honest pride at the part I have taken and acted, and a gratitude
to nature and providence for putting it in my power to be of some use to
mankind." p.197 GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE
THE world held no other man so great and so happy
as Washington, in September, 1783, -- the month of final peace.
Congress, then sitting at Princeton, had invited him to consult with them
on the arrangements necessary for a time of peace, and prepared a mansion
for him at Rocky Hill. For a time the General gave himself up
to hilarity, as ambassadors of congratulation gathered from every part of
the world. A glimpse of the festivities is given by David Howell
of Rhode Island in a letter to Governor Greene. "The President, with all the present members, chaplains, and great officers of Congress, had the honor of dining at the General's table last Friday. The tables were spread under a marquise or tent taken from the British. The repast was elegant, but the General's company crowned the whole. As I had the good fortune to be seated facing the General, I had the pleasure of hearing all his conversation. The President of Congress was seated on his right, and the Minister of France on his left. I observed with much pleasure that the General's front was uncommonly open and pleasant; the contracted, pensive phiz betokening deep thought and much care, which I noticed at Prospect Hill in 1775, is done away, and a pleasant smile and sparkling vivacity of wit and humor succeeds. On the President observing that in the present situation of our affairs he believed that Mr. [Robert] Morris had hisp.198 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1783] hands full, the General replied at the same instant, `he wished he had his pockets full too.' On Mr. Peters observing that the man who made these cups (for we drank wine out of silver cups) was turned a Quaker preacher, the General replied that `he wished he had turned a Quaker preacher before he made the cups.' You must also hear the French Minister's remark on the General's humor -- 'You tink de penitence wou'd have been good for de cups.' Congress has ordered an Egyptian statue of General Washington, to be erected at the place where they may establish their permanent residence. No honors short of those which the Deity vindicates to himself can be too great for Gen. Washington."
A part of Paine's house also stands. At Bordentown also resided Mr. Hall, who had much mechanical skill, and whom he had found eager to help him in constructing models of his inventions. To such things he now meant to devote himself, but before settling down permanently he longed to see his aged parents and revisit his English friends. For this, however, he had not means. Robert Morris advised Paine to call the attention of Congress to various unremunerated services. His p.199 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1783] secretaryship of the Foreign Affairs Committee, terminated by an admitted injustice to him, had been burdensome and virtually unpaid; its nominal $70 per month was really about $15. His perilous journey to France, with young Laurens, after the millions that wrought wonders, had not brought him even a paper dollar. Paine, therefore, on June 7th, wrote to Elias Boudinot, President of Congress, stating that though for his services he had "neither sought, received, nor stipulated any honors, advantages, or emoluments," he thought Congress should inquire into them. The letter had some effect, but meanwhile Paine passed three months of poverty and gloom, and had no part in the festivities at Princeton. One day
a ray from that festive splendor shone in his humble abode. The
great Commander had not forgotten his unwearied fellow-soldier, and wrote
him a letter worthy to be engraved on the tombs of both. "ROCKY HILL, Sept. 10, 1783.
The following was Paine's reply:
"BORDEN TOWN, Sept. 21. [1] See page 182. [2] This had been Washington's suggestion. p.201 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1783] "I am hurt by the neglect of the collective ostensible body of America, in a way which it is probable they do not perceive my feelings. It has an effect in putting either my reputation or their generosity at stake; for it cannot fail of suggesting that either I (notwithstanding the appearance of service) have been undeserving their regard or that they are remiss towards me. Their silence is to me something like condemnation, and their neglect must be justified by my loss of reputation, or my reputation supported at their injury; either of which is alike painful to me. But as I have ever been dumb on everything which might touch national honor so I mean ever to continue so.
There was a small party in Congress which looked with sullen jealousy on Washington's friendliness with Paine. The States, since the conclusion of the war, were already withdrawing into their several shells of "sovereignty," while ------------------------ [1] See Paine's essay on "The Cause of the Yellow Fever."; These experiments on the river at Rocky Hill were followed by others in Philadelphia, with Rittenhouse. p.202 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1783] Paine was arguing with everybody that there could be no sovereignty
but that of the United States, -- and even that was merely the supremacy
of Law. The arguments in favor of the tax imposed by Congress,
which he had used in Rhode Island, were repeated in his last Crisis (April 19th), and it must have been under Washington's roof at Rocky Hill that he wrote his letter "To the People of America"
(dated December 9th), in which a high national doctrine was advocated.
This was elicited by Lord Sheffield's pamphlet, "Observations on the Commerce of the United States,"
which had been followed by a prohibition of commerce with the West Indies
in American bottoms. Lord Sheffield had said: "It will be a long
time before the American States can be brought to act as a nation; neither
are they to be feared by us as such." Paine calls the attention
of Rhode Island to this, and says: "America is now sovereign and independent,
and ought to conduct her affairs in a regular style of character."
She has a perfect right of commercial retaliation. "But it is only by acting in union that the usurpations of foreign nations on the freedom of trade can be counteracted, and security extended to the commerce of America. And when we view a flag, which to the eye is beautiful, and to contemplate its rise and origin inspires a sensation of sublime delight, our national honor must unite with our interest to prevent injury to the one or insult to the other."
p.203 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1784] New York presented Paine with "two hundred and seventy-seven acres, more or less, which became forfeited to and vested in the People of this State by the conviction of Frederick Devoe." [1] With such cheerful
prospects, national and personal, Paine rose into song, as appears by the
following letter ("New York, April 28th") to Washington: "DEAR SIR, [1] The indenture, made June 16, 1784, is in the Register's Office of Westchester County, Vol. T. of Grantees, p. 163. The confiscated estate of the loyalist Devoe is the well-known one at New Rochelle on which Paine's monument stands. I am indebted for investigations at White Plains, and documents relating to the estate, to my friend George Hoadly, and Mr. B. Davis Washburn. p.204 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1784] disposed to it. The State of Pennsylvania might have done it alone.
-------------------- [1] Paine wrote four patriotic American songs: "Hail, Great Republic of the World" (tune "Rule Britannia"); "To Columbia, who Gladly Reclined at her Ease"; "Ye Sous of Columbia, who Bravely have Fought," -- both of the latter being for the tune of "Anacreon in Hell"; and "Liberty Tree" (tune "Gods of the Greeks"), beginning, "In a chariot of light, from the regions of Day," etc. p.205 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1784] Jays), and Paine received distinguished welcome when lie went to
take possession. This he reciprocated, but he did not remain
long at New Rochelle [1]. Bordentown had become his home; he
had found there a congenial circle of friends, proved such during his poverty.
He was not, indeed, entirely relieved of poverty by the New York honorarium,
but he had expectation that the other States would follow the example.
In a letter to Jefferson also Paine explained his reason for desiring that
the States, rather than Congress, should remunerate him. That
Washington appreciated this motive appears by letters to Richard Henry Lee
and James Madison. "MOUNT VERNON, 12 June. [1] "An old lady, now a boarding-housekeeper in Cedar Street, remembers when a girl visiting Mr. Paine when he tools possession of his house and farm at New Rochelle, and gave a village fête on the occasion; she then only knew him as `Common Sense,' and supposed that was his name. On that day he had something to say to everybody, and young as she was she received a portion of his attention; while he sat in the shade, and assisted in the labor of the feast, by cutting or breaking sugar to be used in some agreeable liquids by his guests, Mr. Paine was then, if not handsome, a fine agreeable looking man." -- Vale, 1841 . The original house was accidentally destroyed by fire, while Paine was in the French Convention. The present house was, however, occupied by him after his return to America. p.206 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1784] public. New York, not the least distressed nor most able State in the Union, has set the example. He prefers the benevolence of the States individually to an allowance from Congress, for reasons which are conclusive in his own mind, and such as I think may be approved by others. His views are moderate, a decent independency is, I believe, the height of his ambition, and if you view his services in the American cause in the same important light that I do, I am sure you will have pleasure in obtaining it for him. "MOUNT VERNON, June 12.
------------------- [1] I found this letter (to Lee) among the Franklin MSS, in the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. [2] I am indebted for this letter to Mr. Frederick McGuire, of Washington. p.207 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1784] Virginia Legislature (June 28th) to give Paine a tract of land, being
lost on the third reading, Madison (June 30th) offered a "bill for selling
the public land in the county of Northampton, called the Secretary's land,
and applying part of the money arising therefrom to the purchase of a tract
to be vested in Thomas Payne and his heirs." The result is described
by Madison (July 2d) to Washington: "The easy reception it found, induced the friends of the measure to add the other moiety to the proposition, which would have raised the market value of the donation to about four thousand pounds, or upwards, though it would not probably have commanded a rent of more than one hundred pounds per annum. In this form the bill passed through two readings. The third reading proved that the tide had suddenly changed, for the bill was thrown out by a large majority. An attempt was next made to sell the land in question, and apply two thousand pounds of the money to the purchase of a farm for Mr. Paine. This was lost by a single voice. Whether a greater disposition to reward patriotic and distinguished exertions of genius will be found on any succeeding occasion, is not for me to predetermine. Should it finally appear that the merits of the man, whose writings have so much contributed to enforce and foster the spirit of independence in the people of America, are unable to inspire them with a just beneficence, the world, it is to be feared, will give us as little credit for our policy as for gratitude in this particular."
"I have been told that it miscarried from its being observed that he had shown enmity to this State by having written a pamphlet injurious to our claim of Western Territory. It has ever appeared to me that this pamphlet was the conse-p.208 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1784] quence of Mr. Paine's being himself imposed upon, and that it was rather the fault of the place than the man." [1]
"The President has made me acquainted with a Conversation which General Washington had with him at their last interview respecting myself, and he is desirous that I should communicate to you his wishes, which are, that as he stands engaged on the General's request to recommend to the Assembly, so far as lies in his power, their taking into consideration the part I have acted during the war, that you would join your assistance with him in the measure. -- Having thus, Sir, opened the matter to you in general terms, I will take an opportunity at some time convenient to yourself to state it to you more fully, as there are many parts in it that are not publicly known. -- I shall have the pleasure of seeing you at the President's to-day to dine and in the mean time I am etc."
"GENTLEMEN: [1] "Arthur Lee was most responsible for the failure of the measure, for he was active in cultivating a prejudice against Paine. This was somewhat ungracious, as Paine had befriended Lee in his controversy with Deane." Ford's "Writings of Washington," x., p.395. Had there been any belief at this time that Paine had been paid for writing the pamphlet objected to, "Public Good," it would no doubt have been mentioned. p.209 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1784] "Arriving in America just before the war broke out, he commenced his residence here, and became a citizen of this Commonwealth by taking the oath of allegiance at a very early period. So important were his services during the late contest, that those persons whose own merits in the course of it have been the most distinguished concur with a highly honorable unanimity in entertaining sentiments of esteem for him, and interesting themselves in his deserts. It is unnecessary for us to enlarge on this subject. If the General Assembly shall be pleased to appoint a Committee, they will receive information that we doubt not will in every respect prove satisfactory.
Paine thus had a happy New Year. Only two States had acted, but they had made him independent. Meanwhile Congress also was willing to remunerate him, but he had put difficulties in the way. He desired, as we have seen, to be independent of that body, and wished it only to pay its debts to him; but one of these -- his underpaid secretaryship -- would involve overhauling the Paine-Deane case again. Perhaps that was what Paine desired; had the matter been passed on again the implied censures of Paine on the journal of Congress would have been reversed. When therefore a gratuity was spoken of Paine interfered, and wrote to Congress, now sitting in New p.210 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1784] York, asking leave to submit his accounts. This letter was referred to a committee (Gerry, Pettit, King).
"Mr. Gerry,' says Paine, came to me and said that the Committee had consulted on the subject, and they intended to bring in a handsome report, but that they thought it best not to take any notice of your letter, or make any reference to Deane's affair, or your salary. They will indemnify you without it. The case is, there are some motions on the Journals of Congress for censuring you, with respect to Deane's affair, which cannot now be recalled, because they have been printed. Therefore [we] will bring in a report that will supersede them without mentioning the purport of your letter."
"That the early, unsolicited, and continued labors of Mr. Thomas Paine, in explaining and enforcing the principles of the late revolution by ingenious and timely publications upon the nature of liberty, and civil government, have been well received by the citizens of these States, and merit the approbation of Congress; and that in consideration of these services, and the benefits produced thereby, Mr. Paine is entitled to a liberal gratification from the United States."
p.211 -- GREAT WASHINGTON AND POOR PAINE [1784] sum paid was too small to cover Paine's journey to France with Laurens, which was never repaid. The services of Thomas Paine to the American cause cannot, at this distance of time, be estimated by any records of them, nor by his printed works. They are best measured in the value set on them by the great leaders most cognizant of them, -- by Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Robert Morris, Chancellor Livingston, R. H. Lee, Colonel Laurens, General Greene, Dickinson. Had there been anything dishonorable or mercenary in Paine's career, these are the men who would have known it; but their letters are searched in vain for even the faintest hint of anything disparaging to his patriotic self-devotion during those eight weary years. Their letters, however, already quoted in these pages, and others omitted, show plainly that they believed that all the States owed Paine large "returns (as Madison wrote to Washington) of gratitude for voluntary services," and that these services were not merely literary. Such was the verdict of the men most competent to pass judgment on the author, the soldier, the secretary. It can never be reversed. To the radical of to-day, however, Paine will seem to have fared pretty well for a free lance; and he could now beat all his lances into bridge iron, without sparing any for the wolf that had haunted his door.
p.212 PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS
PAINE was the literary lion in New York -- where
Congress sat in 1785 -- and was especially intimate with the Nicholsons,
whose house was the social salon of leading republicans [1].
One may easily read between the lines of the following note to Franklin that
the writer is having " a good time " in New York, where it was written September
23d: "MY DEAR SIR, [1] "Commodore Nicholson was an active republican politician in the city of New York, and his house was a headquarters for the men of his way of thinking. The young ladies' letters are full of allusions to the New York society of that day, and to calls from Aaron Burr, the Livingstons, the Clintons, and many others, . . . An other man still more famous in some respects was a frequent visitor at their house. It is now almost forgotten that Thomas Paine, down to the time of his departure for Europe in 1787, was a fashionable member of society, admired and courted as the greatest literary genius of his day . . . . Here is a little autograph, found among the papers of Mrs. Gallatin [née Nicholson]; its address is to: `Miss Hannah N., at the Lord knows where, -- You Mistress Hannah if you don't come home, I'll come and fetch you.' -- Adams' "Life of Gallatin." p.213 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1785] you one repentant thought for being my patron and introducer to America.
"DEAR SIR, [1] The remainder of the letter (MS. Philosoph. Soc.,
Philadelphia) seems to be in the writing of William Temple Franklin, to whom
probably Paine had enclosed a note: "Mr. Williams whom you inquire after accompanied us to America, and is now here. We left Mrs. Wms. and her sisters well at St. Ger's, but they proposed shortly returning to England to live with their uncle, Mr. J. Alexander, who has entirely settled his affairs with Mr. Walpole and the Bank. Mr, Wm. Alex'r I suppose you know is in Virginia fulfilling his tobacco contract with the Farmer Gen'l. The Marquis la Fayette we saw a few days before we left Passy -- he was well and on the point of setting off on an excursion into Germany, and a visit to the Emperor K. of Prussia. -- I purpose shortly being at New York, where I will with pleasure give you any further information you may wish, and shall be very happy to cultivate the acquaintance and friendship of Mr. Paine, for whose character I have a sincere regard and of whose services I, as an American, have a grateful sense." p.214 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1785] The "arduous undertaking" to which Franklin refers was of course the
iron bridge. But it will be seen by our next letter that Paine
had another invention to lay before Franklin, to whom he hastened after receiving
his $3,000 from Congress. "Dec. 31, 1785.p.215 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1786] are a kind of mental smoke, which require words to illuminate them.
The first fourteen pages of the work are devoted to a consideration of general principles. Englishmen who receive their constitutional instruction from Walter Bagehot and Albert Dicey will find in this introduction by Paine the foundation of their p.216 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1786] Republic. In discussing "sovereignty" he points out that
the term, when applied to a people, has a different meaning from the arbitrariness
it signifies in a monarchy. "Despotism may be more effectually
acted by many over a few, than by one over all." "A republic
is a sovereignty of justice, in contradistinction to a sovereignty of will."
The distinct powers of the legislature are stated -- those of legislation
and those of agency. "All laws are acts, but all acts are not
laws." Laws are for every individual; they may be altered.
Acts of agency or negotiation are deeds and contracts. "The greatness of one party cannot give it a superiority or advantage over the other. The state or its representative, the assembly, has no more power over an act of this kind, after it has passed, than if the state was a private person. It is the glory of a republic to have it so, because it secures the individual from becoming the prey of power, and prevents might from overcoming right. If any difference or dispute arise between the state and the individuals with whom the agreement is made respecting the contract, or the meaning or extent of any of the matters contained in the act, which may affect the property or interest of either, such difference or dispute must be judged of and decided upon by the laws of the land, in a court of justice and trial by jury; that is, by the laws of the land already in being at the time such act and contract was made."
p.217 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1786] Supreme Court affirmed every contention of Paine's pamphlet, using his ideas and sometimes his very phrases. Our first Attorney-General (Edmund Randolph, of Virginia) eloquently maintained that the inferiority of one party, or dignity of the other, could not affect the balances of justice. Individuals could not be left the victims of States. So it was decided. Justice Wilson remarked that the term sovereignty is unknown to the Constitution. "The term 'sovereign' has for its correlative 'subject.' " A State contracting as a merchant cannot, when asked to fulfil its contract, take refuge in its "sovereignty." "The rights of individuals," said Justice Cushing, "and the justice due to them are as dear and precious as those of States. Indeed the latter are founded on the former; and the great end and object of them must be to secure, and support the rights of individuals, or else vain is government." [1] But the decline -- of republicanism set in; the shameful Eleventh Amendment was adopted; Chisholm was defrauded of his victory by a retrospective action of this amendment; and America stands to-day as the only nation professing civilization, which shields repudiation under "State sovereignty." In the strength of these principles Paine was able to overwhelm the whole brood of heresies, State privilege, legal tender, repudiation, retrospective laws. His arguments are too modern to need repetition here; in fineness and force they ----------------------- [1] See "Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph," Chap. XVIII., for a full history of this subject. p.218 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1786] are like the ribs of his bridge: as to-day commerce travels on Paine's iron span, so on his argumentative arch it passes over freshets endangering honest money. For a like reason it is unnecessary to give here all the details of his bridge sent by Paine to his correspondents. Of this invention more is said in further chapters, but the subjoined letters are appropriate at this point. The first two were written at Bordentown, where Paine settled himself in the spring. To Franklin, undated:
"I send you the two essays I mentioned. As the standing or not standing of such an arch is not governed by opinions, therefore opinions one way or the other will not alter the fact. The opinions of its standing will not make it stand, the opinions of its falling will not make it fall; but I shall be exceedingly obliged to you to bestow a few thoughts on the subject and to communicate to me any difficulties or doubtfulness that may occur to you, because it will be of use to me to know them. As you have not the model to look at I enclose a sketch of a rib, except that the blocks which separate the bars are not represented."
"The gentleman, Mr. Hall, who presents you with this letter, has the care of two models for a bridge, one of wood, the other of cast iron, which I have the pleasure of submitting to you, as well for the purpose of showing my respect to you, as my patron in this country, as for the sake of having your opinion and judgment thereon. -- The European method of bridge architecture, by piers and arches, is not adapted to many of the rivers in America on account of the ice in the winter. The construction of those I have the honor of presenting to you is designed to obviate the difficulty by leaving the whole passage of the river clear of the incumbrance of piers . . . My first design in the wooden model was for a bridge over the Harlem River, for my good friend General Morris of Morrisania . . . but Ip.219 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1786] cannot help thinking that it might be carried across the Schuylkill. . . . Mr. Hall, who has been with me at Borden Town, and has done the chief share of the working part, for we have done the whole ourselves, will inform you of any circumstance relating to it which does not depend on the mathematical construction. Mr. Hall will undertake to see the models brought safe from the stage boat to you; they are too large to be admitted into the house, but will stand very well in the garden. Should there be a vessel going round to New York within about a week after my arrival in Philadelphia I shall take that convenience for sending them there, at which place I hope to be in about a fortnight."
"Honorable Sir,
"I write you a few loose thoughts as they occur to me. Next to the gaining a majority is that of keeping it. This, at least (in my opinion), will not be best accomplished by doing or attempting a great deal of business, but by doing no more than is absolutely necessary to be done, acting moderately and giving no offence. It is with the whole as it is with the members individually, and we always see at every new election that it is more difficult to turn out an old member against whom no direct complaint can be made than it is to put in -- a new one though a better man. I am sure it will be best [1] This and the two letters preceding are among the Franklin MSS. in the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. p.220 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1786] not to touch any part of the plan of finance this year. If it falls short, as most probably it will, it would be (I speak for myself) best to reduce the interest that the whole body of those who are stiled public creditors may share it equally as far as it will go. If any thing can be saved from the Civil List expences it ought not to be finally mortgaged to make up the deficiency; it may be applied to bring the creditors to a balance for the present year. There is more to be said respecting this debt than has yet been said. The matter has never been taken up but by those who were interested in the matter. The public has been deficient and the claimants exorbitant neglect on one side and grediness on the other. That which is truly justice may be always advocated. But I could no more think of paying six per cent Interest in real money, in perpetuity, for a debt a great part of which is quondam than I could think of not paying at all. Six per cent on any part of the debt, even to the original holders is ten or twelve per cent, and to the speculators twenty or thirty or more. It is better that the matter rest until it is fuller investigated and better understood, for in its present state it will be hazardous to touch upon.p.221 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1786] point they have not taken into their consideration; which is, that the sinking three piers in the middle of the river, large and powerful enough to resist the ice, will cause such an alteration in the bed and channel of the river that there is no saying what course it may take, or whether it will not force a new channel somewhere else." [1]
"I observe by the minutes that the Agricultural Society have presented a petition to the house for an act of incorporation for the purpose of erecting a bridge over the Schuylkill on a model in their possession. I hope this business will not be gone into too hastily. A Bridge on piers will never answer for that river, they may sink money but they never will sink piers that will stand. But admitting that the piers do stand -- they will cause such an alteration in the Bed and channel of the river, as will most probable alter its course either to divide the channel, and require two bridges or cause it to force a new channel in some other part. It is a matter of more hazard than they are aware of the altering by obstructions the bed and channel of a River; the water must go somewhere -- the force of the freshets and the Ice is very great now but will be much greater then. [1] I am indebted for this letter to Mr. Simon Grata of Philadelphia p.222 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1787] produce models preferable to their own, will not present them to any such body of men, and they can have no right to take other peoples labours or inventions to compleat their own undertakings by.
"I mentioned in one of my essays my design of going this spring to Europe. -- I intend landing in france and from [1] For this letter I am indebted to Mr. Charles Roberts, of Philadelphia. [2] It is known that he received an affectionate letter from his father, now in his 78th year, but it has not been found, and was probably burned with the Bonneville papers in St. Louis. p.223 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1787] thence England, -- and that I should take the model with me. The time I had fixed with myself was May, but understanding (since I saw you yesterday) that no french packet sails that month, I must either take the April packet or wait till June. As I can get ready by the April packet I intend not omitting the opportunity. My Father and Mother are yet living, whom I am very anxious to see, and have informed them of my coming over the ensuing summer.p.224 -- PONTIFICAL AND POLITICAL INVENTIONS [1787] extent will answer, all difficulties in that river, or others of the same condition, are overcome at once.
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