The Life and
Works
of
Thomas Paine

VOLUME
I
LIFE OF THOMAS
PAINE
By William
M. Van der Weyde
WITH AN
INTRODUCTION
By Thomas
A. Edison
NEW ROCHELLE,
NEW YORK
Thomas
Paine National Historical Association
1925
Copyright,
1925,
Thomas
Paine National Historical Association.
Printed
in the United States of America
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
I .
The First 37 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
II.
The New World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
III.
A Revolution in the Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
26
IV.
"Common Sense" Startles the World . . . . . . . . . .
30
V.
"The American Crisis' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
39
VI.
Dark Days of the Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
VII.
The Silas Deane Affair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
57
VIII.
The History of the Deane Affair . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
IX.
The Vindication of Paine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 82
X.
Aftermath of the Deane Affair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
95
XI.
The Turn of the Tide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
106
XII.
Paine's Diplomatic Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
XIII.
An Author's Difficulties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
128
XIV.
The Horizon Brightens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
141
XV.
Progress as an Inventor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .
152
XVI.
The Return to Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
167
XVII.
An Inventive Genius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
185
XVIII.
Confidential Letters to Jefferson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
XIX.
London Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
214
p.iv
XX.
The Key of the Bastille . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
221
XXI.
"The Rights of Man .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
229
XXII.
Paine Proposes a French Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
XXIII.
Paine Returns to London . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
XXIV.
The Prosecution of "Rights of Man" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
XXV.
The Escape from England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
XXVI.
Valiant Defense of a Lost Monarch . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
XXVII.
Paine is Outlawed by England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
XXVIII.
The Fall of the Girondins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
302
XXIX.
Daily Life in Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
316
XXX.
Paine's Arrest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 323
XXXI.
A Great Man Deserted by His Friends . . . . . . . . . . . 330
XXXII.
Morris Plots Against Paine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
342
XXXIII.
Monroe to the Rescue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 358
XXXIV.
Paine Convalesces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
383
XXXV.
"The Age of Reason .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 394
XXXVI.
Persecutions of Paine's Publishers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
406
XXXVII.
Paine's Last Days . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
417
XXXVIII.
Victory After Defeat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
441
Autobiographical
Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
459
p.v
LIFE
OF THOMAS PAINE
p.vii
INTRODUCTION
IT
IS, indeed, a privilege to me
to be permitted to say a few words by way of introduction to this new biography
of a man whom I have always regarded as one of the greatest of all Americans.
Never have we had a sounder intelligence in this republic.
It was
my good fortune to encounter Thomas Paine's works in my boyhood.
I discovered a set of the writings of Paine on my father's bookshelves
when I was thirteen. It was, indeed, a revelation to me to read that
great thinker's views on political and theological subjects. Paine
educated me then about many matters of which I had never before thought.
I remember very vividly the flash of enlightenment that shone from Paine's
writings, and I recall thinking at that time "What a pity these works are
not today the school-books for all children!" My interest in Paine
and his writings was not satisfied by my first reading of his works.
I went back to them time and again, just as I have done since my boyhood
days.
Paine's
works are a crystallization of acute human reasoning, and they will surely
be appreciated more
p.viii.
and more
as the awakening world reads what he has written.
I have,
of course, always been much interested in Paine as an inventor, and I am
glad that there is a separate chapter in this biography which reveals this
side of the great man's mental activities. It is a phase of the brilliant
author's ingenious mind which has been obscured to a great extent by the
splendor of his other works. Important as were some of Paine's mechanical
inventions, they seem to me of minor interest, however, when we consider
"Common
Sense," and Paine's planning of this great American republic, of which
he may very justly be termed the real founder.
Paine was
too great a libertarian to be satisfied with the independence of America,
so he went abroad and sought freedom for England with his "Rights of
Man." There he was outlawed and hung in effigy for his pains,
but "Rights of Man" is today, as has been pointed out, the living
Constitution of modern England.
For writing
his next great book, "Age of Reason," an important theological work,
Paine was burnt in effigy, and was vilified outrageously. But we
need only recall the life-stories of the world's great reformers, from
Christ down, who have been crucified
p. ix
and burned
at the stake, to realize that "the world moves," as Galileo, one of the
noblest of the victims of intolerance, insisted, and we may rest assured
that, if Thomas Paine did not receive a just measure of appreciation in
his lifetime, the world has at last commenced to properly appraise his
worth and importance, as is exemplified by this new biography, and the
new edition of Paine's writings.
Thomas
Paine should be read by his countrymen.

Title Page
LIFE
OF THOMAS PAINE
p.1
CHAPTER
I
THE
FIRST 37 YEARS
Birth
.... Parentage .... Early Life in England .... The Lure of
the Sea .... Death of First Wife .... Becomes an Excise Officer
.... Second Marriage ... Memorializes Parliament for Excisemen
.... Meets Oliver Goldsmith .... Dismissed from the Excise
.... Business Difficulties .... Separation from Wife ....
Meets Franklin .... Leaves for America.
NO
glowing star stood still over Thetford, England, on January 29, 1737, in
token of an extraordinary event. No wise men journeyed from afar
to the humble dwelling of Frances Paine to lay gifts at the feet of her
new-born child.
The village
doctor visited the house and a few neighbors looked casually in.
But the doctor and the Norfolkshire neighbors -- by no means wise men --
treated the event as a most ordinary matter and, being without the gift
of prophecy, foresaw and foretold no career for the babe of Frances Paine
as a saviour of humanity.
The parents
and the doctor and the visiting neighbors little suspected that the tiny
infant they gazed upon would some day fire the temper of a whole
p.2
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
people
into resistance against tyranny. That he would call an American nation
into being and that his utterances would mold the characters and fashion
the high thoughts of great leaders to guide that new nation through war
and disaster to peace and security. That he would calm the Paris
mob with his counsel and draft a bill of rights for the French Republic.
That he would be proscribed in the country of his birth and that men and
women would suffer imprisonment for disseminating his writings against
tyranny and injustice. That for a whole century he would rest under
the shadow of an eclipse and then emerge triumphant as one of the great
liberators of the human race.
The child
was Thomas Paine and today three great nations, America, England and France,
claim him as a distinguished citizen.
Not much
is known concerning the parents of Thomas Paine. His father, Joseph
Paine [*], was a Quaker, the son of a Norfolkshire farmer. He was
a staymaker at Thetford, of good reputation, industrious
--------------------------------------
[*]
The family name was undoubtedly PAIN. Thomas Paine's father so spelt
his name, and so did Thomas and other members of the family. When
Thomas Paine lived in Lewes, just previous to his coming to America, he
signed his name "Thomas Pain." There is a letter written at Lewes
in 1771 in which the name is so signed. On the marriage register
of St. Michael's Church, Lewes, may be seen the signatures of Thomas Pain
and Elizabeth (p.3) Ollive, recording their marriage there March 26, 1771.
Thomas Paine at this period had the habit of ending his signature with
a little flourish which somewhat resembled the letter "e," and which was,
no doubt, sometimes mistaken for an "e." This may explain the origin
of the present spelling of the name. The earliest letters signed
Thomas Paine with the final "e" are dated late in 1775.
p.3
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
and poor.
The boy's mother was a member of the Church of England, daughter of a Thetford
attorney. Joseph Paine and Frances Cocke were married in the little
church of Euston Parish, near Thetford, on June 20, 1734. Elizabeth,
a sister of Thomas, was born August 29, 1738. There are no records
concerning Elizabeth, save the date of her birth and baptism, and it is
likely that she died in infancy.

Thomas
Paine attended the Grammar School in Thetford. There, under the tutelage
of William Knowle, he learned elementary arithmetic, reading and writing.
He had no liking for languages, and a very distinct aversion to the dead
tongues. Several times in the course of his writings, in later years,
Paine speaks reminiscently of his school days. In the following extract
he mentions his distaste for studying languages:
"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.4
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
"My father
being of the Quaker profession, it was my good fortune to have an exceeding
good moral education, and a tolerable stock of useful learning. Though
I went to the grammar school (the same school, Thetford in Norfolk, that
the present counsellor Mingay went to, and under the same master), I did
not learn Latin, not only because I had no inclination to learn languages,
but because of the objection the Quakers have against the books in which
the language is taught. But this did not prevent me from being acquainted
with the subjects of all the Latin books used in the school. The
natural bent of my mind was to science. I had some turn, and I believe
some talent, for poetry; but this I rather repressed than encouraged, as
leading too much into the field of imagination.
"I happened,
when a schoolboy, to 'pick up a pleasing natural history of Virginia, and
my inclination from that day of seeing the western side of the Atlantic
never left me." [*]
From his
Quaker father, of whom there is evidence that he was very fond, and from
his careful ethical training and Quaker environment, there is no doubt
that Paine derived much of the high moral principle that is discernible
throughout his career.
The political
corruption, not only of the nation but of little Thetford itself (then
a town of only 2000 inhabitants), was common talk among the, townsfolk,
----------------------------------------
[*]
In later years Paine wrote more fully concerning the folly of studying
dead languages. ("Age of Reason," Part I, Vol. VIII, page 59 [p.491-92
-- Foner's Edition].)
p.5
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
and the
keen-minded, bright-eyed schoolboy noted what he saw and heard. He
learned with horror of capital punishments -- in those days not infrequently
accompanied by the infliction of savage tortures -- and only in Quaker
meetings did he note any protest against these outrages.
On his
way to and from the old schoolhouse the child passed the town stocks and
the pillory, and he daily heard the screams of terrified and suffering
prisoners. The gallows, too, was close by the school and the oaths
and shrieks of victims in one or another, or all three, of the punishment
machines, could be plainly heard in the children's classrooms. It
was not pleasant music to the sensitive ears of a child.
There is
no doubt that what Thomas Paine saw and heard as a schoolboy made a deep
impression upon his mind. To the wrongs of man, as noted by a child,
we may readily trace Paine's later championship of the rights of man.
The spirit of the reformer and revolutionist was engendered in those early
years in Thetford. His was, indeed, not a joyful childhood.
Had his youth been happier than it was, it is more than likely that the
world would never have heard of Thomas Paine.
At the
age of thirteen the boy was taken from school and put to work in his father's
staymaking
p.6
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
shop.
There he remained for four years, but the work was irksome. While
he labored at the bench he dreamt of wondrous tales of life at sea told
him by Master Knowle, his teacher at the old Thetford grammar school, who
had in former years been a chaplain aboard a man-o'-war. The outcome
was the shipping of the lad aboard the Terrible, a privateer, under
the command of Captain Death. This inauspicious conjunction of names
seems to have had no deterrent effect upon the youth eager for adventure.
His father, hearing, however, of the project, hurried to the vessel, and
dissuaded the boy from his purpose, taking him back to his Thetford home.
Paine in later years mentions the episode ("Rights of Man," part
II, chap. V):
"Raw
and adventurous, and heated with the false heroism of a master who had
served in a man-of-war, I became the carver of my own fortune, and entered
on board the Terrible,
privateer, Captain Death. From this
adventure I was happily prevented by the affectionate and moral remonstrance
of a good father, who, from his own habits of life, being of the Quaker
profession, must begin to look upon me as lost."
Happily
prevented, indeed, for the Terrible on her next cruise, in an engagement
with the Vengeance, lost one hundred and seventy-five of her two
hundred
p.7
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
men, the
remaining twenty-five being all wounded, and her captain killed.
The fever
for adventure at sea still beset the boy, however, and not very long afterwards,
in 1756, when war against France was declared, Paine went to sea on the
privateer
King of Prussia, Captain Mendez. Little is known
of the adventure beyond this bare fact. He did not return to his
home, but on the abatement of his nautical fever secured employment with
a London staymaker. In 1758 he worked in Dover and a year later established
himself as a master staymaker in Sandwich, Kent. There he met and
married, September 27, 1759, Mary Lambert, an orphan. Paine was then
only twenty-two years old. The following year, at Margate, whither
Paine had removed his business, his wife died.
The business
not prospering, Paine determined to abandon staymaking as an occupation
and seek appointment as an exciseman. After a brief course of study
he was appointed to the excise December 1, 1764.
Paine found
the work of an excise officer in those days arduous enough, and the pay
by no means commensurate. The rounds of the district he covered were
made on horseback. He soon learned that other excisemen were in the
habit of sometimes entering
p.8
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
on their
reports surveys not actually made. Paine confessed he had, himself,
made such an entry and he was dismissed from the service. He applied
for re-instatement and early in 1766 was restored to the service.
No vacancy was found for him, however, until the following year, when an
appointment to a Cornwall post was offered him. He preferred to wait
for some other vacancy, and on February 19, 1768, was made excise officer
at Lewes, in Sussex. There Paine took up his residence with an aged
Quaker, Samuel Ollive, a tobacconist. Mr. Ollive died the following
year, leaving, in poor circumstances, a widow and one daughter.
On March
26, 1771, Paine married Mr. Ollive's daughter, Elizabeth, at St. Michael's
Church, Lewes, and he continued there in the tobacco business. The
family dwelt over the little shop. The old house has recently (1922)
been restored. There is a large open fireplace which had been built
entirely of bricks taken from the old chimney. In the hearth is set
an old millstone, which bears this inscription, "This stone, found here,
probably formed part of the tobacco mill of Thomas Paine."
The original
rough oak beams and oaken doors have been carefully preserved. A
room is still known as Thomas Paine's bedroom. The house was known,
p.9
--- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
at one
period of its history, as Bull Tavern, and although the people of Lewes
still speak of it as "The Bull," its fame rests chiefly on the fact that
there Paine at one time lived. A bronze tablet on the front of the
house records the fact that Paine lived in this house 1768-1774.

Here Paine
wrote, 1772, his first pamphlet, "The Case of the Officers of Excise,"
a plea to the British Parliament in behalf of the overworked and underpaid
excisemen. This statement of the excisemen's situation was written
at the request of Paine's fellowworkers in the excise, who at that early
date seem to have recognized Paine's fine understanding and genius for
expression. It is lucid, simple and forceful. Paine journeyed to
London as soon as the document was printed, in the hope of bringing the
subject before Parliament, and securing for the excisemen some redress
of grievances [*]. When Paine had the plea for the excisemen printed
he sent a copy to the famous Oliver Goldsmith with the following letter:
"HONORED
SIR,
Herewith
I present you with the Case of the Officers of Excise. A compliment
of this kind from
----------------------------------------
[*]
Although it was printed for use in Parliament, the "plea" was not published
as a pamphlet until 1793, when a London publisher resurrected Paine's work
after he had become celebrated as the author of "Rights of Man."
p.10
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
an
entire stranger may appear somewhat singular, but the following reasons
and information will, I presume, sufficiently apologize. I act myself
in the humble station of an officer of excise, though somewhat differently
circumstanced to what many of them are, and have been the principal promoter
of a plan for applying to Parliament this session for an increase of salary.
A petition for this purpose has been circulated through every part of the
kingdom, and signed by all the officers therein. A subscription of
three shillings per officer is raised, amounting to upwards of 500, for
supporting the expenses. The excise officers, in all cities and corporate
towns, have obtained letters of recommendation from the electors to the
members in their behalf, many or most of whom have promised their support.
The enclosed case we have presented to most of the members, and shall to
all, before the petition appears in the Houses. The memorial before
you met with so much approbation while in manuscript, that I was advised
to print 4000 copies; 3000 of which were subscribed for the officers in
general, and the remaining 1000 reserved for presents. Since the
delivering them I have received so many letters of thanks and approbation
for the performance, that were I not rather singularly modest, I should
insensibly become a little vain. The literary fame of Dr. Goldsmith
has induced me to present one to him, such as it is. It is my first
and only attempt, and even now I should not have undertaken it, had I not
been particularly applied to by some of my superiors in office. I
have some few questions to trouble Dr. Goldsmith with, and should esteem
his company for an hour or two, to partake of a bottle of wine, or any
thing else, and
p.11
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
apologize
for this trouble, as a singular favor conferred on
"His unknown
"Humble servant and admirer,
"THOMAS PAINE.
Excise Coffee House,
"Broad Street, Dec. 21, 1772.
"P.S. Shall
take the liberty of waiting on you in a day or two." [*]
Paine
passed the entire winter of 1772-3 in London endeavoring to interest members
of the House in the cause of the excisemen. He was both chagrined
and disappointed when, all his labors proving fruitless, he returned to
his home in Lewes. There he found his business had suffered greatly
during his stay in London. Trade at the little shop had almost entirely
ceased, and debts had accumulated. The situation was sufficiently
distressful in itself when early in April, 1774, Paine was again dismissed
from the excise.
This was
the wording of the order of discharge:
"Friday
8th April 1774.
Thomas
Pain, Officer of Lewes 4th 0. Ride Sussex Collection having quitted his
Business,
------------------------------------------
[*]
Goldsmith responded and the two writers became friends. About a year
later Goldsmith died, and Paine was probably the friend to whom he gave
shortly before his death the humorous epitaph commencing "Here Whitefoord
reclines," which Paine, as editor of the Pennsylvania, Magazine, printed
in an early number of that monthly periodical.
p.12
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
without
obtaining the Board's Leave for so doing, and being gone off on Account
of the Debts which he hath contracted, as by Letter of the 6th instant
from Edward Clifford, Supervisor, and the said Pain having been once before
Discharged, Ordered that he be again discharged."
In
danger of arrest for debts of the little shop, Paine had left town for
a brief interval but only that he might arrange for turning over to creditors
all of his property. This done, he returned to Lewes and his entire
possessions, including even his household furniture, came under the auctioneer's
hammer April 14th.
These troubles
were indeed serious enough, but they were to be immediately succeeded by
domestic difficulties. In less than two months after the auction
sale of Paine's effects Paine and his wife formally separated. This
was on the fourth of June. The reasons for the separation are veiled
in mystery. Conjectures of many kinds have been made as to the underlying
causes but they have remained merely guesses. Neither Paine nor his
wife ever spoke of the matter and it will doubtless forever remain an enigma.
Paine's intimate friend, Clio Rickman, of London, -- one of his early biographers
-- once alluded to the subject in conversation with Paine and received
a reply that precluded further inquiries. "It is no
p.13
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
body's
business but my own," said Paine; "I had cause for it but I will name it
to no one.'"
Paine renounced
all rights in the property his wife brought him at their marriage, and
it is known that subsequent to their separation he sent her money anonymously.
[*]
In the
year 1800 Elizabeth Paine, an heir under the will of her father, Samuel
Ollive, testified (in a Release to Francis Mitchener dated October 14):
"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."
It
seems strange indeed that, with her husband one of the men most talked
about in England during the last decade of the eighteenth century, Elizabeth
Paine knew nothing whatever about him -- not even whether he were living
or dead.
Despite
her profession of ignorance concerning his whereabouts, Elizabeth Paine
could readily have
------------------------------------------
[*]
Rickman records that "Mr. Paine always spoke tenderly and respectfully
of his wife; and sent her several times pecuniary aid, without her knowing
even whence it came."
p.14
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
conjectured
that it was her husband who for many years anonymously sent her money.
Upon separating
from his wife Paine returned to London, where he had enjoyed the friendship
of Benjamin Franklin, Oliver Goldsmith, David Williams and some other men
of note. [*] In former visits to London Paine had developed
a deep interest in science and he had an opportunity now to be with Dr.
Franklin when some of the latter's electrical experiments were conducted.
He again visited the Houses of Parliament, as a spectator and auditor,
and listened attentively to the debates and proposals of measures.
Paine was
now thirty-seven years old, practically penniless and with no prospect
for the future. It was indeed no happy retrospect through the years
to childhood days at the Thetford grammar school. Some radical change
in his life was obviously and
------------------------------------------
[*]
There is no credible evidence as to who introduced Paine to Franklin, but
it is quite likely that it was David Williams, principal of a school for
boys at Chelsea, then a little town just outside of London. Williams
was a Deist, with scientific and literary tastes. At his home in
Chelsea it is probable that Paine and Franklin first met in 1774.
Eight years later a tract on Political Liberty by David Williams
was first published. It was translated into French by Jean Pierre
Brissot, and in appreciation of his advanced ideas Williams was included
with Paine, Priestley, Washington, Hamilton, Madison and a dozen others
in the French Legislative Assembly's decree of August 26, 1792, honorarily
electing these men French citizens.
p.15
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
imperatively
necessary. Dr. Franklin not only perceived this but he also appreciated
the talents and genius of his friend, and the farsighted philosopher was
keenly alive to America's need of just such a spirit as Thomas Paine.
He strongly urged the young man to migrate to America -- thereby not only
befriending Paine but at the same time conferring upon this country the
greatest of the many obligations for which it is indebted to Franklin.
Despite
Paine's lack of early advantages there was distinction in his manners,
speech and appearance. He was a man of medium height and symmetrical
proportions, with a high forehead, prominent nose and brilliant dark eyes.
That he had unusually fine eyes is noted in the comments of several of
his personal friends. Major General Charles Lee referred to Paine
as "the man with genius in his eyes," and Clio Rickman, with whom Paine
lived in London, wrote of him "his eye, of which the painter could not
convey the exquisite meaning, was full, brilliant, and singularly piercing;
it had in it 'the muse of fire.' " Johann Forster is quoted by Thomas
Carlyle as noting the "uncommonly bright eyes" of Paine when he sat as
a member of the French National Convention. Dr. Franklin, keen observer
and analyst, detected the genius that shone in Paine's eyes, urged
p.16
-- THE FIRST 37 YEARS
him to
seek his fortune in America, and gave him letters of introduction and recommendation
to his friends in Philadelphia, and notably to Richard Bache, his son-in-law.
While Franklin
remained, working for peace at the Court of St. James, he was sending to
America, without realizing it, a firebrand whose writings were to crystalize
the thought of the Colonists against peace. I do not find any comment
of Franklin's upon the subject, but with his keen sense of humor, he could
not have failed to enjoy the curious turn in affairs by which he himself
had inadvertently frustrated his own peace mission.
Paine started
on his trans-Atlantic journey in October, 1774, and arrived in America
on November 30th.
p.17
CHAPTER
II
THE
NEW WORLD
Paine
Presents Franklin's Letters of Introduction .... Becomes Editor of
the
Pennsylvania Magazine .... Writes Against Slavery (1775)
.... Ballad on Death of General Wolfe.... Inveighs Against
Inequality of Sexes .... Denounces Dueling.... Franklin Proud
of Having Brought Paine to America.
A NEW
world, a new life, a new birth!
All these
were now before the storm-tossed stranger landing at America's gates.
Half of man's proverbial allotment of threescore years and ten were gone,
thirty-seven unhappy, disheartening years, -- but they were gone forever!
A wondrous
prospect unfolded itself before the immigrant's eyes in this land of promise.
One of the first persons upon whom he called to pay his respects was Dr.
Franklin's son-inlaw. Paine presented to Richard Bache the letter
from his sponsor in London. This letter was dated September 30, 1774,
and read as follows:
"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 be is quite a stranger there. If you can put him in a
p.18 -- THE
NEW WORLD
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."
That
Paine was well received in Philadelphia is attested by the letter he wrote
Franklin from that city on March 4, 1775:
"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, be has applied to me for assistance. He had
not above six hundred subscribers when I first assisted him. We have
now upwards of fifteen hundred, and daily increasing. I have not entered
into terms with him. This is only the second number. The first
I was not concerned in."
The
Pennsylvania Magazine, or American Museum, made its first appearance
toward the end of January, 1775. As Paine mentions in his letter
to Dr. Franklin, he was "not concerned" in the first number, but for eighteen
months subsequently he was editor of the magazine and in its pages appeared
many articles,
p19
-- THE NEW WORLD
essays
and poems from his pen. His salary was only fifty pounds ($250) a year
[*].
The magazine,
under Paine's editorship, was sprightly and interesting, and had, moreover,
real literary merit. Most of the articles written by Paine were published
under various names in order that readers might not realize at once that
most of the essays and letters were from the same pen. Those familiar
with Paine's writings may, however, unmistakably recognize his style in
the contributions that appeared under the names of "Vox Populi," "sop,"
"Atlanticus,"' etc. Quite a number of essays, also undoubtedly by
Paine, were unsigned. The magazine made a feature of descriptions,
with illustrations, of English inventions, such as a spinning-machine,
an electrical machine, a threshing-machine, etc., the articles all being
written by Paine. Through these writings Paine became acquainted
with a circle of scientists in Philadelphia, among them Clymer, Rush, Rittenhouse
and Muhlenberg, all members of the Philosophical Society which was founded
by Franklin. Several of them became fast friends of the author.
The February
number is prefaced with a medallion portrait of Paine's friend, Oliver
Goldsmith, who had
------------------------------------------
[*]
Probably no person ever before or since has produced, as Moncure Conway
notes, so much good literary work for so meager compensation.
p.20
-- THE NEW WORLD
died in
London shortly before Paine came to America. Early in the year --
on March 8, 1775 -- a notable essay by Paine on the subject of slavery,
appeared in the Postscript to the Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser.
This
essay, which was printed under the title of "African Slavery in America,"
was the first article published in this country urging the emancipation
of slaves and the abolishment of the system of negro bondage. A few
pamphlets had been published which inveighed against the traffic in slaves,.
and pointed out the cruelties of some slave-owners, among these being two
pamphlets by Dr. Benjamin Rush; but none, previous to Paine's production,
boldly advocated an end to the abhorrent practice. Thomas Paine was
the first American abolitionist. Had his recommendation that slavery
be abolished been then heeded, the nation's deplorable Civil War, which
commenced eighty-six years later, had never occurred -- a war costing several
hundred thousand lives and several hundred million dollars.
Paine's
anti-slavery essay was doubtless written very soon after his arrival in
America in November, 1774, although it was not published until March of
the following year. It is likely that, since slavery existed in all
the colonies -- there were 6000 slaves in Pennsylvania alone -- the editor
of the paper in
p.21
-- THE NEW WORLD
which the
essay appeared hesitated and delayed its publication, eventually placing
it in the Postscript. In all likelihood it was the first article
that Paine ever wrote for publication. [*]
Dr. Benjamin
Rush, in response to a letter from James Cheetham (author of a scurrilous
so-called "Life of Thomas Paine") dated July 17, 1809, requesting
information about his acquaintance with Paine, wrote as follows:
"About
the year 1773 [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, when 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 after 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
--------------------------------------------
[*]
("The Case of the Officers of Excise" was written not for publication
but merely as a document for presentation to the British Parliament.
p.22
-- THE NEW WORLD
of
Lord Clive, gave it a sudden currency which few works of that kind have
since had in our country." [*]
Several
humorous poems and other pieces that Paine wrote in Lewes for the amusement
of the Headstrong Club, of which he was a prominent member, received their
first publication in the
Pennsylvania Magazine. His ballad
"On
the Death of General Wolfe" was printed with music in March, 1775,
and achieved immediate popularity. Two months later he published
in the magazine an article in which he points out the absurdity of titles.
"The
Honorable plunderer of his country," he wrote, "or the Right Honorable
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 honors 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
-------------------------------------------
[*]
Dr. Rush, writing this thirty-five years later, misinterprets what Paine
said. Several articles preceded that on slavery in publication.,
although
the slavery essay was doubtless written before the others.
p.23
-- THE NEW WORLD
collectively,
to assume titles. But as all honors, even that of kings, originated
from the public, the public may justly be called the true fountain of honor.
And it is with much pleasure I have heard the title 'Honorable' applied
to a body of men, who nobly disregarding private ease and interest for
public welfare, have justly merited the address of The Honorable Continental
Congress."
Paine's
Quaker training is discernible in what he says in the issue of July, 1775,
regarding international peace and arbitration:
"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 be 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."
Paine
published in the May number, 1775, a poetical protest against cruelty to
animals. It is likely that Paine was himself the author. In
the April issue appeared Paine's fable entitled "Cupid and Hymen,"
to be followed in June by "Reflections on Unhappy Marriages," the
latter a dissertation sufficiently radical to be entirely appropriate to
a reform magazine of today.
The first
plea on behalf of women ever published in America appeared in the August
number. The article is entitled "An Occasional Letter on the
p.24
-- THE NEW WORLD
Female
Sex." Paine undoubtedly wrote it, although it appears without
signature. In this article Paine points out the injustice woman has
suffered in her age-long subjection to man, and calls attention to the
real equality of the sexes.
Another
article shows how ridiculous as well as reprehensible is the practice of
duelling -- at that period still in vogue. The magazine teemed with
"live" topics.
In Paine's
early literary work -- such essays and letters as he contributed to the
Pennsylvania
Magazine and the
Pennsylvania Journal -- we may clearly trace
the keen mind and forceful pen which were soon to give the world some of
its most distinguished writing.
Paine and
Franklin remained fast friends to the time of Franklin's death in 1790.
There is a letter of Franklin to Paine in the archives of the Philosophical
Society in Philadelphia, written in reply to Paine's congratulations on
his safe return from England. In it Franklin expresses his "esteem
and affection" for Paine, and also his satisfaction that he was Paine's
"introducer into America." He tells Paine he values himself on the
share he (Franklin) had in procuring for America "the acquisition of so
p.25
-- THE NEW WORLD
useful
and valuable a citizen." The letter has not been published heretofore.
It reads as follows:
"Philadelphia,
Sept. 27, 1775.
"Thomas
Paine --
Dear Sir:
Your kind
congratulations on my safe return give me a great deal of pleasure; for
I have always valued your friendship
"The ease
and rest you wish me to enjoy for the remainder of my days is certainly
most proper for me. . . . As to my health, of which you kindly desire
some information, it is as well as, at my age, can reasonably be expected
. . . .
"Be assured,
my dear friend, that instead of repenting that I was your introducer into
America, I value myself on the share I had in procuring for it the acquisition
of so useful and valuable a citizen.
"I shall
be very glad to see you when you happen to be again at Philadelphia.
With sincere
esteem and affection, dear sir,
Your most obedient and most humble servant.
B. FRANKLIN."
p.26
CHAPTER
III
A REVOLUTION IN THE
MAKING
North
Carolina's Rebellion is Smothered .... The "Lexington Massacre" ....
Exasperated Colonists Continue to be Loyal .... Washington Still Against
Separation from England .... Paine Writes the First Word About Independence.
THE
arrival of Paine in America was indeed most timely. For several years
prior to his advent the American colonies had been the victims of many
impositions on the part of the British government. Not only had Great
Britain levied crushing and unreasonable taxes upon her trans-Atlantic
colonies, for her own benefit, but she had turned a deaf ear to all petitions
and protestations. George III ruled from afar with an iron hand and
stony heart. Several rebellions, brought on by British impositions,
had already taken place, only to be crushed by British troops. A
rebellion in 1771 in North Carolina cost the patriots two hundred lives
before being crushed by Governor Tryon. Clashes between the colonists
and the soldiers were not infrequent -- all of them representing a protest
against tyranny.
On April
19, 1775, occurred the "Lexington massacre,"' when British troops under
Major Pitcairn attacked a small body of patriots under Captain
p.27 -- A
REVOLUTION IN THE MAKING
Parker,
at Lexington, Massachusetts, killing seven of the "minutemen," so called,
and strewing the ground with wounded.
There was
at that time no concert between the colonies, each acting independently,
but none looking to anything beyond reconciliation and a possible modification
of Britain's attitude. Independence for the colonies had not yet
been considered, the sole idea of the oppressed colonists being further
petitions, compromise, tolerance and a continuance of the colonies under
British rule.
Soon after
the encounter at Lexington, Paine published, in the Pennsylvania Magazine
(April, 1775), a summary of Lord Chatham's speech in the British Parliament
in which Chatham said the British crown would "not be worth wearing if
robbed of so principal a jewel as America." To this Paine added this
witty footnote: "The principal jewel of the crown actually dropped
out
at the coronation." This is doubtless the first hint of independence
published in America.
Even George
Washington at this time was a loyal British subject, avowing fidelity to
the crown and disowning any thought of independence for the colonies.
The Rev. Jonathan Boucher in May, 1775, crossing the Potomac in a rowboat,
happened in midstream to encounter another boat carrying George
p.28 -- A
REVOLUTION IN THE MAKING
Washington, on his way
to Congress. The two men had some conversation about the prospects
of the colonies. Washington unequivocally declared himself loyal
to the crown, saying to Boucher, "If you ever hear of my joining in any
such measures" (measures for separation) "you have my leave to set me down
for everything wicked." Two months later, in July, when Washington
took command of the army, he (as he subsequently related) "abhorred the
idea of independence."
Had the Revolutionary
War commenced then and separation from Great Britain resulted, it is likely
that another Kingdom would have been created instead of the Republic that
Paine devised and that through his efforts was established a year later.
The earliest anticipation
of the Declaration of Independence that was written and published in America
came from the pen of Paine. This was in his dissertation entitled
"A
Serious Thought," which appeared in the Pennsylvania Journal
of
October 18, 1775. This essay, condemning "the horrid cruelties exercised
by Britain," introduces the idea of independence in these words: "I hesitate
not for a moment to believe that the Almighty will finally separate America
from Britain. Call it Independence, or what
p.29
-- A REVOLUTION IN THE MAKING
you will, if it is the
cause of God and humanity it will go on."
The conflict having commenced,
Paine wished to connect it with humanitarian ideas and republicanism, hoping
that in the end both slavery and monarchy would be wiped out of America.
The essay, "A Serious
Thought," was but a preface, so to speak, to Paine's remarkable pamphlet
"Common
Sense," quite as "Common Sense" was but the forerunner to the
Declaration of Independence, which it boldly advocated.
p.30
CHAPTER
IV
"COMMON SENSE" STARTLES
THE WORLD
Paine
Produces A Pamphlet Masterpiece .... Prodigious Consequences ....
Thousands Converted to Independence, Including Washington .... Paine's
Hand Seen in The Declaration of Independence .... The Formula for
the United States of America .... Contemporary Tributes to
"Common
Sense."
PAINE
spent the autumn months of 1775 in the writing of "Common Sense,"
his masterly and well-considered argument for a new and free nation on
this side of the Atlantic. It was published anonymously -- by Robert
Bell, a Scotchman, on January 10, 1776. The title-page bore the words
"Written by an Englishman." The sale of the pamphlet was simply prodigious.
Thousands upon thousands of copies were sold; edition after edition poured
from the presses. Probably half a million copies were soon in the
hands of the people, for within the first three months of its sale more
than one hundred and twenty thousand copies were sold. No other pamphlet
ever published sold in such great numbers. Although no announcement
was made of the fact, Paine gave to the cause of independence all of his
financial interest in the pamphlet, thereby depriving himself of quite
a large fortune, the price of the pamphlet being two
p.31 -- COMMON
SENSE STARTLES THE WORLD
shillings.
Paine paid the publisher a bill of 29 12s 1d for such copies as he obtained
for himself and his friends.
Never was
a pamphlet written that wrought such wondrous effects as did "Common
Sense." To it the American people owe their independence.
Within six months of its publication the colonies affirmed their freedom
through the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence. [*]
Washington,
who only shortly before was protesting his loyalty to Great Britain, carefully
read Paine's pamphlet and was at once converted to the cause of independence.
Writing to Joseph Reed on January 31st, and referring to the burning of
Norfolk, Va., on January 1st, by Lord Dunmore, and Falmouth,
------------------------------------------
[*]
Several modern authors believe that Thomas Paine was himself the writer
of the Declaration and the evidence adduced by Joel Moody, William H. Burr,
Van Buren Denslow, and others, is at least plausible. The wording
in the Declaration is strikingly similar to that of "Common Sense,"
as well as is the sequence of argument. Paine, as the author of the
stirring pamphlet urging complete independence from Britain, might very
logically have been selected to draft the Declaration, but Jefferson, heading
the committee appointed to draft the paper, no doubt prepared the historic
document.
Paine,
never the less, was intimately associated with its preparation. As
one of Jefferson's closest friends, and the leading writer on political
subjects in America, it is reasonable to suppose that Jefferson, entrusted
with the drafting of the Declaration, should turn to Paine for consultation
and, perhaps, collaboration. (p.32) There can be no doubt that Paine
either wrote the anti-slavery clause of the Declaration, or that the writer
had before him Paine's essay advocating the abolishment of negro bondage.
The anti-slavery clause in the first drafts of the Declaration was omitted
eventually because South Carolina and Georgia objected to it, as did also
some Northerners who made a business of supplying slaves.
The matter
of the authorship of the Declaration will, in all probability, never be
absolutely settled. The several drafts of the Declaration, supposed
to be the "original" drafts, are in the handwriting of Jefferson.
Paine's ideas are visible in all these drafts. Whether he was actually
concerned in the writing of the famous document matters little. As
William Cobbett truly said: "Whoever wrote the Declaration of Independence,
Thomas Paine was its author."
p.32
-- COMMON SENSE STARTLES THE WORLD
Maine,
-- now Portland -- ten weeks earlier, by vessels under Admiral Graves,
Washington said:
"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."
John
Quincy Adams said "Paine's pamphlet, 'Common Sense,' crystallized
public opinion and was the first factor in bringing about the Revolution."
Both Whigs
and Tories read the argument for independence. As the Rev. Theodore
Parker said "Every living man in America in 1776 who could read, read 'Common
Sense,' by Thomas Paine. If he were a Tory he read it, at least
a little, just to find out for himself how atrocious it was; and if he
was a
p.33
-- COMMON SENSE STARTLES THE WORLD
Whig he
read it all to find the reasons why he was one. This book was the
arsenal to which colonists went for their mental weapons."
Paine raised
the conflict between the colonists and the parent country above the level
of an insurrection against taxation to a great human struggle for an ideal.
"Common
Sense" not only advocated complete and absolute separation from Britain
but pointed out the absurdity of government by kings.
'Monarchy
and succession," Paine wrote, "have laid -- not this or that kingdom
only -- but the world in blood and ashes. . . . In England a man
has little more to do than to make war and give away places; which, in
plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears.
A pretty business, indeed, for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand
sterling a year for, and worshipped into the bargain! Of more worth
is one honest man to society, and in the sight of God, than all the crowned
ruffians that ever lived."
Paine
outlined in "Common Sense" his plan for a representative government,
a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The
government planned by Paine is what we now know as the modern democratic
Republic. Paine deserves all
p.34
-- COMMON SENSE STARTLES THE WORLD
the credit
of inventing the republic, and if the long-suffering peoples of the world
owed nothing else to Thomas Paine they are indeed in his debt for planning
the present-day Republic.
His plan
for the United States of America, the first truly democratic Republic,
is very carefully outlined in "Common Sense." The word "republic,"
it is true, had been used before to designate a form of government, but
it had no such significance as we now attach to it. There were so-called
"republics" in the Middle Ages but they were merely oligarchies dependent
upon the slavery of the masses, and by no means governments which expressed
the will of the people. The pseudo-republics of the Middle Ages were
close political corporations of the wealthy and so-called "noble" families
formed for the distinct purpose of eliminating the people from any representation
or voice in the government. "Plato's republic,"' so-called, was so
utterly dissimilar to the modern republic, representing the determinations
of the people, that to speak of it as a "republic" is merely to misname
its form of government.
The modern
Republic, based on the will of the people, is discussed at great length
in Paine's later work, "Rights of Man," 1791-2. This was the
earliest complete statement of republican doctrines.
p.35
-- COMMON SENSE STARTLES THE WORLD
Jefferson,
Madison and Jackson, the three Presidents who stood for the republican
principle in government, acclaimed these doctrines the fundamental principles
of the American Republic.
In discussing
the modern democratic Republic in Part II of "Rights of Man," Paine
says: "The government of America, which is wholly on the system of representation,
is the only real Republic in character and in practice that now exists."
Paine was
confident that European nations, seeing the success attending the Republican
government of the United States, would not long hesitate to overthrow the
existing monarchies and establish Republics patterned after that of this
country. But, with few exceptions, a period of more than a century
and a quarter elapsed after the publication of Paine's "Rights of Man"
before Europe awakened to its preposterous support of monarchy, and abruptly
overturned some of its thrones, that modern democratic Republics, patterned
after the United States, might be set up in their stead.
The mention
of the world's new Republics has taken us far from that period when Paine's
"Common
Sense," advocating independence and the establishment of a Republic,
bad just come from the presses. We return now to "Common Sense"
and 1776.
p.36
-- COMMON SENSE STARTLES THE WORLD
The authorship
of "Common Sense" was attributed to many different persons before
it became generally known that Paine was the author. Franklin, among
others, was accredited the author of the famous pamphlet. In England
a lady reproved him for being the writer of that fine alliterative phrase
descriptive of the king, "the Royal British Brute," which occurs in "Common
Sense." The sagacious diplomat smiled genially and replied, "Madame,
I would never have been so disrespectful to the brute creation as that!"
There were
many praiseful notices of "Common Sense" in the newspapers when
that pamphlet appeared. One of these journals, the Constitutional
Gazette, of February 24, 1776, said:
"The
pamphlet entitled 'Common Sense' is indeed a wonderful production.
It is completely calculated for the meridian of North America. The
author introduces a new system of politics as widely different from the
old
as the Copernican system is from the Ptolemaic. The blood wantonly
spilt by the British troops at Lexington gave birth to this extraordinary
performance, which contains as surprising a discovery in politics as the
works of Sir Isaac Newton do in philosophy. This animated piece dispels
with irresistible energy the prejudice of the mind against the doctrine
of independence, and pours in upon it such an inundation of light and truth
as will produce an instantaneous and marvellous change in the temper, in
the views and feelings of an American. The ineffable
p.37
-- COMMON SENSE STARTLES THE WORLD
delight
with which it is perused and its doctrines imbibed is a demonstration that
the seeds of independence, though imported with the troops from Britain,
will grow surprisingly with proper cultivation in the fields of America.
The mind indeed exults at the thought of a final separation from Great
Britain, whilst all its prejudices and enchanting prospects in favor of
a reconciliation, like the morning cloud, are chased away by the heat and
influence of this rising luminary, and although the ties of affection and
other considerations have formerly bound this country in a three-fold cord
to Great Britain, yet the connection will be dissolved and the Gordian
knot be cut. 'For the blood of the slain the voice of weeping nature
cries It is time to part.' "
Other
journals of that period spoke quite as praisefully of "Common Sense."
Almon's Remembrancer (1776) said " 'Common Sense' is read by
all ranks, and as many as read, so many become converted. . . . 'Common
Sense' has converted thousands to Independence who could not endure
the idea before."
The Pennsylvania
Evening Post of March 17, 1776, said: "'Common Sense' hath made
independents of the majority of the country."
p.38
-- COMMON SENSE STARTLES THE WORLD
Washington,
a few years later, in a letter to James Madison (June 12, 1784) urges that
some action be taken to reward Paine for his services, and says in part:
"Must
the merits and services of 'Common Sense' continue to glide down
the stream of time unrewarded by this country? His writings certainly
have had a powerful effect on the public mind, -- ought they not then to
meet an adequate return?"
A letter
from George Washington to Joseph Reed, written shortly after Paine's pamphlet
was published, contains this paragraph about "Common Sense":
"By
private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find that
'Common Sense' is working a powerful change there in the minds of many
men."
John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Edmund Randolph --
all the leading figures of the American Revolutionary period wrote praisefully
of Paine's "Common Sense."
p.39
CHAPTER
V
"THE
AMERICAN CRISIS"
Paine
Enlists in the "Flying Camp" .... Re-Enlists Under General Greene
.... Appointed Aide-de-camp .... Electrifies Dispirited Troops With
First Number of "The Crisis" .... Winning the Battle of Trenton
.... "Crisis II" .... Paine Appointed Secretary to Indian
Commission .... Elected Secretary to Congressional Committee on Foreign
Affairs .... "Crisis III" .... A Letter to Richard Henry
Lee About Burgoyne's Surrender.
BELIEVING,
as Paine did, that "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom,
must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it," [*]
Paine volunteered for service in the patriot army. He joined a Pennsylvania
division of the Flying Camp, a body of ten thousand men, under General
Roberdeau, enlisted to serve wherever needed. His first service,
musket on shoulder, was at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and later at Bergen.
When the enlistment expired, Paine trudged to Fort Lee, on the Jersey shore
of the Hudson River, to renew his enlistment under General Nathaniel Greene,
who was in command at Fort Lee. General Greene on September 19, 1776,
appointed Paine his aide-de-camp. Two months later Fort Lee, and
Fort Washington, on the New York
---------------------------------------------------
[*] The
introductory sentence of "Crisis IV."
p.40 -- "THE
AMERICAN CRISIS"
shore, were taken by
the British. Washington and his men retreated to the Delaware; General
Greene with his small garrison, including Paine, reached Newark, New Jersey,
where Paine, by the light of a camp-fire, wrote, on a drum-head, the first
of his series of little pamphlets called "The American Crisis."
This first brochure was written for the purpose of renewing courage in
the soldiers of the patriot army, who, poorly-clad in winter, ill-nourished,
and suffering many privations, were profoundly disheartened. "Crisis
I," commencing with the famous sentence "These are the times that try
men's souls" was, by Washington's order, read at the head of every regiment,
and it produced exactly the effect which its author designed. The
men were greatly cheered and hopeful, and heartened for the assault which
Washington had determined to make upon Trenton.
"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; 'tis 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."
The watchword at
Trenton was "These are the times that try men's souls," and the men entered
the
p.41 -- "THE
AMERICAN CRISIS"
conflict with Paine's
words on their lips." There is no doubt whatever that "Crisis
I" won the Battle of Trenton.
Paine was "with General
Greene during the whole of the black times of that trying campaign."
[*] He participated in the capture of the Hessians at Trenton
and in the affair at Princeton. Paine was also under fire at Fort
Mifflin. The story of Washington's retreat across the Delaware is
told in Paine's account of it (Vol. III, Retreat Across the Delaware,
p. 257 [p.93 -- Foner's edition]) and in his letter to Franklin,
in Paris (Vol. III, Letter To Benjamine Franklin - I, May 16, 1778,
p. 263 [p.1143 -- Foner's edition]).
The victory of the patriot
army over the Hessians at Trenton was a matter of momentous significance
to the cause of Independence, while a defeat would have been disastrous
in its consequences. Paine did not allow his elation to delay another
number of the "Crisis." Four weeks after the Battle of Trenton
Paine published "Crisis II," addressed "To Lord Howe." In
it he warns the British commander that if the present opportunity of making
peace is neglected it may afterwards be too late. He taunts the titled
Briton with having lately turned author, referring to his Proclamation
which offered the Americans "mercy" on condition of laying down their arms.
In the course of his address to Howe Paine
----------------------------------------------
[*] Quotation
from a letter of Paine, August, 1807.
[Not found in any collected works. -- Digital Editor's Note.]
p.42 -- "THE
AMERICAN CRISIS"
says "'The UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA' will sound
as pompously in the world or in history as 'the Kingdom of Great Britain.'
"
On January 21, 1777,
Paine was appointed by the Council of Safety in Philadelphia secretary
to a commission sent by Congress to make a treaty with the Indians in Pennsylvania.
The commissioners, with one thousand dollars worth of presents, met the
Indian chiefs in the German Reformed Church at Easton, Pennsylvania.
The report to Congress states that "after shaking hands and drinking rum,
while the organ played, we proceeded to business."
Paine, no doubt, wrote
the report of the commissioners. The Pennsylvania Assembly paid him
300 for his work in this matter, an amount which was later refunded to
the State by Congress.
The following interesting
anecdote about the meeting with the Indians was related by Paine in a public
letter in 1807:
"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
p. 43 -- "THE
AMERICAN CRISIS"
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 lie down on their side."
Congress on April
17 elected Paine secretary of the Committee of Foreign Affairs. Two
days later, on the second anniversary of the clash at Lexington, "Crisis
III" was published in Philadelphia. Paine, as secretary, was
careful to keep informed the young nation's representatives abroad, sending
them newspapers and letters which would advise them of the state of affairs
at home. The following letter to William Bingham, who was the agent
of Congress at Martinique, is an example of Paine's attention to representatives
abroad:
"PHILADELPHIA,
July
16, 1777.
SIR,
A very sudden opportunity
offers of sending you the news-papers, from which you will collect the
situation of our Affairs. The enemy finding their attempt of marching
thro' the Jersies to this city impracticable, have retreated to Staten
Island seemingly discontented and dispirited and quite at a loss what step
next to pursue. Our army is now well recruited and formidable.
Our militia in the several States ready at a day's notice to turn out and
support the army when
p.44 -- "THE
AMERICAN CRISIS"
occasion requires;
and tho' we cannot, in the course of a campaign, expect everything in the
several parts of the continent to go just as we wish it; yet the general
face of our affairs assures us of final success.
"In the papers of June
18th & 25 and July 2d you will find Genl. Washington and Arnold's letters
of the enemy's movement in, and retreat from the Jersies. We are
under some apprehensions for Ticonderoga, as we find the enemy are unexpectedly
come into that quarter. The Congress have several times had it in
contemplation to remove the garrison from that place as by experience we
find that men shut up in forts are not of so much use as in the field,
especially in the highlands, where every bill is a natural fortification.
"I am, Sir,
"Your obt. humble servant,
"THOMAS PAINE.
"Sec'y to the Committee of Foreign Affairs."
That Paine made it his business
also to send information to other officials in the government service,
who should be kept informed of the situation of affairs, is evidenced by
this letter to Hon. Richard Henry Lee, dated "Headquarters, fourteen miles
from Philadelphia," Oct. 30, 1777:
"I wrote you
last Tuesday 21st inst., including a copy of the King's speech, since which
nothing material has happened at camp. Genl. McDougal was sent last
Wednesday night 22d to attack a party of the enemy who lay over the Schuylkill
at Grey's Ferry where they have a bridge.
p.45 -- "THE
AMERICAN CRISIS"
Genls. Greene
and Sullivan went down to make a diversion below Germantown at the same
time. I was with this last party, but as the enemy withdrew their
detachment we had only our labor for our pains.
"No particulars of the
Northern affair have yet come to headqrs., the want of which has caused
much speculation. A copy, said to be the Articles of Capitulation
was received 3 or 4 days ago, but they rather appear to be some proposals
made by Burgoyne, than the capitulation itself. By those articles
it appears to me that Burgoyne has capitulated upon terms which we have
a right to doubt the full performance of, viz., 'That the officers and
men shall be transported to England and not serve in or against North America
during the present war' -- or words to this effect.
"I remark, that this
capitulation, if true, has the air of a national treaty; it is binding,
not only on Burgoyne as a general, but on England as a nation;
because the troops are to be subject to the conditions of the treaty after
they return to England and are out of his command. It regards England
and America as separate sovereign States, and puts them on an equal footing
by staking the faith and honor of the former for the performance of a contract
entered into with the latter.
"What in the capitulation
is styled the 'Present War' England affects to call a 'Rebellion'
and
while she holds this idea and denies any knowledge of America as a separate
sovereign power, she will not conceive herself bound by any capitulation
or treaty entered into by her generals which is to bind her as a
nation,
and
more especially in those cases where both pride and present advantage
p.46 -- "THE
AMERICAN CRISIS"
tempt her to
violation. She will deny Burgoyne's right and authority for making
such a treaty, and will, very possibly, show her insult by first censuring
him for entering into it, and then immediately sending the troops back.
"I think we ought to
be exceedingly cautious how we trust her with the power of abusing our
credulity. We have no authority for believing she will perform that part
of the contract which subjects her not to send the troops to America during
the war. The insolent answer given to the Commissars. by Ld. Stormont,
'that
the King's Ambassadors recd. no letters from rebels but when they came
to crave mercy,' sufficiently instructs us not to entrust them with
the power of insulting treaties of capitulation.
"Query, whether it wd.
not be proper to detain the troops at Boston & direct the Commissioners
at Paris to present the Treaty of Capitulation to the English Court thro'
the hands of Ld. Stormont, to know whether it be the intention of that
court to abide strictly by the conditions and obligations thereof, and
if no assurance be obtained to keep the troops until they can be exchanged
here.
"Tho' we have no immediate
knowledge of any alliance formed by our Commissioners with France or Spain,
yet we have no assurance there is not, and our immediate release of those
prisoners, by sending them to England, may operate to the injury of such
Allied Powers, and be perhaps directly contrary to some contract subsisting
between us and them prior to the capitulation. I think we ought to
know this first. -- Query, ought we not (knowing the infidelity they have
already acted) to suspect they will evade the Treaty by putting back into
New York under
p.47 -- "THE
AMERICAN CRISIS"
pretence of
distress. -- I would not trust them an inch farther than I could see them
in the present state of things.
"The army was to have
marched yesterday about 2 or 3 miles but the weather has been so exceedingly
bad for three days past as to prevent any kind of movement, the waters
are so much out and the rivulets so high there is no passing from one part
of ye camp to another.
"I wish the Northern
Army was down here. I am apt to think that nothing materially offensive
will take place on our part at present. Some means must be taken
to fill up the Army this winter. I look upon the recruiting service
at an end and that some other plan must be adopted. Suppose the service
be by draft -- and that those who are not drawn should contribute
a dollar or two dollars a man to him on whom the lot falls, -- something
of this kind would proportion the burden, and those who are drawn would
have something either to encourage them to go, or to provide a substitute
with -- After closing this letter I shall go again to Fort Mifflin; all
was safe there on the 27th, but from some preparations of the enemy they
expect another attack somewhere.
"The enclosed return
of provision and stores is taken from an account signed by Burgoyne and
sent to Ld. George Germain. I have not time to copy the whole.
Burgoyne closes his letter as follows, 'By a written account found in the
Commissary's House at Ticonderoga six thousand odd hundred persons were
fed from the magazine the day before the evacuation!
"I am dear sir,
Your affectionate honorable servant,
"T. PAINE.
"Respectful compliments
to friends.
p.48 -- "THE
AMERICAN CRISIS"
"If the Congress
has the capitulation and particulars of the surrender, they do an exceedingly
wrong thing by not publishing them because they subject the whole affair
to suspicion."
p.49
CHAPTER
VI
DARK
DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION
Lord Howe in
Philadelphia .... Congress Retreats to York, Pennsylvania ....
Washington's Army at Valley Forge .... "Crisis V" ....
Struggles With Counterfeit Continental Money .... A Letter to Washington
.... French Fleet Blockades the Delaware .... Lord Howe Evacuates
Philadelphia .... "Crisis VI" .... A Frenchman's Estimate
of American Public Feeling.
IT
is greatly to be regretted that Paine's suggestion regarding Burgoyne's
capitulation was not followed immediately. In a brief space of time
the British general was permitted to go to England, while his troops were
retained as prisoners here for five years -- until the treaty of peace
was made. General Howe took Philadelphia, and, with his troops, was
in possession of it from Sept. 26, 1777.
Congress retreated to
York, Pennsylvania, and Washington's army of 5000 men were suffering the
rigors of an exceptionally severe winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Paine wrote "Crisis V," addressed to General Howe, at Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, and it was printed in York, Pennsylvania. The opening
words of this "Crisis" are these:
"To argue with
a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy
consists
p.50 -- DARK
DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION
in holding humanity
in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead," and the closing
words are "I am, sir, with every wish for an honorable peace,
Your friend, enemy, and countryman,
COMMON SENSE."
The old Cookis house
at York to which Paine carried his valuable chest containing the papers
of Congress, and where, no doubt, Paine edited his manuscript of "Crisis
V" before turning it over to the printer, is still standing, and is,
at this writing (1925), occupied by negroes, who probably have never heard
of the great man who so ardently wrote in behalf of their race (see
"African Slavery in America" and "A Serious Thought," Vol. II).
This historic old house stands on the bank of Cadorus creek, at the rear
of what is now number 470 Cadorus Street. An oblong stone under the
eaves, now greatly time and weather-worn, records the fact that the house
was "built by J. B. Cookis in the year 1761." It is said to be the
oldest house in York county.
The trunk Paine took
to this house was the same chest with which he had previously hurried off
to Trenton when Howe took possession of Philadelphia. The meetings
of Congress in York were held in a building which no longer exists in a
more central part
p.51 -- DARK
DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION
of York. The chest
of papers was kept in the Cookis house because more remote, in case of
sudden attack.
Paine was again in Lancaster
in April and from there, April 11, wrote this interesting letter to his
friend, Henry Laurens, President of Congress:
"LANCASTER,
April 11, 1778.
SIR,
I take the liberty of
mentioning an affair to you which I think deserves the attention of Congress.
The persons who came from Philadelphia some time ago with, or in company
with, a flag from the enemy, and were taken up and committed to Lancaster
jail for attempting to put off counterfeit Contl. money, were yesterday
brought to trial and are likely to escape by means of an artful and partial
construction of an Act of this State for punishing such offences.
The Act makes it felony to counterfeit the money emitted by Congress,
or to circulate such counterfeits knowing them to be so. The offenders'
counsel 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 reference 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 description of the money, and not of the time of
striking it, but includes the idea of all time as inseparable from the
p.52 -- DARK
DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION
continuance
of the authority of Congress. But be this as it may; the offence
is Continental and the consequences of the same extent. I can have
no idea of any particular State pardoning an offence against all, or even
their letting an offender slip legally who is accountable to all
and every State alike for his crime. The place where he commits it
is the least circumstance of it. It is a mere accident and has nothing
or very little to do with the crime itself. I write this hoping the
information will point out the necessity of the Congress supporting their
emissions by claiming every offender in this line where the present deficiency
of the law or the partial interpretation of it operates to the injustice
and injury of the whole continent.
"I beg leave to trouble
you with another hint. Congress I learn has something to propose
thro' the Commissioners on the cartel respecting the admission and stability
of the Continental currency. As forgery is a sin against all men
alike, and reprobated by all civil nations, query, would it not be right
to require of General Howe the persons of Smithers and others in Philadelphia
suspected of this crime; and if he, or any other commander, continues to
conceal or protect them in such practices, that, in such case, the Congress
will consider the crime as the act of the commander-in-chief. 'Howe
affects not to know the Congress -- he ought to be made to know them; and
the apprehension of personal consequences may have some effect on his conduct.
I am, dear sir,
"Your obt. and humble servt.,
"T. PAINE.
p.53 -- DARK
DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION
"Since writing
the foregoing the prisoners have had their trial; the one is acquitted
and the other convicted only of a fraud; for as the law now stands, or
rather as it is explained, the counterfeiting -- or circulating counterfeits
-- is only a fraud. I do not believe it was the intention of the
Act to make it so, and I think it misapplied lenity in the Court to suffer
such an explanation, because it has a tendency to invite and encourage
a species of treason, the most prejudicial to us of any or all the other
kinds. I am aware how very difficult it is to make a law so very
perfect at first as not to be subject to false or perplexed conclusions.
There never was but one Act (said a Member of the House of Commons) which
a man might not creep out of, i.e. the Act which obliges a man to be buried
in woollen. "
T. P." [*]
From York, Pennsylvania,
on May 16, 1778, Paine wrote a letter to Franklin in Paris, informing the
diplomat of events that had transpired during his absence. This lengthy
letter Paine wrote both in his capacity as Secretary of Foreign Affairs
and as Franklin's personal friend. The letter is of great historical
importance, and is given in full in Vol. III, (Letter To Benjamin Franklin
- I, May 16, 1778,) p. 263. The letter was written at the old
Cookis
---------------------------------------------------
[*] The
original of this letter, in a fine state of preservation, three pages,
with the address on the back, and the notation of Henry Laurens that the
letter was received at York on April 13, is now in the collection of Albert
M. Todd, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, a member of the Thomas Paine National
Historical Association. It had previously been in the Gratz and in
the Gable collections.
p.54 -- DARK
DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION
house where Paine wrote
"Crisis
V," and where he also wrote the beginning of "Crisis VI."
Paine wrote to Washington
also from York. His letter is addressed to the American Commander-in-Chief
at Valley Forge, and reads as follows:
"YORKTOWN,
June 5, 1778.
SIR,
As a general opinion
prevails that the enemy will quit Philadelphia, I take the liberty of transmitting
you my reasons why it is probable they will not. In your difficult
and distinguished situation every hint may be useful.
"I put the immediate
case of their evacuation, to be a declaration of war in Europe made by
them or against them: in which case, their army would be wanted for other
service, and likewise because their present situation would be too unsafe,
being subject to be blocked up by France and attacked by you and her jointly.
"Britain will avoid a
war with France if she can; which according to my arrangement of politics
she may easily do -- she must see the necessity of acknowledging, sometime
or other, the independence of America; if she is wise enough to make that
acknowledgment now, she of consequence admits the right of France to the
quiet enjoyment of her treaty, and therefore no war can take place upon
the ground of having concluded a treaty with revolted British subjects.
"This being admitted,
their apprehension of being doubly attacked, or of being wanted elsewhere,
cease of consequence; and they will then endeavor to hold all they can,
that they may have something to restore, in lieu of
p.55 -- DARK
DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION
something else
which they will demand; as I know of no instance where conquered places
were surrendered up prior to, but only in consequence of a treaty of peace.
"You will observe, sir,
that my reasoning is founded on the supposition of their being reasonable
beings, which if they are not, then they are not within the compass of
my system. I am, sir, with every wish for your happiness,
Your affectionate and obt. humble servant,
"THOS. PAINE.
"His Excellency GENL.
WASHINGTON, Valley Forge."
A few days after
Washington received this letter news came that a French fleet in command
of Count d'Estaing had made its appearance on the coast, and was planning
to blockade the Delaware. The British had evacuated Philadelphia,
manifestly in haste and in panic. News spread rapidly of the apparent
alarm and the precipitate flight of British troops. Congress returned
to Philadelphia, and Paine at once commenced writing his sixth "Crisis,"
addressed to the peace commissioners sent to America by Britain.
This "Crisis" is dated Oct. 20, 1778. (Vol. III, p. 47.)
Despite the departure
of the British troops from Philadelphia, and the return of Congress, a
surprisingly large number of the people in that city were Tories.
A letter of Conrad Alexandre Grard, Minister from France, to his government,
dated November 24, 1778, says that "scarcely one quarter of the
p.56 -- DARK
DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION
ordinary inhabitants
of Philadelphia now here favor the cause (of independence). Commercial
and family ties, together with an aversion to popular government, seem
to account for this. The same feeling exists in New York and Boston,
which is not the case in the rural districts." Two months earlier
Grard had written to his government from Philadelphia (September 18,)
regarding aid given to the British by Quakers. Grard, in his letter,
said that "During the occupation of Philadelphia by the British, proofs
were obtained of the services rendered them by the Quakers; some of these
were caught acting as spies, etc."
p.57
CHAPTER
VII
THE SILAS DEANE AFFAIR
Deane as Financial
Commissioner to France Exceeds His Instructions .... His Defense
.... He Returns to America .... Paine Publishes His Suspicions
of Deane .... The French Minister Denounces Paine .... Congress
Refuses to Discharge Him.
THE
"Silas Deane affair," which is here related in some detail, is the story
of a member of the first Continental Congress, 1774,
sent
to France in June, 1776,
as
a political and financial agent of this country, to ascertain the feeling
and attitude of the French government regarding the American rupture with
Britain and to obtain if possible military supplies. It is the story
of an unpleasant episode in American history of the Revolutionary War period.
Thomas Paine, ever alert in guarding the interests of the United States,
figures in it as the exposer of a plot to mulct the nation's slender treasury.
In September Franklin
and Arthur Lee were commissioned to join Deane in Paris, and assist in
negotiating a treaty with France. In consequence of the extravagant
contracts which Deane had entered into, without authority in his instructions,
he was recalled Nov. 21, 1777, and
John Adams was appointed in his place. Silas Deane before leaving
p.58
Paris wrote the following
letter (December 20, 1777,) regarding Arthur Lee, Franklin, etc., and including
a copy of his letter to Congress. It is supposed to have been sent
to either Robert Morris or Benjamin Harrison. It has not been published
heretofore:
"You will, I
doubt not, before the receipt of this have had many representations made
you. I am not wholly unacquainted with the nature or complexion,
and could, were it necessary, give you such details of certain gentlemen
here as would at once raise your indignation, contempt and laughter, but
I have never wrote one word concerning either of them until this moment.
I will not add, I wait only to know what these accusations are, and of
what nature, that I may answer in a distinct and becoming manner.
They have declared they will complain, and though I have never taken a
single step but by the advice of Doctor Franklin, and have ever had his
approbation, yet I greatly fear this will not appear at once to contradict
the first impression made by these artful and designing men in their representations.
"Thus situated, I apply
to you as my friend and as a friend to justice, that the truth may be inquired
for at the mouth of Doctor Franklin, or that all judgment may be suspended
until I can have an opportunity of answering in person." -- He then quotes
his letter to Congress, which reads:
"I am ignorant of what
kind of complaint the two brothers here will prefer against me. I
know they are
p.59 -- THE
SILAS DEANE AFFAIR
implacable and
indefatigable. Whatever their complaints may be, I pray I may not
be condemned unheard. I cannot live with these men, or do business
with them, nor can I find the man in the world who can. These characters
cannot be unknown to you, in some degree. Permit me once more to
refer you, and the Honorable Congress, to Doctor Franklin who knows me,
and who, to his sorrow, and vexation, knows them. This confidence
I have the honor of enjoying at Court is the unhappy ground of our difficulties,
for the Minister has the most distrustful opinion of A. L. Esq., [Arthur
Lee] nor will he see him but when obliged to do it; this opinion is of
very long standing and has been confirmed by him since his being in France,
by his conduct.
"Not a day passes but
he ridicules and curses the whole French nation in a body before his servants;
every servant is a spy of the Ministry and faithfully reports all he hears
to a proper officer. The servants are registered and when they go
into service, or change their masters, they acquaint the proper officer
with it, so that the police know by this means everything which passes.
I have expostulated with
him formerly on this subject but to no purpose, his naturally jealous suspicions
make, with a certain litigious littleness which seems natural to him, increases
every day, until be has really become disagreeable to all who know him,
and is avoided as much as decency and politeness will permit. In
this situation his spleen is perhaps levelled as much against Doctor Franklin
as myself. But as I have been the acting person and the one most
applied to in the business, I am first levelled at. Permit me, my
dear sir, to give you candidly my
P.60 -- THE
SILAS DEANE AFFAIR
opinion on having
Ambassadors, Agents or Commissioners at foreign Courts. As soon as
our independence is confirmed and peace is established, I would advise
you to have none in any part of the world.
"Consuls in the ports
are all that will be wanted, and they will cost little or nothing.
I would wish America to have as little connection as possible with Europe,
except what arises from commerce and the exchanging of mutual good offices.
At any rate never appoint more than one man at one Court, nor send one
man at the same time to two. These are my real sentiments on the
subject. I have ambition of being continued in office myself.
The time I have spent in France has been the most laborious and fatiguing
of any period of my life, and I have seen enough of Courts to wish to be
as far from them as possible, notwithstanding the reception I have ever
met with, and the particular confidence I am now honored with is flattering.
"You see, sir, with what
freedom I throw out my undisguised sentiments on paper. I wish them
to go on further than the private circle of your friends. Conscious
of the rectitude of my intentions, and of the disinterestedness of my conduct,
ever since I have had the honor of serving the public, I am confident that
whatever temporary prejudices may prevail, truth must at last appear, and
I wish nothing else. I find in a paper published the 19th of August
at Philadelphia that a gentleman whom I employed as a secretary, and who
must certainly had much of my friendship and confidence, has assumed to
himself the merit of everything that has been done in Europe, and talks
of contracts for cannon, etc., made before I ever saw him, and of the disposition
of this Court, of which his
p.61 -- THE
SILAS DEANE AFFAIR
whole knowledge
must have been second-hand at best. I only wish that men, who are
so fond of appropriating to themselves the merit of which they think I
have performed well, would as readily take on them whatever censure I may
be exposed to, for having, in order to interest some great and capital
families in our cause, exceeded the letter of instructions in my agreements
with them.
"I am sensible that I
am thereby exposed, and all I ask is that the Honorable Congress would
suspend their
judgment until acquainted
with every circumstance with which I was then surrounded. I have
kept back nothing, nor will I keep back anything from Doctor Franklin;
and as I may be supposed a prejudiced person, I submit it to his stating
the case, and will contentedly abide the consequences, sufficiently happy
in the consciousness of the rectitude of my views and in finding them thus
far accomplished.
"SILAS
DEANE." [*]
Deane, returning
to America, left Paris, April 1, 1778. Upon his arrival Congress
asked for an accounting before that body of his proceedings abroad, but
Deane evaded a full disclosure.
Having good reasons for
believing that Deane was involved in attempting a fraud on the meager funds
of the struggling young nation, Paine published an article telling what
he knew. It stirred up a hornet's nest. The French Minister
in America was frightened
---------------------------------------
[*] Like
other human beings, Arthur Lee had his faults, but disloyalty to the cause
of American Independence was not one of them.
p.62 -- THE
SILAS DEANE AFFAIR
by Paine's disclosure,
and a large party in Congress assumed a distinctly hostile attitude to
Paine, whereupon the author resigned the secretaryship of the Foreign Affairs
Committee.
It has been frequently
alleged that Paine was false to his oath of office, but the assertion is
absolutely untrue, as we may see by reading the official oath, which was
drafted especially for the first secretary of the new committee, and purposely
so worded as to give him great freedom as a writer for the newspapers.
It imposes secrecy upon him only in matters which Congress directed him
to keep secret. Congress did not know the facts revealed by Paine
in the Deane affair until they were published, and could not, therefore,
impose secrecy about them. The oath was:
"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."
In consequence of
the complaint of the French Minister, Congress was forced to disown what
Paine had published, but it refused to vote that it was an abuse of office
and it would not discharge the secretary.
P.63
CHAPTER
VIII
THE HISTORY OF THE
DEANE AFFAIR
Suggestions
of French Assistance in 1775 .... Beaumarchais Talks to the King
.... France's Quarrel With England.... Vergennes in the Plot
.... Negotiations by Arthur Lee for a Gift .... French Demands
for Payments .... Deane Fails to Convince Congress .... Paine's
"Indiscretion" .... Paine Resigns to Save Congress from Embarrassment.
THE Paine-Deane
matter has been so little understood by many writers, and this involved
chapter in the history of the American Revolution has been so greatly misrepresented
by others, that a rather extended review is necessary to set the matter
clearly before readers of today.
In May, 1775, Debourg
made the first suggestion of French assistance to America, and the project
was brought to the King's attention by Caron de Beaumarchais, the famous
French dramatist and speculator. One month before the arrival of
Deane in Paris, and six months before Franklin arrived there, the plan
to give a million livres to aid America had been approved and part of the
amount turned over (June 10, 1776) to Beaumarchais for the patriot cause.
Deane made the mistake of trying to take credit for this million, bringing
within the scope of
p.64 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
his negotiations money
that was paid before he arrived in France. And Beaumarchais made
the mistake of deceiving Deane about the million. The double deception
brought about the ruin of both.
France had much reason
to be aggrieved with England at the time America's revolt against British
tyranny commenced. She had suffered not only loss of territory through
British aggressions but had been sorely humiliated. The revolt of
Britain's colonies in America gave France an opportunity to avenge her
wrongs and she did not long hesitate. The king himself was not greatly
interested in the plan, but the Count de Vergennes, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, won him to the project. Encouraged by Vergennes, Beaumarchais
had a talk about the project with Arthur Lee, who was the secret agent
of Congress in London, and plans were made for the writing by Beaumarchais
of a series of letters to Louis XVI, the king; these letters to pass through
the hands of Vergennes and be revised by him.
The hand of the clever
dramatist is plainly to be seen in the letters. He pictures the French
driven out of America and India, and depicts America now advancing to engage
the subjugator of France, and requiring only a little help to make England
helpless beside her European foes, France and Spain.
p.65 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
Beaumarchais being apprised
by Vergennes that Louis XVI would not disregard France's treaty with Britain,
evolved a plan whereby France could secretly aid America. He proposed
to the king that assistance could be given as if by a commercial house,
without the government's knowledge. In his communication making this
proposition to the king he says that Louis' "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." One-half of the million livres is to be sent to
America in gold and one-half in gunpowder. And the aid was to be
far from gratuitous, for Beaumarchais continues in his proposition that
the powder can be taken from French magazines at "four to six sols per
pound," and sent to America "on the basis of twenty sols per pound."
He proceeds: "The constant view of the affair in which the mass of Congress
ought to be kept is the certainty that your Majesty is not willing to enter
in any way into the affair, but that a company is very generously about
to turn over a certain sum to the prudent management of a faithful agent
to give successive aid to the Americans by the shortest and surest means
of return in tobacco."
p.66 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
This letter from Beaumarchais,
without doubt the most important document in the case, was suppressed until
the year 1878, and its existence was unknown to any of the writers who
have discussed this question, with the exception of Durand and Stille,
the latter being alone in recognizing the bearing of this document on the
question of Beaumarchais' good faith.
It is not known how much
of Beaumarchais' scheme actually came before the king, and received his
approval. He was still undecided about the proposition when another
appeal was made to him (February 29, 1776) embodying one from Arthur Lee.
Lee said: "We offer to France, in return for her secret assistance, a secret
treaty of commerce, by which she will secure for a certain number of years
after peace is declared all the advantages with which we have enriched
England for the past century, with, additionally, a guarantee of her possessions
according to our forces." Lee, in his proposal, says nothing about
other payments. Marie Antoinette, the Queen, now became interested
in the brave Americans, and perhaps contributed in winning the King over
to the scheme in April.
Vergennes, on May 2,
1776, submitted to the King for his signature the order for one million
livres; also he had a letter, to be written in the hand of the
p.67 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
Minister's fifteen-year-old
son, to Beaumarchais, who, he says, will employ M. Montandoin, whose real
name was Montieu, to forward to the Americans "such funds as your Majesty
chooses to appropriate for their benefit." It is likely that Louis
acceded for motives of state policy, rather than for any financial advantages
such as "sols" and tobacco.
On June 10 the million
was turned over, and two days later Beaumarchais wrote to Arthur Lee in
London, saying: "The difficulties I have found in my negotiations with
the Minister have
determined me to form a company, which will enable
the munitions and powder to be transmitted sooner to your friend
on
condition of his returning tobacco to Cape Francis." Lee was to report
the transaction to the Secret Committee of Congress, calling attention
to the generosity of the affair. Tobacco was to be sent, it is true,
but this was chiefly to give the impression of a commercial transaction,
and hide the King. Congress, of course, little suspected that it
might be called upon to pay twenty sols a pound for gunpowder that had
cost only four to six. Lee sent a special messenger to America to
report the news of France's aid and "magnanimity" to Congress.
Silas Deane had his first
interview with Beaumarchais July 17, 1776. He met the shrewd
p.68 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
speculator by the advice
of Vergennes. Beaumarchais had known nothing of Congress sending
an agent to Paris empowered to purchase munitions. Had he been aware
of it, he would, of course, have had no dealings with Lee. He could
now only repudiate him, and prevail upon Deane to disregard him.
Arthur Lee told Deane that Beaumarchais said he had received two hundred
thousand pounds sterling from the French government for the use of the
American Congress, but Beaumarchais "constantly and positively denied having
said any such thing," and Deane believed Beaumarchais,, which was a mistake.
Beaumarchais had actually received the amount named by Lee. The French
government, eager for treaty concessions from America, assured the American
commissioners that the million was a royal gift. The source of the
gift was to be kept a secret.
The commissioners wrote
a letter to Congress in October, 1777, which, being intercepted, was received
only in duplicate, March, 1778. This letter assured Congress that
"no repayment will ever be required from us for what has already been given
us either in money or military stores." Silas Deane was one of these
commissioners, the others being Franklin and Arthur Lee. In the meantime,
however, Beaumarchais had put in a claim to Congress, through an
p.69 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
agent, De Francy, whom
he had sent to America for the purpose, for payment of his bill.
His claim included the million which Beaumarchais' government had flatly
avowed to be a gift.
It was the receipt of
Beaumarchais' claim that brought about the recall by Congress of Deane
for explanations. Deane reached America in July, 1778. He asserted
that he had left his papers in Paris, and that he had borrowed money of
Beaumarchais for his personal expenses. He said that his despatch
signed in October, telling Congress that the million was a gift, had been
intercepted, and abstracted from the packet of papers sent; all of the
other papers in the package having been duly received by Congress.
His story and the explanations seemed suspicious.
The following statement
in Paine's handwriting was prepared for submission to Congress, and it
is likely that it was read during a secret discussion of the subject.
The paper is headed "Extraordinary Circumstances."'
"1st.
The lost despatches 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 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
p.70 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
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 styled the Committee for Foreign Affairs, the
other was to Richard H. Lee -- these two last packets had nothing in them
but blank white French paper.
"2d. In September
preceding the date of the despatches Mr. B[eaumarchais] sent Mr. Francis
[De Francy] to Congress to press payment to the amount mentioned in the
official letter of Oct. 6. Mr. F[rancy] brought a letter signed only
by S. Deane -- the capt. of the vessel (Landais) brought another letter
from Deane; both of these letters were to enforce Mr. B[eaumarchais'] demand.
Mr. F[rancy] arrived with his letters and demand. The official despatches
(if I may so say) arrived blank. Congress therefore had no authoritative
information to act by. About this time Mr. D[eane] was recalled and
arrived in America in Count D'Estaing's fleet. He gave out that he
had left his accounts in France.
"With the Treaty of Alliance
came over the duplicates of the lost despatches. They came into my
office not having been seen by Congress; and as they contain an injunction
not to be conceded by [to?] Congress, I kept them secret in the office
because at that time the Foreign Committee was dispersed and new members
not appointed.
"On the 5th of Dec. 1778,
Mr. D[eane] published an inflammatory piece against Congress. As
I saw it had an exceeding ill effect out of doors I made some remarks upon
it -- with a view of preventing people running mad. This piece was replied
to by a piece under the signature of 'Plain Truth' -- in which it was stated,
that Mr. D[eane]
p.71 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
though a stranger
in France and to the language, and without money, had by himself procured
30,000 stand of arms, 30,000 suits of clothing, and more than 200 pieces
of brass cannon. I replied that these supplies were in a train of
execution before he was sent to France, that Mr. Deane's private letters
and his official despatches jointly with the other two Commissioners contradicted
each other.
"At this time I found
Deane had made a large party in Congress -- and that a motion had been
made but not decided upon for dismissing me from the Foreign Office, with
a kind of censure."
Deane appeared before Congress
on August 9 and 21. He did not impress that body favorably, however,
and a third hearing was refused him. He was visibly angered.
In his irritation be turned to the press, addressing an article "To
the free and virtuous citizens of America," December 5, 1778.
Paine replied to Deane's screed in the Pennsylvania Packet of December
15.
The reader is referred
to Vol. III, (The Affair of Silas Deane,) p. 281 (p.97 -- Foner's
edition), for Paine's letter to Silas Deane, and is recommended also
to read the succeeding article in the same volume, "To the Public on
Mr. Deane's Affair." Regarding the first article Paine wrote
the following letter to the Hon. Henry Laurens, explaining his motives
for publishing it:
p.72 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
"PHILADELPHIA,
December
15, 1778.
DEAR
SIR:
In this morning's paper
is a piece addressed to Mr. Deane, in which your name is mentioned.
My intention in relating the circumstances with which it is connected is
to prevent the enemy drawing any unjust conclusions from an accidental
division in the House on matters no ways political. You will please
to observe that I have been exceedingly careful to preserve the honor of
Congress in the minds of the people who have been so exceedingly fretted
by Mr. Deane's address -- and this will appear the more necessary when
I inform you that a proposal has been made for calling a Town Meeting to
demand justice for Mr. Deane. I have been applied to smoothly and
roughly not to publish this piece. Mr. Deane has likewise been with the
printer.
I am, &c."
The cause of independence
was a matter so near and dear to Paine's heart, having himself given everything
he possessed to the cause, that it seemed to him only natural that France
and her ruler should assist in our struggle with purely unselfish motives.
Paine was convinced that
Deane had no right to credit for obtaining the French subsidies.
Henry Laurens had resigned as President of Congress and the new President,
John Jay, was in the forefront of the Deane adherents. So Paine knew
that he had to battle if he was to defeat what he was
p.73 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
satisfied was an attempt
to defraud the country. And he was prepared for a conflict. In the
Pennsylvania
Packet of January 2, 1779, he published the following:
"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 show 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."
In giving here the purport
of the letter from the Commissioners, Paine clearly shows that Deane was
in no way concerned with obtaining the supplies, but he is not so certain
that they were a gift, adding in the same letter:
"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."
p.74 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
In his letter of January
5 Paine wrote additionally:
"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."
The indiscretion
with which Paine was charged is to be found in this last paragraph.
It was perhaps too impulsive patriotism, but nothing more serious could
be alleged. Grard, the French Minister, felt, of course, obliged
to complain to Congress, and that body calmed him by voting the fable that
his Majesty "did not preface his alliance with any supplies whatever sent
to America." To carry out the necessary farce Paine had to be called
to account by the Congress. All of the members knew that Paine had
documents to substantiate everything he had published, but they did not
know these documents officially, and they had been put in the position
by their ally's Minister of having to deny Paine's statement. They
feared that Paine if summoned might reveal the contents. The Deane
articles had been simply signed "Common Sense," and it was necessary for
the secretary to acknowledge that he had written them.
p.75 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
Congress, fearing to
discover its own secrets, planned to allow Paine to utter one word only
at the bar.
The complaint from Grard
reached Congress on January 5, 1779, and on the following day came this
memorial from Paine:
"HONORABLE
SIRS. --
"Understanding that exceptions
have been taken at some parts of my conduct, which exceptions as I am unacquainted
with I cannot reply to, I therefore humbly beg leave to submit every part
of my conduct public and private, so far as relate to public measures,
to the judgment of this honble. House, to be by them approved or
censured as they shall judge proper -- at the same time reserving to myself
that conscious satisfaction of having ever intended well and to the best
of my abilities executed these intentions.
"The honble. Congress
in April, 1777, were pleased, not only unsolicited on my part, but wholly
unknown to me, to appoint me unanimously Secretary to the Committee for
Foreign Affairs, which mode of appointment I conceive to be the most honorable
that can take place. The salary they were pleased to affix to it
was 70 dollars per month. It has remained at the same rate ever since,
and is not at this time equal to the most moderate expenses I can live
at; yet I have never complained, and always conceiving it my duty to bear
a share of the inconveniences of the country, have ever cheerfully submitted
to them. This being my situation, I am at this time conscious of
no error, unless the cheapness of my services, and the generosity with
which I have endeavored to do good in other respects, can be
p.76 -- THE HISTORY OF THE
DEANE AFFAIR
imputed to me
as a crime, by such individuals as may have acted otherwise.
"As my appointment was
honorable, therefore whenever it shall appear to Congress that I have not
fulfilled their expectations, I shall, tho' with concern at any misapprehension
that might lead to such an opinion, surrender up the books and papers intrusted
to my care.
"Were my appointment
an office of profit it might become me to resign it, but as it is otherwise
I conceive that such a step in me might imply a dissatisfaction on account
of the smallness of the pay. Therefore I think it my duty to wait
the orders of this honble. House, at the same time begging leave
to assure them that whatever may be their determination respecting me,
my disposition to serve in so honorable a cause, and in any character in
which I can best do it, will suffer no alteration.
I am, with profound respect,
your honors' dutiful and obt. hble. servant,
"THOMAS PAINE."
Paine was on the
same day summoned before Congress, which had its sessions behind closed
doors. He was asked by John Jay, the President, if he had written
the articles. Paine replied "Yes," and was immediately ordered to
withdraw. Finding that Deane's party were determined that he should
have no opportunity to divulge any facts before Congress, Paine, on the
following day, submitted a second memorial:
p.77 -- THE HISTORY OF
THE DEANE AFFAIR
"HONORABLE
SIRS.
From the manner in which
I was called before the House yesterday, I have reason to suspect an unfavorable
disposition in them towards some parts in my late publications. What
the parts are against which they object, or what those objections are,
are wholly unknown to me. If any gentleman has presented any Memorial
to this House which contains any charge against me, or any-ways alludes
in a censurable manner to my character or interest, so as to become the
ground of any such charge, I request, as a servant under your authority,
an attested copy of that charge, and in my present character as a freeman
of this country, I demand it. I attended at the bar of this House
yesterday as their servant, tho' the warrant did not express my official
station, which I conceive it ought to have done, otherwise it could not
have been compulsive unless backed by a magistrate. My hopes were
that I should be made acquainted with the charge, and admitted to my defence,
which I am all times ready to make either in writing or personally.
"I cannot in duty to
my character as a freeman submit to be censured unheard. I have evidence
which I presume will justify me. And I entreat this House to consider
how great their reproach will be should it be told that they passed a sentence
upon me without hearing me, and that a copy of the charge against me was
refused to me; and likewise how much that reproach will be aggravated should
I afterwards prove the censure of this House to be a libel, grounded upon
a mistake which they refused fully to inquire into.
"I make my application
to the heart of every gentleman in this House, that, before he decides
on a point that may
p.78 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
affect my reputation,
he will duly consider his own. Did I court popular praise I should
not send this letter. My wish is that by thus stating my situation
to the House, they may not commit an act they cannot justify.
"I have obtained fame,
honor and credit in this country. I am proud of these honors.
And as they cannot be taken from me by any unjust censure grounded on a
concealed charge, therefore it will become my duty afterwards to do justice
to myself. I have no favor to ask more than to be candidly and honorably
dealt by; and such being my right I ought to have no doubt but this House
will proceed accordingly. Should Congress be disposed to bear me,
I have to request that they will give me sufficient time to prepare."
Grard was not only
the Minister from France, but he had identified himself with the commercial
interests of Beaumarchais, and he unhesitatingly used the privileges of
the alliance to cover the demand of the speculator. Paine had no
opportunity whatever to get his case officially before Congress, and determined
to resign. He sent his resignation the next day in the following
letter:
"HONORABLE
SIRS:
Finding by the Journals
of this House, of yesterday, that I am not to be heard, and having in my
letter of the same day, prior to that resolution, declared that I could
not 'in duty to my character as a freeman submit to be censured unheard,'
therefore, consistent
p.79 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
with that declaration,
and to maintain that right, I think it my duty to resign the office of
Secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, and I do hereby resign
the same. The papers and documents in my charge I shall faithfully
deliver up to the Committee, either on honor or oath as they or this House
shall direct.
"Considering myself now
no longer a servant of Congress, I conceive it convenient that I should
declare what have been the motives of my conduct. On the appearance
of Mr. Deane's address to the public of the 5 of Dec., in which he said
'The ears of the Representatives were shut against him,' the honor and
justice of this House were impeached and its reputation sunk to the lowest
ebb in the opinion of the people. The expressions of suspicion and
degradation which have been uttered in my bearing and are too indecent
to be related in this letter, first induced me to set the public right;
but so grounded were they, almost without exception, in their ill opinion
of this House, that instead of succeeding as I wished in my first address,
I fell under the same reproach and was frequently told that I was defending
Congress in their bad designs. This obliged me to go farther into
the matters, and I have now reason to believe that my endeavors have been
and will be effectual.
"My wish and my intentions
in all my late publications were to preserve the public from error and
imposition, to support as far as laid in my power the just authority of
the Representatives of the people, and to cordiallize and cement the union
that has so happily taken place between this country and France.
p.80 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
"I have betrayed
no trust because I have constantly employed that trust to the public good.
I have revealed no secrets because I have told nothing that was, or I conceive
ought to be a secret. I have convicted Mr. Deane of error, and in
so doing I hope I have done my duty.
"It is to the interest
of the Alliance that the people should know that before America had any
agent in Europe the 'public-spirited gentlemen' in that quarter of the
world were her warm friends. And I hope this honorable House will
receive it from me as a farther testimony of my affection to that Alliance,
and of my attention to the duty of my office, that I mention, that the
duplicates of the Dispatches of Oct. 6 and 7, 1777, from the Commissioners,
the
originals of which are in the Enemy's possession, seem to require on that
account a reconsideration.
"His Excellency, the
Minister of France, is well acquainted with the liberality of my sentiments,
and I have had the pleasure of receiving repeated testimonies of his esteem
for me. I am concerned that he should in any instance misconceive
me. I beg likewise to have it understood that my appeal to this honorable
House for a hearing yesterday was as a matter of right in the character
of a freeman, which right I ought to yield up to no power whatever.
I return my utmost thanks to the honorable Members of this House who endeavored
to support me in that right, so sacred to themselves and to their constituents;
and I have the pleasure of saying and reflecting that as I came into office
an honest man, I go out of it with the same character."
The "Journals
of Congress," covering January, 1779, do not mention either of these
letters of Paine,
p.81 -- THE
HISTORY OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
and they were undoubtedly
suppressed. The same fate befell several other letters written by
Paine to Congress, and it is supposed that John Jay, then President of
Congress, suppressed Paine's communications. One of these was dated
March 30 and another April 21. Both letters were important, and concerned
Deane and the gift from France.
p.82
CHAPTER
IX
THE
VINDICATION OF PAINE
Hitherto Unpublished
Letter from Paine to Laurens .... Grard Attempts to Hire Paine to
Write for Him .... Paine Discloses the French Minister's Overtures
.... British Archives Show Grard's Financial Interest in Beaumarchais'
Scheme .... Gouverneur Morris Decides Deane and Beaumarchais Were
Plunderers .... Both Die in Poverty Abroad.
THERE
is an interesting letter of Thomas Paine to Henry Laurens, January 17,
1779, concerning the Deane affair, in the collection of the New York Historical
Society. In the first paragraph Paine tells Laurens that he intends
to publish in two volumes all of his political and other writings, a plan
he did not pursue. The letter is here published for the first time:
"January 17,
1779.
"Dear Sir:
"I received the additional
testimony of your friendship, for which, it is needless to say, you have
my thanks. It is true I have subjected myself to present inconveniences,
but I beg leave to mention that it is my design to publish all of my political
and other writings in two volumes, and to set a proper price upon them.
I shall begin with the pamphlet 'Common Sense'; and this I believe
will make some recompense for the trouble I have been at hitherto.
And though I have constantly given every thing I have
p.83 --
THE VINDICATION OF PAINE
yet published
to the public gratis, yet no gentleman will expect that I should give away
in volumes.
"I feel myself exceedingly
hurt by some expressions in Mr. Grard's letter to Congress of the 14th
inst. I have mentioned them to Mr. Mirales and shall write to Mr.
Grard on the subject.
The expressions are:
" 'I entreat you to receive
and to express to Congress the great sensibility with which their frank,
noble and catagorical manner of destroying those false and dangerous insinuations
which might mislead ignorant people, and put arms into the hands of the
enemy.'
"I find myself obliged
to tell him that I think it convenient to absent myself from the company
even of my most intimate friends till he shall be pleased to explain that
I am not personally alluded to in this paragraph. I believe my apprehensions
were not ill grounded when I said that I believed they wished to get me
to submit to a censure.
"The resolution of Congress
is more moderate than is either Mr. Jay's or Mr. Grard's letter.
I mean to give Mr. Grard a most polite opportunity of doing me justice.
"I am, dear sir,
"Your most obedient and obliged humble servant,
"T. PAINE.
"Please excuse a scrawl,
as I am in haste to get my letter to Mr. G. completed. It is a nice
step, but I think I shall manage it with address.
"To the Honorable Henry
Laurens."
p.84 --
THE VINDICATION OF PAINE
Paine wrote to Congress
on the same topic April 30, as follows:
"On inquiring
yesterday of Mr. Thomson, your Secretary, I find that no answer is given
to any of my letters. I am unable to account for the seeming inattention
of Congress in collecting information at this particular time, from whatever
quarter it may come; and this wonder is the more increased when I recollect
that a private offer was made to me, about three months ago, amounting
in money to 700 a year; yet however polite the proposal might be, or however
friendly it might be designed, I thought it my duty to decline it; as it
was accompanied with a condition which I conceived had a tendency to prevent
the information I have since given, and shall yet give to the country on
public affairs.
"I have repeatedly wrote
to Congress respecting Mr. Deane's dark incendiary conduct, and offered
every information in my power. The opportunities I have had of knowing
the state of foreign affairs is greater than that of many gentlemen of
this House, and I want no other knowledge to declare that I look on Mr.
Deane to be, what Mr. Carmichael calls him, a rascal."
It was Grard himself
who had tried to tempt Paine with an offer of money. The French Minister
first called upon Paine when Paine's first attack upon Deane was published.
He appreciated Paine's honesty and generosity and they seem to have become
friends. Grard wrote Vergennes, January 10,
p.85 -- THE
VINDICATION OF PAINE
telling of his attempts
to convince Paine that he was in error in saying that the supplies sent
through Beaumarchais were "promised as a gift," but he adds that Paine
did not retract. He refers to his letters to Congress. Just
one week later Grard wrote Vergennes on the same subject. In this
letter of January 17 he asserts that Congress has dismissed Paine, in which
statement the Minister was in error, since Paine resigned and was not dismissed.
The two Grard letters are in the French State Archives. The letter
of January 17 follows:
"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
im. possible, 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
p.86 -- THE
VINDICATION OF PAINE
his pen mainly
in impressing on the people favorable sentiments towards France and the
Alliance, of the kind fittest to foster hatred and defiance towards England.
He appeared to accept the task with pleasure. I promised him a thousand
dollars per annum, to begin from the time of his dismission by Congress.
He has already begun his functions in declaring in the Gazette that the
affair of the military effects has no reference to the Court and is not
a political matter. You know too well the prodigious effects produced by
the writings of this famous personage among the people of the States to
cause me any fear of your disapproval, of my resolution."
The Minister adds
that he has employed Dr. Cooper, an intimate friend of Franklin.
Grard in a later dispatch to Vergennes speaks of Paine being "sold to
the opposition."
"Sold to the opposition"
is ironical indeed when applied to one who had sacrificed everything to
the cause of America, whose uppermost thought at all times had been the
benefit of the country to which he had unreservedly given himself!
The French Minister,
eager to substantiate the statements he had made about his friendship with
Paine and what he might thereby be able to accomplish, seems to have depended
upon the unfamiliarity of Vergennes with the newspapers of Philadelphia.
p.87 -- THE VINDICATION
OF PAINE
Paine, as Vergennes did
not know, had published the overtures that had been made to him.
"Had I been
disposed to make money I undoubtedly had many opportunities for it.
The single pamphlet `Common Sense' would at that time of day have
produced a tolerable fortune, had I only taken the same profits from the
publication which all writers have ever done; because the sale was the
most rapid and extensive of anything that was ever published in this country,
or perhaps in any other. Instead of which I reduced the price so
low, that instead of getting, I stand 39, 11, 0 out of pocket on Mr. Bradford's
books, exclusive of my time and trouble; and I have acted the same disinterested
part by every publication I have made.
"At the time the dispute
arose respecting Mr. Deane's affairs, I had a conference with Mr. Grard
at his own request, and some matters on that subject were freely talked
over, which it is here necessary to mention. This was on the 2d of
January: On the evening of the same day or the next, Mr. Grard through
the medium of another gentleman [*] made me a very genteel and profitable
offer. My answer to the offer was precisely in these words: `Any
service I can render to either of the countries in alliance, or to both,
I ever had done and shall readily do, and Mr. Grard's esteems will be
the only compensation I shall desire."
It need hardly be
added that Paine never took any money, not one cent, from Grard.
But, being
---------------------------------------
[*]. "Another
gentleman" was M. de Mirales.
p.88 -- THE
VINDICATION OF PAINE
satisfied that the French
government might be embarrassed by his references to France's early generosity
to America, wrote on January 26, that the letter to which he had alluded
had not spoken of "the king of France by any name or title, nor yet the
nation of France."
The French Minister could
get nothing more than this from Paine, but this much Paine very willingly
gave. The writers employed by Grard, whose letters appeared in the
Pennsylvania
Gazette under the names of "Americanus"' and "Honest Politician," wrote
what the Minister paid them to write and the affair quieted down until
June and July, when Paine challenged "Americanus" on what he had written
about terms in a treaty of peace with Britain. Paine plainly intimates
his belief that "Americanus" wrote for pay.
Papers in the British
Archives prove that Deane and Grard had for a long time been on terms
of intimacy, and that the two had had many long consultations with Vergennes.
There is further proof in the Stevens' Fac-similes (see reports
of Wentworth and others). If it was true, as was alleged at the time,
that Grard had a financial interest in the supplies sent to America, it
is plainly to be seen why he
p.89 -- THE
VINDICATION OF PAINE
so strongly opposed Paine's
understanding that the supplies forwarded were a gift.
A letter of Gouverneur
Morris to John Randolph, of Roanoke, written three years after Paine's
death and twenty-three after that of Silas Deane, throws some further light
on the involved Deane affair, concerning which Gouverneur Morris had a
good deal to do.
Morris had been a Member
of Congress during the period of the troublous Deane controversy, and it
was the same Morris, who, fifteen years later, as United States Minister
to France, had unearthed the receipt for the king's million, which had
been charged against this country by Beaumarchais. Gouverneur Morris
recognized the fact that Deane and Beaumarchais were plainly plunderers.
This is Morris' letter
in full:
"WASHINGTON,
Jany. 20, 1812.
"It would give me pleasure
to communicate the information you ask, but I can only speak from memory
respecting matters, some of which were transacted long ago and did not
command my special attention. But it is probable that the material
facts can be established by documents in the Secretary of State's office.
"It will, I believe,
appear from the correspondence between Mr. Arthur Lee and the Secret and
Commercial Committee, that early in our dispute with Great Britain the
p.92 -- THE
VINDICATION OF PAINE
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
be 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.
"Things remained in that
state till after the late King of France was dethroned. The Minister
of the United States at Paris [*] was then directed to enquire what had
become of the million livres. The correspondence will of course be
found in the office of the Secretary of State. It seems that he had
the good fortune to obtain copies of M. Beaumarchais' receipt for a million,
bearing date on the day when the gift was said to have been made (June
10, 1776),
-----------------------------------------
[*] The
Minister was Morris himself.
p.93 -- THE
VINDICATION OF PAINE
so that no reasonable
doubt could exist as to the identity of the sum.
"So much, my dear Sir,
for what memory can command. You will, I think, find papers containing
a more accurate statement in the New York Evening Post, about the
time when Mr. Rodney's opinion was made public. At least I recollect
having seen in that gazette some facts with which I had not been previously
acquainted or which I had forgotten. A gentleman from Connecticut,
who was on the Committee of Claims last year, can I believe give you the
papers. I remember also to have been told by a respectable young
gentleman, son of the late Mr. Richard Henry Lee, that important evidence
on this subject, secured from his uncle Arthur, was in his possession,
and I believe it may be obtained from Mr. Carroll, of Annapolis, or his
son-in-law, Mr. Harper, of Baltimore.*
"GOUVERNEUR
MORRIS.
"To the Honorable Mr.
John Randolph, of Roanoke."
Beaumarchais lost
all his wealth in France and went to Holland, where he died in poverty,
from a stroke of apoplexy, May 19, 1799. The famous dramatist was
lucky to have escaped the guillotine. In his will he left his claim
to his daughter, who, in 1835, was paid 800,000 francs, but the million
which he had received from the king, and then charged to the United States,
was never paid. Deane also died
----------------------------------------
[*] The documents
to which Morris refers are probably among the Lee Papers preserved at the
University of Virginia.
p.94 -- THE
VINDICATION OF PAINE
in poverty abroad.
He went to England, where he wrote letters to his brother Simeon, which
he meant to be intercepted, and in which he advocated submission of the
revolting colonists to England. He became the friend of the American
traitor Benedict Arnold. He died in Deal, England, August 23, 1789.
The heirs of Silas Deane
made a claim on Congress, and in 1842 were paid $37,000. The letters
of George III, which contained proof of Deane's treachery, had not then
been brought to light. With the information revealed by those letters,
Congress would not, of course, have paid any claim of Deane's heirs.
(The letters may be found by students in Donne, pp. 145, 363, 380, 381
and 384.)
p.95
CHAPTER
X
AFTERMATH OF THE DEANE
AFFAIR
Paine a Victim
of Secret Diplomacy .... He Projects a History of the Revolution
.... Seeking Compensation from Pennsylvania Executive Council ....
They Ask Grard's Permission to Employ Him .... The French Minister's
Reply .... Pennsylvania Assembly Elects Paine Its Clerk ....
Writing the Preamble of the New State Constitution .... Abolishing
Slavery in Pennsylvania.
THERE is
no doubt that Congress was greatly relieved by the resignation of the congressional
secretary. That Paine suffered is certain, but also certain is it
that Paine was always self-sacrificing, and never is this characteristic
to be more clearly noted than in any matter which concerned the interests
of the new-born nation. There were undoubtedly a great many Americans
who recognized the fact that Paine was, in this matter of the French King's
gift to America, the innocent victim of "diplomacy." Throughout the
troubles in Congress they had not forgotten that it was Paine who was the
real father of this country, and its most ardent and unselfish supporter.
Paine wrote several able
articles in the interest of the young Republic during the Summer of 1779.
One of these was his article on the Newfoundland fisheries (see Peace,
and the Newfoundland Fisheries, Vol. IV, p. 1).
p.96 -- AFTERMATH
OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
In his letter of January
17 to Henry Laurens Paine, it will be remembered, mentioned his intention
of publishing all of his "political and other writings in two volumes."
Eight months later he again wrote Henry Laurens telling him some further
details of his plan, and also revealing something of his mode of life.
He spoke, too, of compiling a history of the American Revolution:
"PHILADELPHIA,
Sepr. 14, 1779.
DEAR
SIR,
It Was my intention to
have communicated to you the substance of this letter last Sunday had I
not been prevented by a return of my fever; perhaps finding myself unwell,
and feeling, as well as apprehending, inconveniences, have produced in
me some thoughts for myself as well as for others. I need not repeat
to you the part I have acted or the principle I have acted upon; and perhaps
America would feel the less obligation to me, did she know, that it was
neither the place nor the people but the Cause itself that irresistibly
engaged me in its support; for I should have acted the same part in any
other country could the same circumstances have arisen there which have
happened here. I have often been obliged to form this distinction
to myself by way of smoothing over some disagreeable ingratitudes, which,
you well know, have been shown to me from a certain quarter.
"I find myself so curiously
circumstanced that I have both too many friends and too few, the generality
of them thinking that from the public part I have so long acted I
p.97 -- AFTERMATH
OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
cannot have
less than a mine to draw from. What they have had from me they have
got for nothing, and they consequently suppose I must be able to afford
it. I know but one kind of life I am fit for, and that is a thinking
one, and, of course, a writing one but I have confined myself so much of
late, taken so little exercise, and lived so very sparingly, that unless
I alter my way of life it will alter me. I think I have a right to
ride a horse of my own, but I cannot now even afford to hire one, which
is a situation I never was in before, and I begin to know that. a sedentary
life cannot be supported without jolting exercise. Having said thus
much, which, in truth, is but loss of time to tell to you who so well know
how I am situated, I take the liberty of communicating to you my design
of doing some degree of justice to myself, but even this is accompanied
with some present difficulties, but it is the easiest, and, I believe,
the most useful and reputable of any I can think of. I intend this
winter to collect all my publications, beginning with 'Common Sense'
and
ending with the Fisheries, and publishing them in two volumes, octavo,
with notes. I have no doubt of a large subscription. The principal
difficulty will be to get paper and I can think of no way more practicable
than to desire Arthur Lee to send over a quantity from France in the Confederacy
if
she goes there, and settling for it with his brother. After that
work is completed, 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
p.98 -- AFTERMATH
OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
kind of an history
might be easily executed made up of daily events and trifling matters which
would lose their importance in a few years. But a proper history
cannot even be begun 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 for some time. My design, if I undertake it,
is to comprise it in three quarto volumes and to publish one each year
from the time of beginning, and to make an abridgment afterwards in an
easy agreeable language for a school book. All the histories of ancient
wars that are used for this purpose promote no moral reflection, but like
the Beggar's 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 description
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.
p.99 -- AFTERMATH
OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
"Here lies the
difficulty I alluded to in the beginning of this letter, and I would rather
wish to borrow something of a friend or two in the interim than run the
risk I have mentioned, because should I be disappointed by the paper being
taken or not arriving in time, the reason being understood by them beforehand
will not injure me, but in the other case it would, and in the mean time
I can be preparing for publication. I have hitherto kept all my private
matters a secret, but as I know your friendship and you a great deal of
my situation, I can with more ease communicate them to you than to another.
"P. S. If you are
not engaged to-morrow evening I should be glad to spend part of it with
you -- if you are, I shall wait your opportunity."
Paine had made it
an ethical principle to take no profit from his writings for the cause
of independence, and, as we have seen, only the cause itself and the printers
benefited by his writings, but Paine thought the time had come, however,
when it would be entirely proper to publish his pamphlets in book form,
and derive therefrom some compensation for his labor. Although in
his letter to Laurens he seems quite resolved to publish his writings in
two volumes, the fact is that he never did so. He probably decided
eventually to hold to his original resolution, regardless of whether the
publications were pamphlets or
p.100 --
AFTERMATH OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
subscription books, for
to the end of his life be never profited personally from any of his writings.
It is pathetic, indeed,
that the man to whom the young nation was so deeply indebted for its independence
should be compelled to call attention to his poverty. Henry Laurens
was an intimate friend, and Paine could, of course, speak more freely to
him on these personal matters than he could to any other.
On September 28 Paine
reminded the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania of his needs, and
of the fact that he had not received compensation for his services.
He now felt he could not afford to continue without remuneration.
The Council appreciated the value of Paine's patriotic writings and realized
the benefits accruing to the cause from his pen. But it feared anything
that might bring displeasure to the French Minister! The president
of the Executive Council, Joseph Reed, therefore, on the next day, wrote
to Minister Grard saying that the Council would like to employ Paine if
he had no objection! Grard waited until October 11 to reply.
His letter, worded rather ambiguously, tells Reed that Paine had agreed
to terms the Minister had offered through Mirales, but which, he says,
Paine had not fulfilled. "I willingly," he wrote, "leave M. Payne to enjoy
whatever advantages he promises to himself by
p.101 --
AFTERMATH OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
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 an attempt in which I have failed."
Receiving no reply from
the Council to his letter of September 28, Paine again wrote, October 11:
"HONBLE.
SIRS.
"Some few days ago I
presented a letter to this honble. Board stating the inconveniences which
I lay under from an attention to public interest in preference to my own,
to which I have recd. no reply. It is to me a matter of great concern
to find in the government of this State, that which appears to be a disposition
in them to neglect their friends and to throw discouragements in the way
of genius and letters.
"At the particular request
of the gentleman who presides at this Board, I took up the defence of the
Constitution, at a time when he declared to me that unless he could be
assisted he must give it up and quit the State; as matters then pressed
too heavy upon him, and the opposition was gaining ground; yet this Board
has since suffered me to combat with all the inconveniences incurred by
that service, without any attention to my interest or my situation.
For the sake of not dishonoring a cause, good in itself, I have hitherto
been silent on these matters, but I cannot help expressing to this Board
the concern I feel on this occasion, and the ill effect which such discouraging
p.102 -- AFTERMATH
OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
examples will
have on those who might otherwise be disposed to act as I have done.
"Having said this much,
which is but a little part of which I am sensible, I have a request to
make which if complied with will enable me to overcome the difficulties
alluded to and to withdraw from a service in which I have experienced nothing
but misfortune and neglect. I have an opportunity of importing a
quantity of printing paper from France, and intend collecting my several
pieces, beginning with 'Common Sense,' into two volumes, and publishing
them by subscription, with notes; but as I cannot think of beginning the
subscription until the paper arrive, and as the undertaking, exclusive
of the paper, will be attended with more expense than I, who have saved
money both in the service of the continent and the State, can bear, I should
be glad to be assisted with the loan of fifteen hundred pounds for which
I will give bond payable within a year. If this should not be complied
with, I request that the services I have rendered may be taken into consideration
and such compensation made me therefor as they shall appear to deserve.
"I am, honble. sirs,
your obt. and humble servt.,
"THOMAS PAINE."
The penning of this
letter was, of course, painful and humiliating to Paine, but it was only
one of the first of a number of episodes which revealed the ingratitude
of nations.
The Pennsylvania constitution,
to which Paine refers in the above letter, was the constitution of
p.103 --
AFTERMATH OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
1776, in the drafting
of which he was assisted by Franklin, Cannon and others.
The Pennsylvania Assembly
on November 2, 1779, elected Paine its clerk. There was introduced
into the Assembly that same day an act for the abolition of slavery in
Pennsylvania (See Emancipation of Slaves). The body of this
measure, which was very moderate in its propositions, was drafted by George
Bryan, and Thomas Paine wrote the preamble. This preamble, which
is a fine piece of literary craftsmanship, and has been greatly admired,
is an eloquent denunciation of negro slavery, which accords in sentiment
with Paine's earlier writings in behalf of the negroes. Paine seems
to have been the only one who, during the period of the American Revolution,
gave thought to the negroes and their state of bondage. The phraseology
of the preamble is characteristic of the author.
Paine not only partly
drafted but he also signed the "Act of Pennsylvania Abolishing Slavery,"
adopted
on March 1, 1780, which was the first of all legislative measures for negro
emancipation. The preamble 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
p.104 --
AFTERMATH OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
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 it is our duty, and we rejoice that it is in our
power, to extend a portion of that freedom to others, which has been extended
to us, and release from that state of thraldom, to which we ourselves were
tryannically doomed, and from which we have now every prospect of being
delivered. It is not for us to enquire why, in the creation of mankind,
the inhabitants of the several parts of the earth were distinguished by
a difference in feature or complexion. It is sufficient to know that
all are the work of the Almighty Hand. We find in the distribution
of the human species that the most fertile as well as the most barren parts
of the earth are inhabited by men of complexions different from ours and
from each other; from whence we may reasonably as well as religiously infer,
that He, who placed them in their various situations, has extended equally
his care and protection to all, and that it becomes 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
p.105 -- AFTERMATH
OF THE DEANE AFFAIR
partialities
we had imbibed, we find our hearts enlarged with kindness and benevolence
towards men of all conditions and nations; and we conceive ourselves at
this particular period particularly called upon by the blessings which
we have received to manifest the sincerity of our profession, and to give
a substantial proof of our gratitude.
"II. And
whereas the condition of those persons, who have heretofore been denominated
Negro and Mulatto slaves, has been attended with circumstances, which not
only deprived them of the common blessings that they were by nature entitled
to, but has cast them into the deepest afflictions, by an unnatural separation
and sale of husband and wife from each other and from their children, an
injury, the greatness of which can only be conceived by supposing that
we were in the same unhappy case. In justice, therefore, to persons
so unhappily circumstanced, and who, having no prospect before them whereon
they may rest their sorrows and their hopes, have no reasonable inducement
to render their service to society, which they otherwise might, and also
in grateful commemoration of our own happy deliverance from that state
of unconditional submission to which we were doomed by the tryanny of Britain.
"III.
Be it enacted, &c."
p.106
CHAPTER
XI
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
Washington Appeals
for Help .... Paine Heads a Subscription .... His Letter Arouses
Enthusiasm .... A Large Fund Quickly Raised .... Crisis IX
.... University of Pennsylvania Confers Degree on Paine ....
Crisis Extraordinary .... "Public Good" Brings About Heated
Controversy and Urges a Constitutional Convention.
NEW
YEAR'S DAY, 1780, dawned on Washington
and his little army at Morristown, New Jersey, suffering great privations.
In a Washington letter, written at Morristown on January 5, the commander
speaks at some length of the distress of his troops, "both officers and
men, many of the latter having been four or five days without meat entirely,
and short of bread." He adds: "Some, for their preservation, have
been compelled to maraud and rob the inhabitants, and I have it not in
my power to punish or reprove the practice."'
On May 28, the patriot
army still suffering terribly, Washington wrote to Joseph Reed, president
of the Pennsylvania Assembly, the most desponding letter he ever penned.
Paine, as clerk of the Assembly, read the letter to the members.
p.107 --
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
assure you," Washington
wrote, "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."
The note of despondency
pervading the letter made a deep impression upon the Assembly. A
deep silence followed the reading of Washington's message. Then one
of the members arose and said, "We may as well give up first as last."
There was little money in the treasury, but there was enough to pay Paine
his salary as clerk. Paine was at once on his feet to say that he
gladly subscribed the entire amount, $500, for the relief of the patriot
army.
The money was forwarded
to Mr. M'Clenaghan with an impassioned letter, which M'Clenaghan read the
same evening at a meeting in one of the Philadelphia coffee-houses popular
during the Revolutionary War period. The letter evoked great enthusiasm.
M'Clenaghan and Robert Morris each immediately subscribed 200, hard money.
The subscription, dated June 8, was received by the people with acclaim.
In an incredibly short time 300,000 had been subscribed, and with this
amount was established a bank in Philadelphia (the Bank of North
p.108 --
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
America) to supply the
army through its campaign. The bank was incorporated by Congress
on December 21.
M'Clenaghan visited the
originator of the subscription on the day after the coffee-house meeting,
and cheered Paine with the news of the wonderful results produced by his
letter. To further encourage the soldiers Paine commenced another
"Crisis."
This was "Crisis IV," dated June 9, 1780. A postscript tells
of the fall of Charleston, which Paine attributes to an insufficient supply
of provisions. Paine concludes the postscript with these vigorous
words:
"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."
A few days before
commencing this "Crisis" Paine wrote the following private letter
to Joseph Reed, President of the Supreme Executive Council:
"Sunday Morning,
June 4:
"SIR,
I trouble you with a
few thoughts on the present state of affairs. Every difficulty we
are now in arises from an empty treasury and an exhausted credit.
These removed and the prospects were brighter. While the war was
p.109 -- THE
TURN OF THE TIDE
carried on by
emissions at the pleasure of Congress, any body of men might conduct public
business, and the poor were of equal use in government with the rich.
But when the means must be drawn from the country the case becomes altered,
and unless the wealthier part throw in their aid, public measures must
go heavily on.
"The people of America
understand rights better than politics. They have a clear idea of
their object, but are greatly deficient in comprehending the means.
In the first place, they do not distinguish between sinking the debt and
raising the current expenses. They want to have the war carried on,
the Lord know how.
"It is always dangerous
to spread an alarm of danger unless the prospect of success be held out
with it, and that not only as probable, but naturally essential.
These things premised, I beg leave to mention that suppose you were to
send for some of the richer inhabitants of the city, and state to them
the situation of the army and the treasury, not as arising so much from
defect in the departments of government as from a neglect in the country
generally, in not contributing the necessary support in time. If
they have any spirit, any foresight of their own interest or danger, they
will promote a subscription either of money or articles, and appoint a
committee from among themselves to solicit the same in the several counties;
and one State setting the example, the rest, I presume, will follow.
Suppose it was likewise proposed to them to deposit their plate to be coined
for the pay of the Army, crediting the government for the value, by weight.
"If measures of this
kind could be promoted by the richer of the Whigs, it would justify your
calling upon the
p.110 -- THE
TURN OF THE TIDE
other part to
furnish their proportion without ceremony, and these two measures carried,
would make a draft or call for personal service the more palatable and
easy.
"I began to write this
yesterday. This morning, it appears clear to me that Charleston is
in the hands of the enemy, and the garrison prisoners of war. Something
must be done, and that something, to give it popularity, must begin with
men of property. Every care ought now to be taken to keep goods from
rising. The rising of goods will have a most ruinous ill effect in
every light in which it can be viewed.
"The army must be reunited,
and that by the most expeditious possible means. Drafts should first
be countenanced by subscriptions, and if men would but reason rightly,
they would see that there are some thousands in this State who had better
subscribe thirty, forty, or fifty guineas apiece than run the risk of having
to settle with the enemy. Property is always the object of a conqueror,
wherever he can find it. A rich man, says King James, makes a bonny
traitor; and it cannot be supposed that Britain will not reimburse herself
by the wealth of others, could she once get the power of doing it.
We must at least recruit eight or ten thousand men in this State, who had
better raise a man apiece, though it should cost them a thousand pounds
apiece, than not have a sufficient force, were it only for safety sake.
Eight or ten thousand men, added to what we have now got, with the force
that may arrive, would enable us to make a stroke at New York, to recover
the loss of Charleston -- but the measure must be expeditious.
p.111 -- THE
TURN OF THE TIDE
I suggest another
thought. Suppose every man, working a plantation, who has not taken
the oath of allegiance, in Philadelphia County, Bucks, Chester, Lancaster,
Northampton and Berks, were, by the new power vested in the Council, called
immediately upon for taxes in kind at a certain value. Horses and
wagons to be appraised. This would not only give immediate relief,
but popularity to the new power. I would remark of taxes in kind,
that they are hard-money taxes, and could they be established on the non-jurors,
would relieve us in the articles of supplies.
"But whatever is necessary
or proper to be done, must be done immediately. We must rise vigorously
upon the evil, or it will rise upon us. A show of spirit will grow
into real spirit, but the country must not be suffered to ponder over their
loss for a day. The circumstance of the present hour will justify
any means from which good may arise. We want rousing.
"On the loss of Charleston
I would remark -- the expectation of a foreign force arriving will embarrass
them whether to go or to stay; and in either case, what will they do with
their prisoners? If they return, they will be but as they were as
to dominion; if they continue, they will leave New York an attackable post.
They can make no new movements for a considerable time. They may
pursue their object to the Southward in detachments, but then in every
main point they will naturally be at a stand; and we ought immediately
to lay hold of the vacancy.
"I am, sir,
"Your obedient humble servant,
"THOMAS PAINE."
p.112 --
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
Paine's letter shows
his intimate acquaintance with the affairs of the country, and his perspicacity
in devising plans for furthering the patriot cause.
The indirect reproof
of Congress a year before had apparently lost Paine no favor. If
there was any prejudice against the writer by reason of the action of Congress
in truckling to the French Minister, any such feelings seem now to have
been dissipated. Perhaps this resulted from the encouragement felt
in consequence of the subscription Paine had headed with the amount of
his salary, and also by the visible effects of his pamphlets of March and
June, 1780.
The University of Pennsylvania,
formerly called the "University of Philadelphia," on Independence Day conferred
on Paine the degree of Master of Arts, Joseph Reed, Rev. Mr. Sproat, Bishop
White, Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg and the Rev. Mr. Weiborg being among the trustees
who voted this honor to Paine. The university greatly honored itself
by bestowing this honor on the author of "Common Sense."
In October appeared Paine's
"Crisis
Extraordinary." Paine himself paid the printer (William Harris, on
Second, near Market street, Philadelphia) in order that the price might
be kept low. An order paying for ten dozen copies reveals the fact
that they were sold at five cents each. In a postscript of two
p.113 --
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
pages to this "Crisis"
Paine
tells the dire news, in some detail, of the treachery of Benedict Arnold.
"Public Good,"
by Paine, appeared at the end of the year. It is a pamphlet of great
historical interest and importance (see Vol. IV, p. 53). "Public Good"
pointed out that the state of Virginia was in error in its premises regarding
State boundaries. It brought about a heated controversy on the subject
of State versus National sovereignty. Congress finally (March 1,
1784) accepted Virginia's concession of the disputed western territory,
without recognizing it as a donation. Some of Virginia's conditions
were accepted and others refused. After the signing of the peace
treaty, it was proposed in the Virginia legislature to make Paine a gift
for his services to the cause of independence. Objection was made,
however, on account of Paine's pamphlet regarding Virginia's boundaries,
and the motion was lost. Richard Henry Lee said it was lost by only
one vote.
"Public Good"
closed with a strong plea for a "continental convention for the purpose
of forming a continental constitution, defining and describing the powers
and authority of Congress."
p.114
CHAPTER
XII
PAINE'S DIPLOMATIC
SUCCESS
Why Paine's
Revolutionary History Was Never Written ... He Resigns His Clerkship
of Pennsylvania's Assembly .... Congress Sends Laurens to France
for Funds .... Paine Plans a Pamphlet Campaign Incognito in England
.... Laurens Requests Paine's Company to France .... Royal
Favors Heaped on Paine .... They Return With a Shipload of Silver
and Needed Supplies .... Paine's Financial Straits .... A Letter
About Deane and Cornwallis
HISTORY
of the American Revolution written by Thomas Paine, the father of American
Independence, the one person most competent to write a chronicle of this
country's birth and infancy, would have been a treasure, indeed, for this
and future ages! Paine, from all points of view, was preeminently the man
to write the story of that remarkable period. He had participated
in nearly all of the notable events; he had himself actually made many
of the events. He had been a soldier in the patriot army, had suffered
with the men in defeat and shared their exaltation over victories.
He had occupied important positions both in Congress and in the State government
of Pennsylvania. His was the one pen that achieved momentous results,
and the signature
p.115 --
PAINE'S DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
"Common Sense" at the
end of a pamphlet evoked attention and respect.
What wonder that the
far-seeing Franklin repeatedly urged Paine to write the story of the Revolution?
His first advice to Paine on this matter was given before the drafting
of the Declaration of Independence. In October, 1775, Franklin urged
Paine to write a history of the events that led to the rupture with Britain.
As the Revolution progressed he placed material in Paine's hands for a
chronicle of that most important period in the history of this country.
Paine numbered among
his friends nearly all of the significant figures in the Revolution --
Samuel Adams, Robert Morris, Washington, Jefferson, George Clymer, David
Rittenhouse, Lafayette, Clinton and a host of others; an acquaintance which
would have been invaluable in the compiling of so important a work.
That Paine never actually
wrote the history of the American Revolution is greatly to be deplored.
There were many reasons why Paine did not write the book. Two of
the reasons were, of course, preoccupation with other important work, and
the consequent lack of time, and also the necessity for earning a living.
Paine, always hopeful, expected the time would come when he could commence
his labors on this book,
p.116 --
PAINE'S DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
and, as we have seen,
refers to his plans in several letters.
On November 3, 1780,
in a letter to John Bayard, the Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Paine
mentions that he intends collecting materials for the book, and says that
for this reason he would be unable to fulfil the duties of clerk if he
were re-elected. He had written a letter of the same tenor to the
Speaker on September 14. Paine's office as clerk seems to have ended
in November, and he spent the next three months preparing for his history.
Congress being convinced
that it would be impossible to obtain in this country the amount it estimated
as necessary to continue the war, it was resolved that France should be
called upon for aid. The members of Congress held a consultation,
and decided upon the appointment of Col. John Laurens, one of Washington's
aids, to go abroad to explain the military situation. Young Laurens,
who was only twenty-seven, was rather unwilling to accept the mission,
but finally agreed, if Paine would accompany him.
Paine had for several
months looked forward to an opportunity to cross the ocean and he spoke
to his old friend, Gen. Nathaniel Greene, about it. Now
p.117 --
PAINE'S DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
came the chance, and
he wrote, confidentially, September 9, 1780, this letter to General Greene:
"SIR,
Last spring I mentioned
to you a wish I had to take a passage for Europe, and endeavor to go privately
to England. You pointed out several difficulties in the way, respecting
my own safety, which occasioned me to defer the matter at that time, in
order not only to weigh it more seriously, but to submit to the government
of subsequent circumstances. I have frequently and carefully thought
of it since, and were I now to give an opinion on it as a measure to which
I was not a party, it would be this: that as the press in that country
is free and open, could a person possessed of a knowledge of America, and
capable of fixing it in the minds of the people of England, go suddenly
from this country to that, and keep himself concealed, he might, were he
to manage his knowledge rightly, produce a more general disposition for
peace than by any method I can suppose. I see my way so clearly before
me in this opinion, that I must be more mistaken than I ever yet was on
any political measure, if it fail of its end. I take it for granted
that the whole country, ministry, minority, and all, are tired of the war;
but the difficulty is how to get rid of it, or how they are to come down
from the high ground they have taken, and accommodate their feelings to
a treaty for peace. Such a change must be the effect either of necessity
or choice. I think it will take at least three or four more campaigns
to produce the former, and they are too wrong in their opinions of America
to act from the latter. I imagine that next spring will begin with
a new Parliament, which is so material a
118 -- PAINE'S
DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
crisis in the
politics of that country that it ought to be attended to by this; for,
should it start wrong, we may look forward to six or seven years more of
war. The influence of the press rightly managed is important; but
we can derive no service in this line, because there is no person in England
who knows enough of America to treat the subject properly.
It was in a great measure owing to my bringing a knowledge of England with
me to America, that I was enabled to enter deeper into politics, and with
more success, than other people; and whoever takes the matter up in England
must in like manner be possessed of a knowledge of America. I do
not suppose that the knowledgement independence is at this time a more
unpopular doctrine in England than the declaration of it was in America
immediately before the publication of the pamphlet 'Common Sense,'
and the ground appears as open for the one now as it did for the other
then.
"The manner in which
I would bring such a publication out would be under the cover of an Englishman
who had made the tour of America incog. This will afford me all the
foundation I wish for and enable me to place matters before them in a light
in which they have never yet viewed them. I observe that Mr. Rose
in his speech on Governor Pownall's bill, printed in Bradford's last paper,
says that 'to form an opinion on the propriety of yielding independence
to America requires an accurate knowledge of the state of that country,
the temper of the people, the resources of their Government, '&c.
Now there is no other method to give this information a national currency
but this, -- the channel of the press, which I have ever considered the
tongue of the world, and which governs the
p.119 -- PAINE'S
DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
sentiments of
mankind more than anything else that ever did or can exist.
"The simple point I mean
to aim at is to make the acknowledgment of independence a popular subject,
and that not by exposing and attacking their errors, but by stating its
advantages and apologizing for their errors, by way of accommodating the
measure to their pride. The present parties in that country will
never bring one another to reason. They are heated with all the passion
of opposition, and to rout the ministry, or to support them, makes their
capital point. Were the same channel open to the ministry in this
country which is open to us in that they would stick at no expense to improve
the opportunity. Men who are used to government know the weight and
worth of the press, when in hands which can use it to advantage.
Perhaps with me a little degree of literary pride is connected with principle;
for, as I had a considerable share in promoting the Declaration of Independence
in this country, I likewise wish to be a means of promoting the acknowledgment
of it in that; and were I not persuaded that the measure I have proposed
would be productive of much essential service, I would not hazard my own
safety, as I have everything to apprehend should I fall into their hands;
but, could I escape in safety, till I could get out a publication in England,
my apprehensions would be over, because the manner in which I mean to treat
the subject would procure me protection.
"Having said thus much
on the matter, I take the liberty of hinting to you a mode by which the
expense may be defrayed without any new charge. Drop a Delegate in
p.120 -- PAINE'S
DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
Congress at
the next election, and apply the pay to defray what I have proposed; and
the point then will be, whether you can possibly put any man into Congress
who could render as much service in that station as in the one I have pointed
out. When you have perused this, I should be glad of some conversation
upon it, and will wait on you for that purpose at any hour you may appoint.
I have changed my lodgings, and am now in Front Street opposite the Coffee
House, next door to Aitkin's bookstore.
"I am, sir, your ob't
humble servant,
"THOMAS PAINE."
Paine, of course,
accepted with alacrity the invitation from Laurens, doubtless hoping that
when the work in France had been accomplished, there would be opportunity
to put into effect in England the plan he outlined in his letter to Greene.
Then Paine again wrote
to General Greene. This letter, which has not been published heretofore,
is probably the last Paine wrote before leaving America:
"Jan'ry 10th,
1781.
"MY
DEAR SIR:
"I have put off the writing
of this letter to the last minute lest I should be disappointed by any
unexpected circumstance in the journey and voyage I am undertaking.
I received your very friendly and affectionate letter from Annapolis for
which I thank you. I followed the advice of it and that with the
more readiness as it was the advice,
p.121 -- PAINE'S
DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
too, of several
of my best and warmest friends. Since which Congress have appointed
Col. Laurens, Envoy Extraordinary to France, and I shall accompany him
there as Secretary. I am desirous of giving you this information
because no endeavors of mine, so far as the extend, will be wanting to
show the necessity of a re-enforcement of cash to the Continent, and troops
to the Southward.
"I leave America with
the perfect satisfaction of having been to her an honest, faithful and
affectionate friend, and I go away with the hope of returning to spend
better or more agreeable days with her than those which are past.
"God bless and prosper
you.
"Yours sincerely,
"T. PAINE.
"Major-General Greene."
Paine and Laurens
started on their voyage to France early in February, 1781, sailing from
Boston, and arriving in L'Orient, France, the following month.
It is a matter of record
that young Laurens very nearly ruined the plans of the mission to France
by some imprudent speech, and Vergennes complained about it, at the same
time ascribing it to his inexperience. Paine seems to have made a
more favorable impression, as the King, according to Lamartine, "loaded
Paine with favors." The King's gift of six millions was "confided
into the hands of Franklin and Paine." Their mission to France accomplished,
p.122 --
PAINE'S DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
Paine now told Laurens
about his plan of going to England, and probably he also spoke to Franklin
about it. He was dissuaded from the project, however. On May
28 he wrote the following letter from Brest to Franklin in Paris:
"I have just
a moment to spare to bid you farewell. We go on board in an hour
or two, with a fair wind and everything ready. I understand that
you have expressed a desire to withdraw from business, and I beg leave
to assure you that every wish of mine, so far as it can be attended with
any service, will be employed to make your resignation, should it be accepted,
attended with every possible mark of honor which your long services and
high character in life justly merit."
On June 1 Paine and
Laurens sailed for America from Brest on the French frigate
Resolve,
with
2,500,000 livres in silver, and convoying a ship laden with military stores
and clothing. The supplies from France arrived safely at Boston,
August 25, and they were transported to Philadelphia by sixteen teams of
oxen. This timely gift from France enabled us to conduct the campaign
which terminated in the surrender of Cornwallis.
Although Paine conceived
the plan of obtaining aid from France, and the idea was successfully carried
out chiefly by him, he received neither
p.123 --
PAINE'S DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
acknowledgment nor compensation
for his services, while Laurens, who nearly brought the mission to ruin,
received both the glory and the pay. Young Laurens., whose father,
Henry Laurens, had been president of the Continental Congress, was a favorite
of Washington and a member of his official household, so he
hurried to resume his
place near Washington, with apparently no thought of Paine's financial
situation.
The following friendly
letter from Paine to Colonel Laurens reveals the fact that Paine's wallet
was very lean at this time:
"PHILADELPHIA,
Oct.
4, 1781.
DEAR SIR,
I received your favor
(by the post,) dated Sep. 9th, Head of Elk, respecting a mislaid letter.
A gentleman who saw you at that place about the same time told me he had
likewise a letter from you to me which he had lost, and that you mentioned
something to him respecting baggage. This left me in a difficulty
to judge whether after writing to me by post, you had not found the letter
you wrote about, and took that opportunity to inform me about it.
However, I have wrote to Gen. Heath in case the trunk should be there,
and inclosed in it a letter to Blodget in case it should not. I have
yet heard nothing from either. I have preferred forwarding the trunk, in
case it can be done in a reasonable time, to the opening it, and if it
cannot, then to open it agreeably to your directions, tho' I have no idea
of its being there.
p.124 -- PAINE'S
DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
"I went for
your boots, the next day after you left town, but they were not
done, and I directed the man to bring them to me as soon as finished, but
have since seen nothing of him, neither do wish him to bring them just
now, as I must be obliged to borrow the money to pay for them; but I imagine
somebody else has taken them off his hands. I expect Col. Morgan
in town on Saturday, who has some money of mine in his hands, and then
I shall renew my application to the bootmaker.
"I wish you had thought
of me a little before you went away, and at least endeavored to put matters
in a train that I might not have to re-experience what has already past.
The gentleman who conveys this to you, Mr. Burke, is an assistant judge
of South Carolina, and one to whose friendship I am much indebted.
He lodged some time in the house with me.
"I enclose you the paper
of this morning, by which you will see that Gillam had not sailed (or at
least I conclude so) on the 4th of July, as Major Jackson was deputy toast
master, or Burgosmaster, or something, at an entertainment on that day.
As soon as I can learn anything concerning Gillam I will inform you of
it.
"I am with every wish
for your happiness and success, &c.
"Please to present my
compts. and best wishes to the General. I have wrote to the Marquis
and put all my politics into his letter. A paper with Rivington's
account of the action is enclosed in the Marquis' letter." [*]
---------------------------------------------
[*] (p.124-25)
The original of this interesting letter still survives. It was for
many years in the collection of the late William F. Havemeyer, New York.
Then it passed into the hands of the late William (p.125) F. Gable, of
Altoona, Pa., and was one of the items dispersed at the auction of his
letters and books in New York, December 5, 1923. Its present owner
is unknown to the author.
p.125 --
PAINE'S DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
There is some interesting
news of Silas Deane and of Cornwallis in the following letter from Paine
to his friend, Jonathan Williams, a merchant at Nantes, France, who was
a nephew of Benjamin Franklin:
"PHILADELPHIA,
Nov. 26, 1781,
DEAR SIR,
Since my arrival I have
received a letter from you dated Passy May 18, and directed to me at Brest.
I intended writing to you by Mr. Baseley who is counsel at L'Orient but
neglected it till it was too late. -- Mem: I desired Baseley to mention
to you that Mr. Butler of So. Carolina is surprised at Capt. Rob___ n's
drawing on him for money; this Mr. Butler mentioned to me, and as a friend
I communicate it to you. I sent you Col. Laurens' draft on Madam
Babut (I think that is her name) at Nantes for 12 L' d'ors for the expense
of the journey but have never learned if you received it.
"Your former friend,
Silas Deane, has run his last length. In France he is reprobating
America, and in America (by letters) he is reprobating France, and advising
her to abandon her alliance, relinquish her independence, and once more
become subject to Britain. A number of letters, signed Silas Deane,
have been published in the New York papers to this effect; they are believed,
by those who formerly were his friends, to be genuine. Mr. Robt.
Morris assured me that he had been totally deceived in Deane; but that
he now looked upon him to be a bad man, and his reputation totally ruined.
Gouverneur
p.126 -- PAINE'S
DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
Morris hopped
round upon one leg, swore they had all been duped, himself among the rest,
complimented me on my quick sight, -- and by God, says he, nothing carries
a man through the world like honesty: -- and my old friend Duer, 'Sometimes
a sloven and sometimes a Beau,' says Deane is a damned artful rascal.
However, Duer has fairly cleared himself. He received a letter from
him a considerable time before the appearance of these in the New York
papers -- which was so contrary to what he expected to receive, and of
such a traitorous cast, that he communicated it to Mr. Luzerne, the Minister.
"Lord Cornwallis with
7247 officers and men are nabbed nicely in the Chesapeake, which I presume
you have heard already, otherwise I should send you the particulars.
I think the enemy can hardly hold out another campaign. General Greene
has performed wonders to the southward, and our affairs in all quarters
have a good appearance. The French Ministry have hit on the right
scheme, that of bringing their force and ours to act in conjunction against
the enemy.
"The Marquis de Lafayette
is on the point of setting out for France, but as I am now safely on this
side the water again, I believe I shall postpone my second journey to France
a little longer. -- Lest Doctr. Franklin should not have heard of Deane
I wish you would write to him, and if anything new transpires in the meantime
and the Marquis does not set off too soon, I shall write by him.
"Remember me to Mr. &
Mrs. Johnstone, Dr. Pierce, Mr. Watson & Ceasey and Mr. Wilt. Make
my best wishes
p.127 -- PAINE'S
DIPLOMATIC SUCCESS
to Mrs. Williams,
Mrs. Alexander, and all the good girls at St. Germain.
"I am
your friend, &c.,
"THOMAS PAINE.
"P. S. Mind,
I'll write no more till I hear from you.
The French fleet is sailed
from the Chesapeake, and the British fleet from New York -- and since writing
the above, a vessel is come up the Delaware, which informs that he was
chased by two French frigates to the southward of Chesapeake, which, on
their coming up, acquainted him that the French fleet was a head in chase
of a fleet which they supposed to be the British.
"N. B. The
French fleet sailed the 4th of this month, and the British much about the
same time -- both to the southward." [*]
--------------------------------------------
[*] This
letter is in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
p.128
CHAPTER
XIII
AN AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
Financial Distresses
.... An Appeal to Washington .... Unpublished Letter to Robert
Morris .... "Crisis X" ..... "Crisis Supernumerary"
.... Reply to Abb Raynal's Book .... Exchange of Letters
With Washington.
THE
years
after the Declaration of Independence the man who first proposed such a
measure sat in his little attic bedroom on Second Street, Philadelphia,
writing a letter to General Washington, explaining, confidentially, the
distressing financial situation in which he found himself as a result of
giving every thing to the patriot cause.
He had unselfishly presented
his writings and copyrights, all that produces revenue for an author, to
the object upon which he had set his heart, liberty for the oppressed colonies.
His sacrifices for the cause had made him poor indeed.
Thomas Paine, "the morning
star of the Revolution," [*] the recipient of praise from all its leaders,
now forced to call attention to his miserable financial situation!
Paine was very well acquainted
with Washington and he knew that Washington appreciated the value
-------------------------------------------
[*] John Clark
Ridpatb.
p.129 --
AN AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
of his writings for the
patriot cause. The following letter is confidential, and it may be
mentioned that if some passages seem egotistical, Washington and others
in the forefront of the nation's affairs had been far more praiseful of
Paine's services.
"SECOND
STREET, OPPOSITE THE QUAKER
MEETING HOUSE, Nov. 30, 1781.
"SIR,
As soon as I can suppose
you to be a little at leisure from business and visits, I shall, with much
pleasure, wait on you, to pay you my respects and congratulate you on the
success you have most deservedly been blest with.
"I hope nothing in the
perusal of this letter will add a care to the many that employ your mind;
but as there is a satisfaction in speaking where one can be conceived and
understood, I divulge to you the secret of my own situation; because I
would wish to tell it to somebody, and as I do not want to make it public,
I may not have a fairer opportunity.
" It is seven years,
this day, since I arrived in America, and tho' I consider them as the most
honorary time of my life, they have nevertheless been the most inconvenient
and even distressing. From an anxiety to support, as far as laid
in my power, the reputation of the Cause of America, as well as the Cause
itself, I declined the customary profits which authors are entitled to,
and I have always continued to do so; yet I never thought (if I thought
at all on the matter,) but that as I dealt generously and honorably by
America, she would deal the same by,
p.130 -- AN
AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
me. But
I have experienced the contrary -- and it gives me much concern, not only
on account of the inconvenience it has occasioned to me, but because it
unpleasantly lessens my opinion of the character of a country which once
appeared so fair, and it hurts my mind to see her so cold and inattentive
to matters which affect her reputation.
"Almost everybody knows,
not only in this country but in Europe, that I have been of service to
her, and as far as the interest of the heart could carry a man I have shared
with her in the worst of her fortunes, yet so confined have been my private
circumstances that for one summer I was obliged to hire myself as a common
clerk to Owen Biddle of this city for my support: but this and many others
of the like nature I have always endeavored to conceal, because to expose
them would only serve to entail on her the reproach of being ungrateful,
and might start an ill opinion of her honor and generosity in other countries,
especially as there are pens enough abroad to spread and aggravate it.
"Unfortunately for me,
I knew the situation of Silas Deane when no other person knew it, and with
an honesty, for which I ought to have been thanked, endeavored to prevent
his fraud taking place. He has himself proved my opinion right, and
the warmest of his advocates now very candidly acknowledge their deception.
"While it was everybody's
fate to suffer I cheerfully suffered with them, but tho' the object of
the country is now nearly established and her circumstances rising into
prosperity, I feel myself left in a very unpleasant situation. Yet
I am totally at a loss what to attribute it to; for whereever I go I find
respect, and everybody I meet treats me
p.131 -- AN
AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
with friendship;
all join in censuring the neglect and throwing blame on each other, so
that their civility disarms much as their conduct distresses me.
But in this me as situation I cannot go on, and as I have no inclination
to differ with the country or to tell the story of her neglect, it is my
design to get to Europe, either to France or Holland. I have literary
fame, and I am sure I cannot experience worse fortune than I have here.
Besides a person who understood the affairs of America, and was capable
and disposed to do her a kindness, might render her considerable service
in. Europe, where her situation is but imperfectly understood and
much misrepresented by the publications which have appeared on that side
the water, and tho' she has not behaved to me with any proportionate return
of friendship, my wish for her prosperity is no ways abated, and I shall
be very happy to see her character as fair as her cause.
"Yet after all there
is something peculiarly hard that the country which ought to have been
to me a home has scarcely afforded me an asylum.
"In thus speaking to
your Excellency, I know I disclose myself to one who can sympathize with
me, for I have often cast a thought at your difficult situation to smooth
over the unpleasantness of my own.
"I have begun some remarks
on the Abb Raynal's "History of the Revolution." In several
places be is mistaken, and in others injudicious and sometimes cynical.
I believe I shall publish it in America, but my principal view is to republish
it in Europe both in French and English.
p.132 -- AN
AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
"Please, Sir,
to make my respectful compts. to your Lady, and accept to yourself the
best wishes of,
"Your obedt. humble servant,
"THOMAS PAINE.
"His Excellency General
WASHINGTON."
It seems almost quixotic
that any author should give away the profits accruing from his pen, but
Paine's Quaker training impelled him to such a course. He could not
participate in any capacity that did not seem "sacred," and in a "sacred"
cause he could not be a hireling.
But Paine's scruples
caused the author great monetary inconveniences. In a very interesting
letter to his friend, Robert Morris, who was in charge of the fiscal affairs
of the nation, Paine mentions having only two "Louis d'or," and says that
he has made General Washington, an old friend, acquainted with his financial
situation. He reviews his life and his work since he came to America,
and he refers to "the two traitors, Arnold and Deane." This interesting
letter, which has not been published previously, follows in full:
p.133 --
AN AUTHORS DIFFICULTIES
"PHILADELPHIA,
February 20, 1782.
"Robert Morris, Esq.,
"DEAR
SIR:
"It is upwards of seven
years since I came to America and above six since I published 'Common
Sense.' My situation from the time of my becoming a public man
has been exceedingly inconvenient, and nothing but the purest attachment
to, and a natural affection for, a Cause which I knew and felt to be right,
and in which I found I could be useful, could have held me so long and
so invariably under such difficult circumstances; yet these I have carefully
and constantly concealed because it could answer no service to the interest
of America to represent her under the character of ingratitude. I
am sensible that he who means to do mankind a real service must set down
with the determination of putting up, and bearing with all their faults,
follies, prejudices and mistakes until he can convince them that he is
right, and that his object is a general good, and I am persuaded, from
your own experience, that you are of the same opinion.
"We have now got rid
of two traitors, Arnold and Deane, and tho' the event, so far as respects
the latter, has proved me right, it has at the same time found nobody wrong.
That they were alone in their crimes every one must see, and thus, the
mischief of their secret defection being remedied in their detection, the
minds, hit asunder by their contrivance, unite with ease, confidence and
satisfaction.
"General Washington is
the only person (except Col. Laurens) to whom I fully and unreservedly
communicated my situation, and I was under a pressing necessity of doing
p.134 -- AN
AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
it. I
found my mind burdened and my situation difficult, and as sincerely as
I wished the prosperity of a just Cause, I had it no longer in my power
to go on as I had done. My reason for mentioning it to him, in preference
to any other, was because his judgment or his friendship in the case would
and must also be supposed to operate free and clear from himself, under
no other influence than that of his own mind. I am therefore under
no difficulty of accepting the proposal, because I will know that it is
not only out of friendship to me, but out of justice to me, and without
which I must be obliged to withdraw my mind from that line in which I can
best serve the community, and apply myself to the thought of getting a
livelihood. I have the honest pride of thinking and ranking myself
among the founders of a new and independent world, and I should suffer
exceedingly to be put out of that track.
"As I am now speaking
my mind and situation very unreservedly, I take the liberty of mentioning,
for reasons I shall hereafter assign, that I wish that either some allowance
could be made for my going to France, or that the salary might take place
from the time of my returning to America. I shall state the manner
how that business arose, and the inconvenience it has occasioned to me,
which has thrown me so back that it will be some time before I get clear,
and I should like to feel myself clear at once.
"Seeing of the distressed
situation of the Army and the country at the time I was clerk of the House
of Assembly, last September was a twelve month, and seeing no prospect
of its being better, and that the matter was not sufficiently taken to
heart, I drew up the Crisis Extraordinary, to show the necessity
as well as the advantage of
p.135 --
AN AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
taxation, and
likewise wrote a letter addressed to Count Vergennes, which is enclosed;
but not willing to presume on my own opinion in a matter of such nicety,
I showed it to some Members of Congress, and after several conversations
the proposition of sending a person over to France was adopted. Col.
Laurens was exceedingly averse to going. He mentioned to me that
tho' he was well acquainted with the military, he was not with the political
line, and proposed my going with him as secretary. As I was unwilling
to give umbrage to several who at that time, from mistake, were not my
friends, I declined appearing officially, but agreed to go as a companion.
I was then on the point of establishing a newspaper, had purchased twenty
reams to begin with, and Mr. Izzard sent to St. Eustace for fifty more,
but this I relinquished to go the voyage. After settling you my pay
with the House of Assembly, and discharging everything I owed, I had as
much left as purchased me ninety dollars in bills of exchange, which I
got cash for of Mr. Moylan the instant I arrived at L'Orient. As
we were not always together, I paid my separate expenses as long as this
money lasted without thinking anything about the matter. When the
business was finished, I was very desirious; as I was in Europe, to write
a pamphlet and send it over to Almon in London to be printed, and to return
in the frigate which was to bring the second supply of money. But
Col. Laurens was so exceedingly anxious for my returning with him, and
as he had nobody to confide in, in case anything had happened to him on
the passage, I quitted my design at his request. It was his intention
to mention the matter to Congress, or at least to some of the Members
p.136 -- AN
AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
but his haste
to get away, and his passion to join the army, put everything else out
of his mind, and I forbore to mention the least hint on the subject.
Inclosed is his last letter to me, of December 13th, when he left me to
set off. I had only two L'or's and have been ever since upon expense.
"Mr. Ferguson, Genl.
Gadsden and several of the South Carolina gentlemen proposed my coming
to Charlestown, in case they should get possession, and to draw on them
here for what money I might want for that purpose, but their disappointment
became mine. I have now circumstantially related to you my situation,
which will of itself point out the reason why I wish some advances might
be made in either of these modes I have mentioned, for although I shall
feel myself under perplexities, or be obliged to lay myself under obligations
for a considerable time, whereas I would wish to stand clear at once and
think no more about past embarrassments, for although I have had a hard
time of it [in] America, I would gladly forget it, and you will please
to observe that the inconveniences which I mention are from the very service
on which I was employed."
A few days later
"Crisis
X" was issued on March 5, 1782.
Paine, Washington and
Robert Morris met in Paine's rooms on Second Street, Philadelphia, to discuss
before publication Paine's "Crisis XI," and some other matters.
The meeting resulted from this invitation of Paine to Washington, dated
March 17, 1782:
p.137 --
AN AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
"You will do
me a great deal of pleasure if you can make it convenient to yourself to
spend a part of an evening at my apartments, and eat a few oysters or a
crust of bread and cheese; for besides the favor 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."
Five days later "Crisis
XI" appeared. Referring to Britain, Paine says "Beaten, but not
humble; condemned, but not penitent. They act like men trembling
at fate and catching at a straw. From this convulsion in the entrails
of their politics, it is more than probable that the mountain groaning
in labor will bring forth a mouse."
The next work of Paine
was his public letter to Sir Guy Carleton, who was in command in New York.
This he published as a "Supernumerary Crisis." It was really
a plea for the life of a man -- an enemy guiltless of crime and selected
by lot as a sacrifice under military rules. (See Vol. III, p. 211.)
"Letter to the Abb
Raynal" (Vol. IV, p. 117) was Paine's next publication. It was
dated "Philadelphia, August 21, 1782," and is the work to which Paine refers
in his letter of Nov. 30, 1781, to
p.138 --
AN AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
Washington. Paine
sent Washington fifty copies of his Raynal work "for the use of the army,"
as soon as it was "off the press."
Paine wrote Washington
from Bordentown, New Jersey, September 7, 1782, as follows:
"I have the
honor of presenting you with fifty copies of my 'Letter to the Abb
Raynal,' for the use of the army, and to repeat to you my acknowledgments
for your friendship.
"I fully believe we have
seen our worst days over. The spirit of the war, on the part of the
enemy, is certainly on the decline fully as much as we think. I draw
this opinion not only from the present promising appearance of things,
and the difficulties we know the British Cabinet is in; but I added to
it the peculiar effect which certain periods of time have, more or less,
on all men. The British have accustomed themselves to think of seven
years in a manner different to other portions of time. They acquire
this partly by habit, by reason, by religion, and by superstition.
They serve seven years' apprenticeship -- they elect their Parliament for
seven years -- they punish by seven years' transportation, or the duplicate
or triplicate of that term -- they let their leases in the same manner,
and they read that Jacob served seven years for one wife, and after that
seven years for another; and the same term likewise extinguishes all obligations
(in certain cases) of debt, or matrimony: and thus this particular period
of time, by a variety of concurrences, has obtained an influence on their
mind. They have now had seven years of
p.139 -- AN
AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
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."
Washington replied
appreciatively, concluding his letter with an expression of esteem for
the author.
HEAD-QUARTERS,
VERPLANK'S POINT, September 18,
1782.
SIR,
I have the pleasure to
acknowledge your favor, informing me of your proposal to present me with
fifty copies of your last publication for the amusement of the army.
For this intention you have my sincere thanks, not only on my own account,
but for the pleasure, which I doubt not the gentlemen of the army will
receive from the perusal of your pamphlets. Your observations on
the period of seven years, as it applies itself to and affects British
minds, are ingenious, and I wish it may not fail of its effects in the
present instance. The measures and the policy of the enemy are at
present in great perplexity and embarrassment but I have my fears, whether
their necessities (which are the only operating motives with them, are
yet arrived to that point, which must drive them unavoidably
p.140 -- AN
AUTHOR'S DIFFICULTIES
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 negotiation for peace as some gentlemen entertain.
Should events prove my jealousies to be ill founded, I shall make myself
happy under the mistake, consoling myself with the idea of having erred
on the safest side, and enjoying with as much satisfaction as any of my
countrymen the pleasing issue of our severe contest.
"The case of Captain
Asgill has indeed been spun out to a great length -- but, with you, I hope
that its termination will not be unfavorable to this country.
"I am, sir, with great
esteem and regard,
"Your most obedient servant,
"G. WASHINGTON."
p.141
CHAPTER
XIV
THE HORIZON BRIGHTENS
Paine Upholds
the Union in Rhode Island Newspapers .... At Home in Bordentown,
New Jersey .... Interest in Science and Invention ....
Washington Entertains Paine at Rocky Hill .... Paine Writes the Last
"Crisis"
.... Congress Votes Paine $3,000 and Pennsylvania 500 ....
New York Gives Him a Farm Near New Rochelle .... Efforts of Washington,
Madison, Jefferson and Others on Paine's Behalf.
RHODE ISLAND,
smallest of the States in size, being jealous of its "sovereignty," objected
strenuously to entering a Union even though that Union gave it equal legislative
power with the greatest of the States. Paine wrote articles for the
Providence
Gazette
and
Newport Mercury
toward
the close of 1782, and the beginning of 1783, pointing out the advantages
of coming into the Union of States. A great controversy ensued. "What,"
asked Paine, "would the sovereignty of any individual State be, if left
to itself to contend with a foreign power?" Paine visited Providence
in January, 1783. He wrote and published six letters in the Rhode
Island papers (Six Letters To Rhode Island). Rhode Island
was, it will be remembered, the last of the States to enter the Union.
Washington, on April
18, 1783, made a formal announcement of the termination of hostilities.
Paine
p.142 --
THE HORIZON BRIGHTENS
commemorated the eighth
anniversary of the collision at Lexington by publishing, on April 19, his
"Thoughts
on the Peace," (Crisis XIII) commencing 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."
About this time Paine
bought a little house at Bordentown, N. J., on a piece of ground measuring
one-fifth of an acre. It adjoined the property of his intimate friend,
Colonel Joseph Kirkbride, who, like Paine, was interested in scientific
matters, and who was a staunch believer in Paine's political principles.
Paine's house is no longer in existence, and Kirkbride's home at Hill Top
has been swallowed up by an academy for young women. At Bordentown
Paine became acquainted with John Hall, a mechanician, who helped in constructing
models of Paine's inventions.
Too little attention
has been paid to Paine's inventions and his great genius in mechanical
creations. He invented the iron-bridge, a planing machine and other
important contrivances, and his fertile mind evolved the principle employed
for the propulsion of the automobile of today, and the principle of the
modern central draught oil burner. In Paine's time bridges were made
of wood or stone, and Paine's iron
p.143 --
THE HORIZON BRIGHTENS
bridge was a distinct
novelty. The great steel bridges of today are merely an adaptation
of steel in place of iron. Paine's model of his first iron bridge
was made in Bordentown.
Paine wished now to devote
himself to invention, but before settling down to such work he desired
to visit his aged parents in England. He was not, however, financially
in a position to do this. Robert Morris visiting him at this juncture
recommended that Paine call the attention of Congress to many services
for which he had not been compensated. The nominal salary of $70
a month for his secretaryship of the Committee of Foreign Affairs amounted
in fact to only $15.
The perilous journey
to France with John Laurens, and the safe return of both to America with
2,500,000 livres in silver and a great supply of clothing and military
stores, at a time when British ships were keenly searching the seas for
American prizes, and could have wished for no more desirable quarry than
the author of "Common Sense," had, like other services of this disinterested
patriot, never been rewarded.
Great festivities followed
the surrender of Cornwallis. Lavish praise was showered upon Washington
and Congress, then in session at Princeton,
p.144 --
THE HORIZON BRIGHTENS
prepared for him a mansion
at Rocky Hill, not far distant. Letters of that period tell of the
general's happiness and the conviviality at Rocky Hill. Paine was
forgotten in the festivities and lived in the seclusion of poverty at Bordentown.
A letter came one day
from Rocky Hill which, for the time being, at least, dispersed the gloom
of Paine's little cottage. That Washington was not unmindful, at
this period, of Paine's great services to this country is evident by what
he wrote:
"ROCKY
HILL,
Sept. 10, 1783.
"DEAR
SIR,
"I have learned since
I have been at this place that you are at Bordentown. Whether for
the sake of retirement or economy, I know not. Be it for either,
for both, or whatever it may, if you will come to this place, and partake
with me, I shall be exceedingly happy to see you.
"Your presence may remind
Congress of your past services to this country; and if it is in my power
to impress them, command my best services with freedom, as they will be
rendered cheerfully by one who entertains a lively sense of the importance
of your works, and who, with much pleasure, subscribes himself,
"Your sincere friend,
"G. WASHINGTON."
p.145 --
THE HORIZON BRIGHTENS
Paine replied as follows:
"BORDENTOWN,
Sept. 21st.
SIR,
I am made exceedingly
happy by the receipt of your friendly letter of the 10th instant, which
is this moment come to hand; and the young gentleman that brought it, a
son of Col. Geo. Morgan, waits while I write this. It had been sent
to Philadelphia, and on my not being there, was returned, agreeable to
directions on the outside, to Col. Morgan at Princetown, who forwarded
it to this place.
"I most sincerely thank
you for your good wishes and friendship to me, and the kind invitation
you have honored me with, which I shall with much pleasure accept.
"On the resignation of
Mr. Livingston in the winter and likewise of Mr. R. Morris, at [the same]
time it was judged proper to discontinue the matter which took place when
you were in Philadelphia. It was at the same time a pleasure to me
to find both these gentlemen (to whom I was before that time but little
known) so warmly disposed to assist in rendering my situation permanent,
and Mr. Livingston's letter to me, in answer to one of mine to him, which
I enclose, will serve to show that his friendship to me is in concurrence
with yours.
"By the advice of Mr.
Morris I presented a letter to Congress expressing a request that they
would be pleased to direct me to lay before them an account of what my
services, such as they were, and situation, had been during the course
of the war. This letter was referred to a committee, and their report
is now before Congress, and contains, as I am informed, a recommendation
that I be appointed historiographer to the continent. I have desired
p.146 -- THE
HORIZON BRIGHTENS
some members
that the further consideration of it be postponed, until I can state to
the committee some matters which I wish them to be acquainted with, both
with regard to myself and the appointment. And as it was my intention,
so I am now encouraged by your friendship to take your confidential advice
upon it before I present it. For though I was never at a loss in
writing on public matters, I feel exceedingly so in what respects myself.
"I am hurt by the neglect
of the collective ostensible body of America, in a way which it is probable
they do not perceive my feelings. It has an effect in putting either
my reputation or their generosity at stake; for it cannot fail of suggesting
that either I (notwithstanding the appearance of service) have been undeserving
their regard or that they are remiss towards me. Their silence is
to me something like condemnation, and their neglect must be justified
by my loss of reputation, or my reputation supported at their injury; either
of which is alike painful to me. But as I have ever been dumb on
everything which might touch national honor so I mean ever to continue
so.
"Wishing you, Sir, the
happy enjoyment of peace and every public and private felicity I remain,
&c.
"THOMAS
PAINE.
"Col. Kirkbride at whose
house I am, desires me to present you his respectful compliments."
Paine visited Washington
in his Rocky Hill headquarters and had a few happy days there meeting such
old comrades of the Revolution as Cobb,
p.147 --
THE HORIZON BRIGHTENS
Lincoln and Humphreys.
While Paine was a guest at Rocky Hill he wrote his last number of the "Crisis,"
dated December 9, 1783, addressed "To the People of America." It
was published under the title "A Supernumerary Crisis." (See Vol.
III, p. 249.)
Many things were working
against Paine. A good many Members of Congress were distinctly hostile
to him, because of his extreme "republican" opinions. There were
many men, even in Congress, who yearned for the stability a monarchy was
thought to give. And, incredible as it seems to us today, there were
many, royalist in principle, who would have preferred a new monarchy in
America to a republic.
Partisan politics had
replaced pure patriotism. The jealousies of the States also
militated against Paine, who was an active worker for "a more perfect Union."
Congress wrangled over the matter for a long time and then voted Paine
$3000. The sum originally planned was $6000, but in the course of
the haggling the sum was cut in half.
The State of New York
presented Paine a farm of "about three hundred acres" "in consideration
for the eminent services rendered (by him) in the progress of the late
war."
The act of the New York
State Legislature (seventh session, 1784, Chap. 64, Sec. XXXI) passed on
May 12, 1784, read as follows:
p.148 --
THE HORIZON BRIGHTENS
"An Act for
the speedy sale of the confiscated and forfeited estates within this State
and for other purposes therein mentioned.
"And be it further
enacted by the authority aforesaid, That it shall and may be lawful
to and for the said commissioners of forfeitures for the southern district,
and he is hereby authorized and required in consideration for the eminent
services rendered to the United States in the progress of the late war
by Thomas Paine, Esquire, and as a testimony of the sense which the people
of this State entertain of his distinguished merit to grant and release
in due form of law unto the said Thomas Paine, and to his heirs and assigns
forever in fee simple, all that certain farm or plantation situate in the
township of New Rochelle in the County of Westchester, formerly belonging
to and usually called the farm of Captain Bailey, deceased, and afterward
called Devoe's lower farm, containing by estimation about three hundred
acres, and which became forfeited, and is now vested in the people of this
State by the conviction of Frederick Devoe." [*]
Devoe, whose estate
was confiscated, was a Tory sympathizer with the British, whom he is said
to have secretly aided while living on the farm that was
------------------------------------------
[*] (p.148-49)
The farm at New Rochelle had a fine stone house on it, which had once been
a patrimonial mansion of the Jays. When Paine went there to take
possession he received a hearty and distinguished welcome. During
Paine's absence in Europe, as a member of the French Convention, in later
years, the house was mysteriously destroyed by fire. Upon returning
from Europe Paine built himself a frame dwelling surmounting the hill on
the land south of what is now Paine Avenue, New Rochelle, known at the
time of Paine's residence there as "Paine Lane." (p.149) The stone house
had been on that part of the farm north of the lane. In 1910 the
man into whose possession the house had passed long years after Paine's
death, feeling no patriotic or other interest in the dwelling, and wishing
it out of his way, that he might erect a large stone residence, offered
it to anyone who would move it away. An officer of the Huguenot Association
happening along offered to remove the frame dwelling; in this way it became
the property of that organization, which (1925) still holds it.

p.149 --
THE HORIZON BRIGHTENS
destined to be given
to Paine for the author's "eminent services" against the British.
When the farm was confiscated, Devoe fled to British territory -- Nova
Scotia -- dying there a few years later.
Paine was by no means
relieved of pecuniary worry by the gift from New York State, but his friends
expected the other States would follow New York's example. Pennsylvania
voted Paine five hundred pounds. As stated previously, in Virginia
a bill was introduced, June 28, 1784, awarding Paine a valuable tract of
land, and the bill passed two readings and was killed on the third reading.
There is no doubt that prejudice resulting from jealousy on account of
Paine's pamphlet "Public Good," concerning Virginia's State boundary,
was responsible for the adverse vote (See Vol. IV, p. 228 [p.372 -- Foner's
edition]). One vote only lost the bill.
Paine's friend, James
Madison, wrote to Washington, July 2, about the fate of the bill:
p.150 --
THE HORIZON BRIGHTENS
"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."
Washington had tried
to aid matters for Paine by writing letters in advocacy of the Virginia
bill to Madison, Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee. They were written
in vain, as we have seen.
While Virginia deliberately
slighted Paine, she voted a statue to Washington! The final paragraph
of Madison's letter, reproduced above, is indeed a fitting commentary on
the nation's ingratitude.
p.151 --
THE HORIZON BRIGHTENS
Congress never repaid
Paine for the expenses of the journey to France with Laurens. The
sum Congress voted him was inadequate to cover the expenditure. Paine
had not wished a gratuity, but only asked that his bills be paid.
It is not to be wondered that Paine vehemently declared that "Congress
has acted dishonorably by me."
Paine's unselfish devotion
not only to the cause of American independence, but to the interests of
this country after its establishment, has few parallels in the world's
history. Referring to Paine James Monroe confidently wrote:
"The crime of
ingratitude has not yet stained, and I hope never will stain, our national
character. To the welfare of Thomas Paine the Americans are not,
nor can they be, indifferent."
The great leaders
of the Revolutionary War period, such men as Jefferson, Franklin, Washington,
Adams, Richard Henry Lee, Robert Morris, Madison, Laurens, set a proper
estimate upon the value of Paine's work. The tributes of these men
to the founder of this nation would fill many pages of this book.
They knew the man, they knew what he had accomplished. Their recorded
judgment will stand for all time.
p.152
CHAPTER
XV
PROGRESS AS AN INVENTOR
Paine and The
Bank of North America .... Exchange of Letters With Franklin ....
A Smokeless Candle .... Designing the First Iron Bridge ....
Paine's Thoughts Turn to Europe .... The Bridge Model Coldly Received
in Philadelphia.
PAINE
wrote in 1785 a pamphlet which prevented the repeal of the charter granted
the Bank of North America. This bank had its beginning in the subscription
Paine headed with $500 for the relief of Washington's suffering army.
A party had arisen in Philadelphia intent upon the destruction of this
bank, which had been very successful, had many depositors and large deposits.
Paine's pamphlet was entitled "Dissertations on Government; the Affairs
of the Bank; and Paper Money." (Vol. IV, p. 219.) The pamphlet
was published in the beginning of 1786. There is no doubt that its
forceful presentation of the case for honest money saved the bank.
While Paine was busy
writing this pamphlet, he found time to write his old friend Franklin.
45+-
This is the letter:
"NEW
YORK, Sept. 23, 1785.
"My DEAR
SIR,
It gives me exceeding
great pleasure to have the opportunity of congratulating you on your
p.153 -- PROGRESS
AS AN INVENTOR
return home,
and to a land of Peace; and to express to you my heartfelt wishes that
the remainder of your days may be to you a time of happy ease and rest.
Should Fate prolong my life to the extent of yours, it would give me the
greatest felicity to have the evening scene some resemblance of what you
now enjoy.
"In making you this address
I have an additional pleasure in reflecting, that, so far as I have hitherto
gone, I am not conscious of any circumstance in my conduct that should
give you one repentant thought for being my patron and introducer to America.
"It would give me great
pleasure to make a journey to Philadelphia on purpose to see you, but an
interesting affair I have with Congress makes my absence at this time improper.
"If you have time to
let me know how your health is, I shall be much obliged to you.
"I am, dear Sir, with
the sincerest affection and respect, "
Your obedient, humble servant,
"THOMAS PAINE.
"The Hon'ble BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN, Esquire.
"My address is Messrs.
Lawrence and Morris, Merchants."
Paine was gratified
to receive promptly the following reply, dated Philadelphia, Sept. 24,
1785:
"DEAR
SIR,
I have just received
your friendly congratulations on my return to America, for which, as well
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as your kind
wishes for my welfare, I beg you to accept my most thankful acknowledgments.
Ben is also very sensible of your politeness, and desires his respects
may be presented.
"I was sorry on my arrival
to find you had left this city. Your present arduous undertaking,
I easily conceive, demands retirement, and tho' we shall reap the fruits
of it, I cannot help regretting the want of your abilities here where in
the present moment they might, I think, be successfully employed. Parties
still run very high Common Sense would unite them. It is to
be hoped therefore it has not abandoned us forever." [*]
Quite a number of
letters passed between Paine and Franklin at this period. Paine wrote
the aged philosopher on the last day of the year, describing a new invention
of his, a smokeless candle, which embodied the principle destined later
to be elaborated, and become known the world over as the "central draught
burner." As will be seen, Paine's experiments were with candles
and lamps. The idea of a tubular wick for an oil lamp, which was
not adopted until more than a century later, does not seem to have occurred
to him.
I saw a few years ago
in Paris some candles made on the principle of Paine's candle, with passages
for
------------------------------------------------
[*]
The original of this letter is in the collection of the Philosophical Society,
Philadelphia.
p.155 --
PROGRESS AS AN INVENTOR
air traversing its length.
They were on sale in a grocery-shop, and I bought a few for the Paine Museum
at New Rochelle. These candles were the candles of Thomas Paine brought
into ordinary use a century and a quarter after Paine invented them and
described the principle in his letter to Franklin.
This was what Paine wrote
Franklin about the candle invention:
"Dec. 31, 1785
DEAR SIR,
I send you the candles
I have been making; -- In a little time after they are lighted the
smoke and flame separate, the one issuing from one end of the candle, and
the other from the other end. I suppose this to be because a quantity
of air enters into the candle between the tallow and the flame, and in
its passage downwards takes the smoke with it; for if you allow a quantity
of air up the candle, the current will be changed, and the smoke reascends,
and in passing this the flame makes a small flash and a little noise.
"But to express the idea
I mean, of the smoke descending more clearly it is this, -- that the air
enters the candle in the very place where the melted tallow is getting
into the state of flame, and takes it down before the change is completed
-- for there appears to me to be two kinds of smoke, humid matter which
never can be flame, and enflameable matter which would be flame if some
accident did not prevent the change being completed -- and this I
suppose to be the case with the descending smoke of the candle.
p.156 -- PROGRESS
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"As you can
compare the candle with the lamp, you will have an opportunity of ascertaining
the cause -- why it will do in the one and not in the other. When
the edge of the enflamed part of the wick is close with the edge of the
tin of the lamp no counter current of air can enter but as this contact
does not take place in the candle a counter current enters and prevents
the effect [?] in the candles which illuminates the lamp. For the
passing of the air through the lamp does not, I imagine, burn the smoke,
but burns up all the oil into flame, or by its rapidity prevents any part
of the oil flying off in the state of half. flame which is smoke.
"I do not, my dear sir,
offer these reasons to you but to myself, for I have often observed that
by lending words for my thoughts I understand my thoughts the better.
Thoughts are a kind of mental smoke, which require words to illuminate
them.
"I am affectionately
"Your obt. and hble. servant,
"THOMAS PAINE.
"I hope to be well enough
tomorrow to wait on you."
In the spring of
1786 Paine settled once more at Bordentown. There he passed a happy
summer, with his friends, Colonel Kirkbride, Joseph Borden and John Hall,
and he remained there most of the winter. His mind was principally
on inventions, and Hall was able to assist him considerably in the planning
and making of models.
p.157 --
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In June two models of
Paine's bridge being completed and the inventor eager to have Franklin
see them, he sent them to Philadelphia in Hall's care.
Hall carried this letter
of introduction from Paine.
June 6th. --
"The gentleman, Mr. Hall,
who presents you with this letter, has the care of two models for a bridge,
one of wood, the other of cast iron, which I have the pleasure of submitting
to you, as well for the purpose of showing my respect to you, as my patron
in this country, as for the sake of having your opinion and judgment thereon.
-- The European method of bridge architecture, by piers and arches,
is not adapted to many of the rivers in America on account of the ice in
the winter. The construction of those I have the honor of presenting
to you is designed to obviate the difficulty by leaving the whole passage
of the river clear of the incumbrance of piers. . . . My first design
in the wooden model was for a bridge over the Harlem River, for my good
friend General Morris of Morrisania . . . but I cannot help thinking
that it might be carried across the Schuylkill. . . . Mr. Hall, who
has been with me at Borden Town, and has done the chief share of the working
part, for we have done the whole ourselves, will inform you of any circumstance
relating to it which does not depend on the mathematical construction.
Mr. Hall will undertake to see the models brought safe from the stage boat
to you; they are too large to be admitted into the house, but will stand
very well in the garden. Should there be a vessel going round to
New York within about a week after my arrival in Philadelphia
p.158 -- PROGRESS
AS AN INVENTOR
I shall take
that convenience for sending them there, at which place I hope to be in
about a fortnight."
The following letter,
also written in June, bears no address, but was, no doubt, sent to some
member of the Pennsylvania Council who was interested in inventions:
"HONORABLE
SIR,
I have sent to His Excellency,
the President [Franklin] two models for a Bridge, the one of wood, the
other of cast-iron bars, to be erected over rivers, without piers.
As I shall in a few days go to New York, and take them with me, I do myself
the honor of presenting an invitation to Council to take a view of them
before they are removed. If it is convenient to Council to see and
examine their construction to-day, at the usual time of their adjournment,
I will attend at the President's at half after twelve o'clock, or any other
day or hour Council may please to appoint."
That Paine was not
unmindful of political matters while he was engrossed with his inventions
is evidenced by the following letter to Hon. Thomas Fitzsimmons:
"To be left
at the Bank, Philadelphia. Written at Bordentown, November 19th.
"HON.
THOMAS FITZSIMMONS:
"I write you a few loose
thoughts as they occur to me. Next to gaining a majority is keeping
it. This, at least
p.159 -- PROGRESS
AS AN INVENTOR
(in my opinion),
will not be best accomplished by doing or attempting a great deal of business,
but by doing no more than is absolutely necessary to be done, acting moderately
and giving no offence. It is with the whole as it is with the members
individually, and we always see at every new election that it is more difficult
to turn out an old member against whom no direct complaint can be made
than it is to put in a new one though a better man. I am sure it will be
best not to touch any part of the plan of finance this year. If it
falls short, as most probably it will, it would be (I speak for myself)
best to reduce the interest that the whole body of those who are styled
public creditors may share it equally as far as it will go.
If any thing can be saved from the Civil List expenses 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 are interested in the matter.
The public has been deficient and the claimants exorbitant -- neglect on
one side and greediness on the other. That which is truly Justice
may be always advocated. But I could no more think of paying six
per cent interest in real money, in perpetuity, for a debt a great part
of which is quondam than I could think of not paying at all. Six
per cent on any part of the debt, even to the original holders is ten or
twelve per cent, and to the speculators twenty or thirty or more.
It is better that the matter rest until it is fuller investigated and better
understood, for in its present state it will be hazardous to touch upon.
p.160 -- PROGRESS
AS AN INVENTOR
"I have not
heard a word of news from Philadelphia since I came to this place.
I wrote a line to Mr. Francis and desired him to give me a little account
of matters but be does not, perhaps, think it very necessary now.
"I see by the papers
that the subject of the Bank is likely to be renewed. I should like
to know when it will come on, as I have some thought of coming down at
that time, if I can.
"I see by the papers
that the Agricultural Society has presented a petition to the House respecting
building a bridge over the Schuylkill -- on a model prepared for that purpose.
In this I think they are too hasty. I have already constructed a
model of a bridge of cast iron, consisting of one arch. I am
now making another of wrought iron of one arch, but on a different plan.
I expect to finish it in about three weeks and shall send it first to Philadelphia.
I have no opinion of any bridge over the Schuylkill that is to be erected
on piers -- the sinking of piers will sink more money than they have any
idea of and will not stand when done. But there is another point
they have not taken into their consideration; which is, that the sinking
three piers in the middle of the river, large and powerful enough to resist
the ice, will cause such an alteration in the bed and channel of the river
that there is no saying what course it may take, or whether it will not
force a new channel somewhere else."
Earlier in the year
(May 19, 1786) Paine had written, from Bordentown, another letter to his
friend Fitzsimmons, which was chiefly concerned with the
p.161 --
PROGRESS AS AN INVENTOR
bridge he had designed
and the models of it which he was sending to Dr. Franklin. In this
letter he also discusses articles to be printed in the German newspapers,
and in other publications. The letter, which has not been published
heretofore, says in part:
"I do not recollect
whether you saw my model of bridge to be formed of wood (the model -- not
the bridge,) to extend across a river without piers or piles; but I am
now making one of cast-iron bars, which I have little or no doubt, may
be carried over the Schuylkill. I expect to have the model finished
in about two weeks, when I shall present it to Dr. Franklin, and come at
the same time to Philadelphia. But, as I do not like to talk about
a thing before it is done, I wish you not to mention it until I have completed
it." [*]
George Clymer, one
of Paine's oldest and staunchest friends in America, was the next recipient
of a letter from Bordentown about the bridge. This is what Paine
wrote Clymer: "To be left at the Bank, Philadelphia." Written
at Bordentown, November 19th.
TO
GEORGE CLYMER, ESQUIRE,
"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
--------------------------------------------
[*]
In the collection of Robert J. Currier, Syracuse, N. Y.
p.162 --
PROGRESS AS AN INVENTOR
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 probably alter its course
either to divide the channel, and require two bridges or cause it to force
a new channel in some other part. It is a matter of more hazard than
they are aware of the altering by obstructions the bed and channel of a
river; the water must go somewhere -- the force of the freshets and the
ice is very great now but will be much greater then.
"I am finishing as fast
as I can my new model of an iron bridge of one arch which if it answers,
and I have no doubt but it will, the whole difficulty of erecting bridges
over that river, or others of like circumstances, will be removed, and
the expense not greater, (and I believe not so great) as the sum mentioned
by Mr. Morris in the house, and I am sure will stand four times as long
or as much longer as iron is more durable than wood. I mention these
circumstances to you that you may be informed of them -- and not let the
matter proceed so far as to put the Agricultural Society in a difficult
situation at last.
"The giving a Society
the exclusive right to build a bridge, unless the plan is prepared before
hand, will prevent a bridge being built; because those who might afterwards
produce models preferable to their own, will not present them to any such
body of men, and they can have no right to take other peoples labors or
inventions to complete their own undertakings by.
p.163 -- PROGRESS
AS AN INVENTOR
"I have not
heard any news since I came to this place. I wish you would give
me a line and let me know how matters are going on. The stage boat
comes to Bordentown every Wednesday and Sunday from the Crooked Billet
Wharf."
Paine's mind was
still keenly on a trans-Atlantic voyage, but he does not refer to it in
his letters of 1786 to Clymer, Fitzsimmons, Franklin, Robert Morris, and
others of his group of intimate friends. He had hoped the measures
for his remuneration would enable him to visit England and France, and
that he might see his aged parents. But a period of two years and
a half had passed, and his financial condition was by no means improved.
He had early in the year (1787) been in correspondence with his father
and mother, who were still living in Thetford. It is known that he
received an affectionate letter from his father, who had entered his 78th
year. This letter, and other communications from his parents, were
no doubt in Paine's trunk at the time of his death. This invaluable
trunk, containing also Paine's correspondence with the most important figures
of the American revolution, and unpublished manuscripts, fell into the
hands of Madame Bonneville, Paine's executrix, and it was in all probability
destroyed by fire in St. Louis,
p.164 --
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Missouri, some time during
the decade commencing 1870.
During the spring of
1787 Paine journeyed frequently from Bordentown to Philadelphia, where
he had consultations with committees and friends. On March 31 he
wrote Franklin the following letter about his plans and prospects, about
his bridge and his anxiety to see his parents once more:
"I mentioned
in one of my essays my design of going this spring to Europe. -- I intend
landing in France and from thence England, -- and that I should take
the model with me. The time I had fixed with myself was May, but
understanding (since I saw you yesterday) that no French packet sails that
month, I must either take the April packet or wait till June. As
I can get ready by the April packet I intend not omitting the opportunity.
My father and mother are yet living, whom I am very anxious to see, and
have informed them of my coming over the ensuing summer.
"I suppose going from
hence by the stage on Wednesday for New York, and shall be glad to be favored
with the care of any letters of yours to France or England. My stay
in Paris, when with Col. Laurens, was so short that I do not feel myself
introduced there, for I was in no house but at Passy [*], and the Hotel
Col. Laurens was at. As I have taken a part in the revolution and
politics of this country, and am not an unknown character in the political
-------------------------------------------------
[*] Franklin's
residence in a suburb of Paris. -- Author.
p.165 --
PROGRESS AS AN INVENTOR
world, I conceive
it would be proper on my going to Paris, that I should pay my respects
to Count Vergennes, to whom I am personally unknown; and I shall be very
glad of a letter from you to him affording me that opportunity, or rendering
my waiting on him easy to me; for it so often happens that men live to
forfeit the reputation at one time they gained at another, that it is prudent
not to presume too much on one's self. The Marquis Lafayette I am
the most known to of any gentleman in France. Should he be absent
from Paris there are none I am much acquainted with. I am on exceeding
good terms with Mr. Jefferson which will necessarily be the first place
I go to. As I had the honor of your introduction to America it will
add to my happiness to have the same friendship continued to me on the
present occasion.
"Respecting the model,
I shall be obliged to you for a letter to some of the commissioners in
that department. I shall be glad to hear their opinion of it.
If they will undertake the experiment of two ribs, it will decide the matter
and promote the work here, -- but this need not be mentioned. The
Assembly have appointed another committee, consisting of Mr. Morris, Mr.
Clymer, Mr. Fitzsimmons, Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Robinson, to confer with me on
the undertaking. The matter therefore will remain suspended till
my return next winter. It is worth awaiting this event, because if
a single arch to that extent will answer, all difficulties in that river,
or others of the same condition, are overcome at once. "I will do
myself the pleasure of waiting on you to-morrow."
The committee in
Philadelphia, entrusted with the consideration of Paine's bridge, and the
feasibility
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of its erection across
the Schuylkill, for political or other reasons, deferred its decision so
long that the members lost interest in it. In a report, rendered
after Paine's departure for Europe, the committee approved the principles
of construction but said little more. [*]
--------------------------------------------------
[*]
In his "Nouv. Biog. Gnale," M. Chanut asserts that Paine's bridge
was not erected across the Schyulkill at Philadelphia, owing to "the imperfect
state of iron manufacture in America."
p.167
CHAPTER
XVI
THE
RETURN TO EUROPE
Paine Sails
for France .... Sees Jefferson in Paris .... Hastens to England
to Visit His Parents .... The French Academy Approves Paine's Bridge
Model .... "Prospects on the Rubicon" Forecasts French Revolution
.... The Iron Bridge Rouses Interest in Sir Joseph Banks ....
Paine Labors for Peace Between France and England .... Meets Edmund
Burke .... A Revealing Personal Letter.
WHEN Thomas
Paine sailed for Europe in April, 1787, it was his intention to remain
only one year. He spent there, instead of a single year, fifteen of the
most eventful years that could possibly crowd themselves into any man's
lifetime. He had been drawn to Europe very largely by an affectionate letter
from his father, now well along in years, as was also his mother. He hoped
to see both at least once more. The French packet upon which Paine sailed
had a swift passage, and, upon reaching France in May, Paine went immediately
to Paris, where he was received joyously by his old friend, Jefferson,
who discussed with him the iron bridge, of which Paine was soon to show
him a model.
There is a letter of
Jefferson, U. S. Minister in Paris, to his friend, Benjamin Vaughan, dated
July
p.168 --
THE RETURN TO EUROPE
2, 1787, in which we
get the first tidings of Paine's bridge in Europe. Jefferson says:
"Mr. Paine (Common
Sense) is here on his way to England. He has brought the model
of an iron-bridge, with which he supposes a single arch of four hundred
feet may be made. It has not yet arrived in Paris."
Paine was, however,
eager to visit England and see his parents in Thetford. He hurried
over and was shocked to learn that his father had died before he embarked
on his voyage across the ocean. But he found his mother still living,
in her ninety-first year, [*] enjoying the comforts that money regularly
transmitted by her none-too-affluent son ensured. Paine spent a good
deal of the summer and part of the autumn with his mother. He found
that she had become a devout Quaker, reacting from the creeds of the Church
of England, and adopting her husband's religious beliefs. It is probable
that Paine went with her to the old Quaker meeting-house in Thetford, to
which, in her declining years, she had become greatly attached.
What vivid memories the
distinguished writer must have had of his childhood days in Thetford, of
the ivy-grown meeting-house, unchanged through the
------------------------------------------
[*]
Paine's mother lived to the age of 94; his father died at 78.
p.169 --
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long years, of the solemn
gatherings he had seen in the old building, of the grave "testimonies"
he here heard, and a myriad other recollections!
While he was in Thetford
Jefferson wrote Paine asking him to sit for his portrait, whether for Jefferson's
personal collection or for a public institution is not revealed.
And Paine replied:
"I am much obliged
to you for the book you are so kind as to send me. The second part
of your letter, concerning taking my picture, I must feel as an honor done
to me, not as a favor asked of me but in this, as in other matters, I am
at the disposal of your friendship.
"The committee have among
themselves finally agreed on their report; I saw this morning it will be
read in the Academy on Wednesday. The report goes pretty fully to
support the principles of the construction, with their reasons for that
opinion."
While Pain's letter
has survived, Jefferson's seems to have disappeared. If a painting
was made of Paine in either London or Paris in 1787 or 1788, there is no
record of it.
Paine's good friend,
George Clymer, in Philadelphia, was not forgotten by the traveller.
Paine wrote Clymer on August 15 from Paris. His letter shows that
Paine's revolutionary project of an iron bridge
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spanning several hundred
feet, quite staggered the savants of the Academy of Sciences! The
letter follows:
"This comes
by Mr. Derby, of Massachusetts, who leaves Paris to-day to take shipping
at L'Orient for Boston. The enclosed for Dr. Franklin is from his
friend Mr. Le Roy, of the Academy of Sciences, respecting the bridge, and
the causes that have delayed the completing the report. An arch of
4 or 5 hundred feet is such an unprecedented thing, and will so much attract
notice in the northern part of Europe, that the Academy is cautious in
what manner to express their final opinion. It is, I find, their
custom to give reasons for their opinion, and this embarrasses them more
than the opinion itself. That the model is strong, and that a bridge
constructed on the same principles will also be strong, they appear to
be well agreed in, but to what particular causes to assign the strength
they are not agreed in. The committee was directed by the Academy
to examine all the models and plans for iron bridges that had been proposed
in France, and they unanimously gave the preference to our own, as being
the simplest, strongest, and lightest. They have likewise agreed
on some material points."
During this visit
to Paris Paine met eminent Frenchmen, such as Condorcet, Danton, Cardinal
De Brienne and Duchtelet. Paine wrote at this time his pamphlet
"Prospects
on the Rubicon" (Vol. IV. p. 321). The date at the end, August
20, 1787, is
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doubtless the date when
Paine finished his manuscript, but it is probable that he revised the proofs
in his mother's home in Thetford, and that he then added further text to
the proofs, and also gave his London address, "York Street, St. James Square."
Paine in this pamphlet, which was the first he had printed in Europe [*],
included a striking forecast concerning events with which the French mind
was then pregnant. Dr. Robinet quotes Paine's "Rubicon" in
his "Danton Emigr." In this work he asserts that Paine, like
Danton, and some of the other French luminaries of that period, was a Freemason.
Paine was the author
of an interesting and highly instructive treatise on the Origin of Freemasonry
(see
Vol. IX, p. 167) but, although many of his circle of friends were undoubtedly
members of that order, no conclusive proof has ever been adduced that Paine
was a Mason.
Paine sent to Sir Joseph
Banks, president of the Royal Society, his model of the bridge, which had
been approved by the Academy in Paris. Sir Joseph wrote Paine expressing
"great satisfaction," and added, "I expect many improvements from your
countrymen, who think with vigor and are in a great
----------------------------------------------------
[*] Paine's
pamphlet "The Case of the Officers of Excise' was merely a
petition to Parliament in 1772. It was not published until 1793.
(See Vol. X, p. 327.) -- Author.
p.172 --
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measure free from those
shackles of theory which are imposed on the minds of our people before
they are capable of exerting their mental faculties to advantage."
Paine drafted a proposal
for peace and friendship between England and France, and submitted it to
the Cardinal Minister, De Brienne, who approving the paper, signed his
endorsement of it. Paine personally carried the proposal of amity
between England and France to Edmund Burke.
Paine was at all times
the apostle of peace and the avowed enemy of war. Only in defense
of liberty, such as the struggle of the colonists for American independence,
was Paine's pen ever employed in advocacy of any war. A war for objects
other than the repulsion of invaders and aggressors was extremely repugnant
to him.
The following letter,
never published heretofore, from Thomas Paine to his old friend, George
Clymer, is probably the last letter written by Paine while in Paris in
1787. It contains some interesting allusions to John Adams:
"PARIS,
December 29, 1787.
"DEAR SIR:
"I received your favor
of . . . when at London, from which place I returned about a fortnight
since. I am
p.173 -- THE
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obliged to you
for the account you gave me of the steam. boat, the bridge and the plan
of the newly proposed Constitution. There are many excellent
things in the new system -- I perceive the difficulties you must have found
in debating on certain points, such as trial by juries, because in some
cases, such for instance, as that of the United States against any particular
State, if the trial is to be held in the delinquent State, a jury composed
from that State, would be a part of the deliquent, and consequently judges
in their own case.
"1t seems a wish with
all the Americans on this side the water, except Mr. John Adams, that the
President General has not been perpetually eligible. Mr. Adams, who has
some strange ideas, finds fault because the President is not for life,
and because the Presidency does not devolve by hereditary succession.
Too long a continuance in the presidency would probably introduce some
attempt at foreign influence, such as that in Poland and Holland.
"The Academy of Sciences
presented me their report on the model the twenty-ninth of August.
I went to London the day after, and intended sending you a copy from thence,
as I shall reserve the original to bring with me. The Academy has
given the same opinion as we formed in Philadelphia. The report recommends
the execution of the work, with their reasons upon which that opinion is
founded. While I was in London Mr. Beaumarchais has been applying
for a patent or privilege for erecting an iron bridge over the Seine, opposite
the King's Gardens, where the river is wider than at the middle.
------------------------------------------------
[*]
The model is at present in London in charge of Sir Joseph Banks.
p.174 --
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"But it is very
possible that after all the pains I have taken, and the money I have expended,
that some counterworking project will set itself up, and the hope of great
gain, or great interest, will attempt schemes, that after some less pains
will end in no bridge at all.
"Just after I got to
London the tumults of war began. The viciousness of that nation (Great
Britain) -- is inconceivable. They supposed France unprepared for
war, and her attention engrossed by domestic circumstances. And this
was reason enough for England to go to war!
"But a great deal of
this kind of cowardly bravery has disappeared since England has discovered
that a treaty is in a probable train of execution between Russia, the Emperor
(of Austria,) France and Spain. The probability of this Quadruple
Alliance already extends to retard the progress of a treaty proposed by
England with Russia and Holland, so that it is likely John Bull will be
at last left in the lurch.
"I intend staying here
until the Spring, and embarking for America in the April or May packet.
This letter will probably reach you soon enough to send me a little news.
Remember me with much affection to my friends around you.
"Your much obliged and
obt. hble. servt.,
THOMAS PAINE.
"Geo. Clymer, Esquire."
Paine and Jefferson
had many important conversations in Paris. Their talks were, of course,
chiefly on the subject of government. Jefferson was anxious
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that the American Constitution
should include a Declaration of Rights and expressed himself vehemently
in its favor. Paine was equally ardent in its advocacy. Their
efforts in behalf of a bill of rights to safeguard the interests of the
people were, alas! fruitless. Jefferson wrote Paine some comments
on the argument of James Wilson [*], who claimed that a Declaration of
Rights was unnecessary in a government without any powers not definitely
granted. He asserted that such a declaration might be interpreted
as implying "some degree of power over the matters it defined." It
is claimed that Wilson's beliefs were more in agreement with those of Paine
than with Jefferson's ideas. This letter from Paine to Jefferson,
bearing no date, was probably written at Thetford in 1788:
"After I got
home, being alone and wanting amusement, I sat down to explain to myself
(for there is such a thing) my ideas of national and civil rights, and
the distinction between them. I send them to you to see how nearly
we agree.
"Suppose twenty persons,
strangers to each other, to meet in a country not before inhabited.
Each would be a sovereign in his own natural right. His will would be his
law, but his power, in many cases, inadequate to his
-----------------------------------------
[*] Wilson
was later (1789-1798) a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court.
p.176 --
THE RETURN TO EUROPE
right; and the
consequence would be that each might be exposed, not only to each other,
but to the other nineteen. It would then occur to them that their
condition would be much improved, if a way could be devised to exchange
that quantity of danger into so much protection; so that each individual
should possess the strength of the whole number. As all their rights
in the first case are natural rights, and the exercise of those rights
supported only by their own natural individual power, they would begin
by distinguishing between those rights they could individually exercise,
fully and perfectly, and those they could not. Of the first kind
are the rights of thinking, speaking, forming and giving opinions, and
perhaps are those which can be fully exercised by the individual without
the aid of exterior assistance; or in other words, rights of personal competency.
Of the second kind are those of personal protection, of acquiring and possessing
property, in the exercise of which the individual natural power is less
than the natural right.
"Having drawn this line
they agree to retain individually the first class of rights, or those of
personal competency; and to detach from their personal possession the second
class, or those of defective power, and to accept in lieu thereof a right
to the whole power produced by a condensation of all the parts. These
I conceive to be civil rights, or rights of compact, and are distinguishable
from natural rights because in the one we act wholly in our own person,
in the other we agree not to do so, but act under the guarantee of society.
"It therefore follows
that the more of those imperfect natural rights or rights of imperfect
power we give up,
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and thus exchange,
the more security we possess; and as the word liberty is often mistakenly
put for security, Mr. Wilson has confused his argument by confounding the
terms. But it does not follow that the more natural rights of every
kind
we assign the more security we possess, because if we resign those
of the first class we may suffer much by the exchange; for where the right
and the power are equal with each other in the individual, naturally, they
ought to rest there.
"Mr. Wilson must have
some allusion to this distinction, or his position would be subject to
the inference you draw from it.
"I consider the individual
sovereignty of the States retained under the act of confederation to be
of the second class of right. It becomes dangerous because it is
defective in the power necessary to support it. It answers the pride
and purpose of few men in each State, but the State collectively is injured
by it."
A delightfully tender
and exceptionally interesting letter was written by Paine, in London, at
the beginning of the new year, to his charming young friend, Kitty Nicholson,
who was one of the girls attending the school at Bordentown. Paine
had known her there and in New York, and his letter was in reply to her
announcement of her marriage to Colonel Few. No letter of Paine is
more self-revealing. One need not seek further for the inmost heart
of Thomas Paine. This is Paine's letter to Mrs. Few:
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"LONDON,
January
6, 1789.
"I sincerely thank you
for your very friendly and welcome letter. I was in the country when
it arrived and did not receive it soon enough to answer it by the return
of the vessel.
"I very affectionately
congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Few on their happy marriage, and every branch
of the families allied by that connection; and I request my fair correspondent
to present me to her partner, and to say, for me, that be has obtained
one of the highest prizes on the wheel. Besides the pleasure which
your letter gives me to hear you are all happy and well, it relieves me
from a sensation not easy to be dismissed; and if you will excuse a few
dull thoughts for obtruding themselves into a congratulatory letter I will
tell you what it is. When I see my female friends drop off by matrimony
I am sensible of something that affects me like a loss in spite of all
the appearances of joy: I cannot help mixing the sincere compliment
of regret with that of congratulation. It appears as if I had outlived
or lost a friend. It seems to me as if the original was no more,
and that which she is changed to forsakes the circle and forgets the scenes
of former society. Felicities are cares superior to those she formerly
cared for, create to her a new landscape of life that excludes the little
friendships of the past. It is not every lady's mind that is sufficiently
capacious to prevent those greater objects crowding out the less, or that
can spare a thought to former friendships after she has given her hand
and heart to the man who loves her. But the sentiment your letter
contains has prevented these dull ideas from mixing with the congratulation
I present you, and is
p.179 -- THE
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so congenial
with the enlarged opinion I have always formed of you, that at the time
I read your letter with pleasure I read it with pride, because it convinces
me that I have some judgment in that most difficult science -- a lady's
mind. Most sincerely do I wish you all the good that heaven
can bless you with, and as you have in your own family an example of domestic
happiness you are already in the knowledge of obtaining it. That
no condition we can enjoy is an exemption from care -- that some shade
will mingle itself with the brightest sunshine of life -- that even our
affections may become the instruments of our sorrows -- that the sweet
felicities of home depend on good temper as well as on good sense, and
that there is always something to forgive even in the nearest and dearest
of our friends, -- are truths which, tho' too obvious to be told, ought
never to be forgotten; and I know you will not esteem my friendship the
less for impressing them upon you.
"Though I appear a sort
of wanderer, the married state has not a sincerer friend than I am.
It is the harbor of human life, and is, with respect to the things of this
world, what the next world is to this. It is home; and that one word
conveys more than any other word can express. For a few years we
may glide along the tide of youthful single life and be wonderfully delighted;
but it is a tide that flows but once, and what is still worse, it ebbs
faster than it flows, and leaves many a hapless voyager aground.
I am one, you see, that have experienced the fate I am describing.
I have lost my tide; it passed by while every thought of my heart was on
the wing for the salvation of my dear America, and I have now, as contentedly
as I can, made
p.180 -- THE
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myself a little
bower of willows on the shore that has the solitary resemblance of a home.
Should I always continue the tenant of this home, I hope my female acquaintance
will ever remember that it contains not the churlish enemy of their sex,
not the inaccessible cold hearted mortal, nor the capricious tempered oddity,
but one of the best and most affectionate of their friends.
"I did not forget the
Dunstable hat, but it was not on wear here when I arrived. That I
am a negligent correspondent I freely confess, and I always reproach myself
for it. You mention only one letter, but I wrote twice; once by Dr.
Derby, and another time by the Chevalier St. Triss -- by whom I also wrote
to Gen. Morris, Col. Kirkbride, and several friends in Philadelphia, but
have received no answers. I had one letter from Gen. Morris last
winter, which is all I have received from New York till the arrival of
yours.
"I thank you for the
details of news you give. Kiss Molly Field for me and wish her joy,
-- and all the good girls of Bordentown. How is my favorite Sally Morris,
my boy Joe, and my horse Button? pray let me know. Polly and Nancy Rogers,
-- are they married? or do they intend to build bowers as I have done?
If they do, I wish they would twist their green willows somewhere near
to mine.
"I am very much engaged
here about my bridge. There is one building of my construction at
Messrs. Walker's Iron Works in Yorkshire, and I have direction of it.
I am lately come from thence and shall return again in two or three weeks.
p.181 -- THE
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"As to news
on this side the water, the King is mad, and there is great bustle about
appointing a Regent. As it happens, I am in pretty close intimacy
with the heads of the opposition -- the Duke of Portland, Mr. Fox and Mr.
Burke. I have sent your letter to Mrs. Burke as a specimen of the
accomplishments of the American ladies. I sent it to Miss Alexander,
a lady you have heard me speak of, and I asked her to give me a few of
her thoughts how to answer it. She told me to write as I felt, and
I have followed her advice.
"I very kindly thank
you for your friendly invitation to Georgia and if I am ever within a thousand
miles of you, I will come and see you; though it be but for a day.
"You touch me on a very
tender part when you say my friends on your side the water 'cannot be reconciled
to the idea of my resigning my adopted America, even for my native England.'
They are right. Though I am in as elegant style of acquaintance here
as any American that ever came over, my heart and myself are 3000 miles
apart; and I had rather see my horse Button in his own stable, or eating
the grass of Bordentown or Morrisania, than see all the pomp and show of
Europe.
"A thousand years hence
(for I must indulge in a few thoughts), perhaps in less, America may be
what England now is! The innocence of her character that won the
hearts of all nations in her favor may sound like a romance, and her inimitable
virtue as if it had never been. The ruins of that liberty which thousands
bled for, or suffered to obtain, may just furnish materials for a village
tale or extort a sigh from rustic sensibility, while the
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fashionable
of that day, enveloped in dissipation, shall deride the principle and deny
the fact.
"When we contemplate
the fall of empires and the extinction of nations of the ancient world,
we see but little to excite our regret than the mouldering ruins of pompous
palaces, magnificent monuments, lofty pyramids, and walls and towers of
the most costly workmanship. But when the empire of America shall
fall, the subject for contemplative sorrow will be infinitely greater than
crumbling brass or marble can inspire. It will not then be said,
here stood a temple of vast antiquity, -- here rose a Babel of invisible
height, or there a palace of sumptuous extravagance; but here, ah painful
thought! the noblest work of human wisdom, the grandest scene of human
glory, the fair cause of freedom rose and fell!
"Read this and then ask
if I forget America -- But I'll not be dull if I can help it, so I leave
off, and close my letter to-morrow, which is the day the mail is made up
for America.
"January 7th. I have
heard this morning with extreme concern of the death of our worthy friend
Capt. Read. Mrs. Reed lives in a house of mine at Bordentown, and
you will much oblige me by telling her how much I am affected by her loss;
and to mention to her, with that delicacy which such an offer and her situation
require, and which no one knows better how to convey than yourself, that
the two years' rent which is due I request her to accept of, and to consider
herself at home till she hears further from me.
"This is the severest
winter I ever knew in England; the frost has continued upwards of five
weeks, and is still
p.183 -- THE
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likely to continue.
All the vessels from America have been kept off by contrary winds.
The 'Polly' and the 'Pigeon' from Philadelphia
and the 'Eagle' from Charleston are just got in.
"If you should leave
New York before I arrive (which I hope will not be the case) and should
pass through Philadelphia, I wish you would me the favor to present my
compliments to Mrs. Powell, the lady whom I wanted an opportunity to introduce
you to when you were in Philadelphia, but was prevented by your being at
a house where I did not visit.
"There is a Quaker favorite
of mine at New York, formerly Miss Watson of Philadelphia; she is now married
to Dr. Lawrence, and is an acquaintance of Mrs. Oswald: be so kind as to
make her a visit for me. You will like her conversation. She
has a little of the Quaker primness -- but of the pleasing kind -- about
her.
"I am always distressed
at closing a letter, because it seems like taking leave of my friends after
a parting conversation. -- Captain Nicholson, Mrs. Nicholson, Hannah, Fanny,
James, and the little ones, and you my dear Kitty, and your partner for
life God bless you all! and send me safe back to my much loved America!
"THOMAS PAINE -- t. 52.
"or if you better like it "'Common Sense.'
"This comes by the packet
which sails from Falmouth, 300 miles from London; but by the first vessel
from London to New York I will send you some magazines. In the meantime
be so kind as to write to me by the first
p.184 -- THE
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opportunity.
Remember me to the family at Morrisania, and all my friends at New York
and Bordentown. Desire Gen. Morris to take another guinea of Mr.
Constable, who has some money of mine in his hands, and give it to my boy
Joe. Tell Sally to take care of 'Button.' Then direct for me
at Mr. Peter Whiteside's London. When you are at Charleston remember
me to my dear old friend Mrs. Lawrence, Col. and Mrs. L. Morris, and Col.
Washington; and at Georgia, to Col. Walton. Adieu."
p.185
CHAPTER
XVII
AN INVENTIVE GENIUS
The Iron Bridge
Patented .... Ingenuities of Construction and Design .... Suggested
Peaceful Use for Gunpowder .... The Germ Idea of Modern Internal
Combustion Engines .... A Planing Machine .... Application
of Steam for Propulsion of Ships .... Paine's Iron Bridge is Built
.... His Popularity.
THOMAS
PAINE was distinctly an inventor, an originator of
entirely new projects, not only in politics but in mechanical contrivances
as well.
Joel Barlow, who knew
Paine well, wrote: "The biographers of Paine should not forget his mathematical
acquirements and his mechanical genius." Both were of a very high
order, and Barlow has done well to emphasize Paine's abilities in both
these directions. Certainly Paine's ingenuity in the contrivance
of mechanical devices should not be overlooked in the dazzling light of
his political and literary accomplishments.
What proportion of the
vast number of persons crossing the world's great suspension bridges today
[*]
--------------------------------------------
[*] To
mention the bridges of but a single city, statistics show that an average
of more than one million persons cross the bridges connecting New York
and Brooklyn every day of the year.
p.186 --
AN INVENTIVE GENIUS
are aware that Thomas
Paine invented the iron bridge which supplanted the stone and wooden structures,
which were the only bridges in Paine's day?
The iron bridge has been
replaced by the steel bridge, it is true, but the transmutation of iron
into steel, which came long after the era of Thomas Paine, made, of course,
no change in the basic principle underlying Paine's invention.
In the patent granted
Paine by the British government of "His most Excellent Majesty, King George
III," on August 26, 1788, Paine describes the bridge, (Patent No. 1667).
He says in the specification
that
"The idea and
construction of this arch is taken from the figure of a spider's circular
web, of which it resembles a section, and from a conviction that when nature
empowered this insect to make a web she also instructed her in the strongest
mechanical method of constructing it. Another idea, taken from nature
in the construction of this arch, is that of increasing the strength of
matter by dividing and combining it, and thereby causing it to act over
a larger space than it would occupy in a solid state, as is seen in the
quills of birds, bones of animals, reeds, canes, &c. The curved
bars of the arch are composed of pieces of any length joined together to
the whole extent of the arch, and take curvature by bending."
p.187 --
AN INVENTIVE GENIUS
The network of cables
supporting the Brooklyn bridge gives the impression of a spider's web,
and the designers of this modern bridge, erected in the latter part of
the nineteenth century, had either seen Paine's description, or the ingenious
construction on the lines of the spider web described by Paine was fortuitously
adopted without reference to Paine's work.
It is, indeed, interesting
and ironic to think of George III granting a patent to the man who invented
the modern Republic, and who was as responsible as himself for "the principal
jewel in the British crown" (America) "dropping out at his coronation!"
Paine, with his detestation
of war as a means of settling disputes between nations and as a means of
aggrandizement, hoped that some better use might be found for gunpowder
than its employment solely for the purposes of wholesale murder.
He wrote the following regarding gunpowder:
"When I consider
the wisdom of nature I must think that she endowed matter with this extraordinary
property for other purposes than that of destruction. Poisons are
capable of other uses than that of killing. If the power which an
ounce of gunpowder contains could be detailed out as steam or water can
be it would be a most commodious natural power."
p.188 --
AN INVENTIVE GENIUS
Later Paine suggested
the applicability of successive small explosions of gunpowder on the periphery
of a wheel for the purpose of producing rotation. Here is the germ
of the idea of the automobile motor of the present day, and Paine is revealed
as thinking a hundred years ahead of his time in mechanics.
Besides these ingenious
contrivances Paine invented a planing machine at a time when all planing
and other work with wood was done by hand, a new and improved crane, the
smokeless candle, his wheel of concentric rim and other devices previously
mentioned. The iron bridge was, no doubt, the most important of Paine's
inventions, and he, himself, seems to have so regarded it. It is
mentioned in many of his letters to Jefferson, Franklin, Clymer and others
of his circle of intimate friends.
Paine was one of the
inventors of the steamboat. William Henry, Jr., an eminent engineer, of
Lancaster, Pa., at whose house in that city, Paine wrote "Crisis V,"
addressed to General Howe, left papers in which he told of Paine explaining
to him the method by which steam could be applied to navigation.
Sir Richard Phillips, who assisted Fulton in his steamboat experiments
on the Thames, credits Paine with priority in the application of steam
to
p.139 --
AN INVENTIVE GENIUS
navigation. He
had probably learned about Paine's labors in this direction from Fulton,
who was one of Paine's friends. In the controversy between Fitch
and Rumsey, Paine's priority to both was conceded. Fitch publicly
expressed his obligations to Paine. Paine's plan for a steamboat
contemplated a turbine application of steam to a wheel. It is interesting
to note that all four inventors of the steamboat, Paine, Fitch, Rumsey
and Fulton, conducting their experiments independently, were close personal
friends.
One of the four inventors,
Fulton, who labored on the application of steam to navigation, received
all the credit. The others are practically unknown as inventors.
Paine's iron bridge was
built in 1789 at the famous iron works of the Messrs. Walker, at Rotherham,
in Yorkshire, England. A special workshop was fitted up for Paine, and
there he was visited by famous English and French engineers. In both
Rotherham and London the bridge inventor was lionized, quite as Franklin
had been honored in Paris. There were eminent visitors, too, at the
iron works whose fame rested on their literary and political laurels.
Others, too, there were of the aristocracy and even the nobility.
p.190 --
AN INVENTIVE GENIUS
Paine was very popular
at the iron works. Thomas A. Edison [*], a life-long admirer of Thomas
Paine, states that an English machinist, one of his employees, informed
him forty years ago that he had worked in the machine-shop where Paine's
bridge was made. The workmen at that shop had held Paine in such
high esteem for his many generous acts that they had set apart an anvil
Paine had used, and surrounded it with a railing which bore a commemorative
tablet expressing their appreciation of Paine's kindnesses. Paine
was a very kind man. The record of his life proves it, and the men
in the iron-works at Rotherham testified to their affection for the great
man by the erection of this touching tribute.
There are many memories
of Paine still cherished at Rotherham, and, besides the anvil which Paine
himself used, there have been carefully preserved several of his tools.
The following letter,
never published heretofore, from Thomas Paine to some unknown person, probably
in London, extends a cordial invitation to visit the iron-works, where
the "experiment rib" of the bridge has been erected.
-------------------------------------------------
[*] Mr.
Edison is First Vice-President of the Thomas Paine National Historical
Association, New York.
p.191 --
AN INVENTIVE GENIUS
"ROTHERHAM,
May 1, 1789.
"SIR:
"We have erected our
experiment rib, and struck the center. The Messrs. Walker join me
in compliments, and an invitation to you to come and survey our handiwork.
Please favor me with a line when we may expect you, that I may not be out
of the way.
"I am, Sir,
"Your obed't Humble Servt,
"THOMAS PAINE."
I have seen only
one other letter written by Paine at Rotherham in which the bridge is mentioned.
This is a letter to Jefferson in Paris:
"ROTHERHAM,
YORKSHIRE, July 13. --
The Walkers are to find
all the materials, and fit and frame them ready for erecting, put them
on board a vessel and send them to London. I am to undertake all
expense from that time and to complete the erecting. We intend first
to exhibit it and afterwards put it up to sale, or dispose of it by private
contract, and after paying the expenses of each party the remainder to
be equally divided -- one half theirs, the other mine. My principal
object in this plan is to open the way for a bridge over the Thames. .
. . I shall now have occasion to draw upon some funds I have in America.
I have one thousand dollars stock in the Bank at Philadelphia, and two
years interest due upon it last April, 180 in the hands of General Morris;
140 with Mr. Constable of New York; a house at Bordentown, and a farm
p.192 -- AN
INVENTIVE GENIUS
at New Rochelle.
The stock and interest in the bank, which Mr. Willing manages for me, is
the easiest negotiated, and full sufficient for what I shall want.
On this fund I have drawn fifteen guineas payable to Mr. Trumbull, tho'
I shall not want the money longer than till the exhibition and sale of
the bridge. I had rather draw than ask to borrow of any body here.
"If you go to America
this year I shall be very glad if you can manage this matter for me, by
giving me credit for two hundred pounds, on London, and receiving that
amount of Mr. Willing. I am not acquainted with the method of negotiating
money matters, but if you can accommodate me in this, and will direct me
how the transfer is to be made, I shall be much obliged to you. Please
direct to me under cover to Mr. Trumbull. I have some thoughts of coming
over to France for two or three weeks, as I shall have little to do here
until the bridge is ready for erecting.
p.193
CHAPTER
XVIII
CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON, 1788-89
Insanity of
George III .... A Week With Edmund Burke.... Talk of a Regency .... Intimacy
With Burke .... Mr. Pitt and Parliament .... The King Improves in Health
.... Where to Fight England.
PAINE'S confidential
letters to his intimate friend, Jefferson, then the U. S. Minister to France,
were written from London in the years 1788 and 1789. They contain
a good deal of important supplementary information about the construction
of the bridge and also some interesting news of political matters in England.
In one of the letters Paine mentions the insanity of the king, George III,
with whose malady Paine says he believes Jefferson is already cognizant.
In another letter he mentions spending a week at the country home of Edmund
Burke, whose book in defense of monarchy had not yet been written, nor,
of course, Paine's brilliant reply, "Rights of Man."
Since the return of Adams
to America Jefferson received little information, upon which he felt he
could rely, about affairs in England, and Paine was in a position to supply
him with news he desired. He had written Paine: "I have great confidence
in your
p.194 --
CONFIDENTIAL LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
communications, and since
Mr. Adams' departure I am in need of authentic information from that country."
Their great friendship is evidenced by the way in which Jefferson subscribes
his letters to Paine: "I am, with great and sincere attachment, dear sir,
your affectionate friend and servant." Should a critic believe that
in Paine's letters he detects any note of egotism, he may be reminded that
the letters are confidential communications from a very intimate friend.
The letters were not intended for any eyes but Jefferson's.
These are Paine's letters:
"LONDON,
BROAD
STREET BUILDINGS, No. 13. Sept.
9, 1788.
That I am a bad correspondent
is so general a complaint against me, that I must expect the same accusation
from you -- But hear me first -- When there is no matter to write upon,
a letter is not worth the trouble of receiving and reading, and while any
thing which is to be the subject of a letter is in suspense, it is difficult
to write and perhaps best to let it alone -- 'least said is soonest mended,'
and nothing said requires no mending.
"The model has the good
fortune of preserving in England the reputation which it received from
the Academy of Sciences. It is a favorite hobby horse with all who
have seen it; and every one who has talked with me on the subject advised
me to endeavor to obtain a Patent, as it is only by that means that I can
secure to myself the
p.195 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
direction and
management. For this purpose I went, in company with Mr. Whiteside
to the office which is an appendage to Lord Sydney's -- told them who I
was, and made an affidavit that the construction was my own invention.
This was the only step I took in the business. Last Wednesday I received
a patent for England, the next day a patent for Scotland, and I am to have
one for Ireland.
"As I had already the
opinion of the scientific judges both in France and England on the model,
it was also necessary that I should have that of the practical iron men
who must finally be the executors of the work. There are several
capital iron works in this country, the principal of which are those in
Shropshire, Yorkshire, and Scotland. It was my intention to have
communicated with Mr. Wilkinson, who is one of the proprietors of the Shropshire
Iron Works, and concerned in those in France, but his departure for Sweden
before I had possession of the patents prevented me. The iron works
in Yorkshire belonging to the Walkers near to Sheffield are the most eminent
in England in point of establishment and property. The proprietors
are reputed to be worth two hundred thousand pounds and consequently capable
of giving energy to any great undertaking. A friend of theirs who
had seen the model wrote to them on the subject, and two of them came to
London last Friday to see it and talk with me on the business. Their
opinion is very decided that it can be executed either in wrought or cast
iron, and I am to go down to their works next week to erect an experiment
arch. This is the point I am now got to, and until now I had nothing
to inform you of. If I succeed in erecting the arch all reasoning
and opinion will be at an end, and, as this will
p.196 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
soon be known,
I shall not return to France till that time; and until then I wish every
thing to remain respecting my bridge over the Seine, in the state I left
matters in when I came from France. With respect to the patents in
England it is my intention to dispose of them as soon as I have established
the certainty of the construction.
"Besides the ill success
of Blackfriars Bridge, two bridges built successively on the same spot,
the last by Mr. Smeaton, at Hexham, over the Tyne in Northumberland, have
fallen down, occasioned by quicksands under the bed of the river.
If therefore arches can be extended in the proportion the model promises,
the construction in certain situations, without regard to cheapness or
dearness, will be valuable in all countries. . . . As to English
news or politics, there is little more than what the public papers contain.
The assembling the States General, and the reappointment of Mr. Neckar,
made considerable impression here. They overawe a great deal of the
English habitual rashness, and check that triumph of presumption which
they indulged themselves in with respect to what they called the deranged
and almost ruinous condition of the finances of France. They acknowledge
unreservedly that the natural resources of France are greater than those
of England, but they plume themselves on the superiority of the means necessary
to bring national resources forth. But the two circumstances above
mentioned serve very well to lower this exaltation.
"Some time ago I spent
a week at Mr. Burke's, and the Duke of Portland's in Buckinghamshire.
You will recollect that the Duke was the member during the time of the
coalition -- he is now in the opposition, and I find the opposition
p.197 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
as much warped
in some respects as to continental politics as the Ministry. -- What the
extent of the treaty with Russia is, Mr. B[urke] says that he and all the
opposition are totally unacquainted with; and they speak of it not as a
very wise measure, but rather tending to involve England in unnecessary
continental disputes. The preference of the opposition is to a connection
with Prussia if it could have been obtained. Sir George Staunton
tells me that the interference with respect to Holland last year met with
considerable opposition from part of the Cabinet. Mr. Pitt was against
it at first, but it was a favorite measure with the King, and that the
opposition at that crisis contrived to have it known to him that they were
disposed to support his measures. This together with the notification
of the 16th of September gave Mr. Pitt cause and pretence for changing
his ground.
"The Marquis of Landsdown
is unconnected either with the Ministry or the opposition. His politics
is distinct from both. His plan is a sort of armed neutrality which
has many advocates. In conversation with me he reprobated the conduct
of the Ministry towards France last year as operating to 'cut the throat
of confidence' (this was his expression) between France and England
at a time when there was a fair opportunity of improving it.
"The enmity of this country
against Russia is as bitter as it ever was against America, and is carried
to every pitch of abuse and vulgarity. What I hear in conversations
exceeds what may be seen in the news-papers. They are sour and mortified
at every success she acquires, and voraciously believe and rejoice in the
most improbable
p.198 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
accounts and
rumors to the contrary. You may mention this to Mr. Simelin
on any terms you please for you can. not exceed the fact.
"There are those who
amuse themselves here in the hopes of managing Spain. The notification
which the Marquis del Campo made last year to the British Cabinet, is perhaps
the only secret kept in this country. Mr. B[urke] tells me that the
opposition knows nothing of it. They all very freely admit that if
the combined fleets had had thirty or forty thousand land forces, when
they came up the channel last war, there was nothing in England to oppose
their landing, and that such a measure would have been fatal to their resources,
by at least a temporary destruction of national credit. This is the
point on which this country is most impressible. Wars carried on
at a distance, they care but little about, and seem always disposed to
enter into them. It is bringing the matter home to them that makes
them fear and feel, for their weakest part is at home. This I take
to be the reason of the attention they are paying to Spain; for while France
and Spain make a common cause and start together, they may easily overawe
this country.
"I intended sending this
letter by Mr. Parker, but he goes by way of Holland, and as I do not choose
to send it by the English post, I shall desire Mr. Bartholemy to forward
it to you.
"Remember me with much
affection to the Marquis de Lafayette. This letter will serve for
two letters. Whether I am in London or the country any letter to
me at Mr. Whiteside's, Merchant, No. 13 Broad Street Buildings, will come
safe. My compliments to Mr. Short."
p.199 --
CONFIDENTIAL LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
"LONDON,
September
15.
"I have not heard of
Mr. [Lewis] Littlepage since I left Paris, -- if you have, I shall be glad
to know it. As he dined sometimes at Mr. Neckar's, he undertook to
describe the Bridge to him. Mr. Neckar very readily conceived it.
If you have an opportunity of seeing Mr. Neckar, and see it convenient
to renew the subject, you might mention that I am going forward with an
experiment arch. -- Mr. Le Couteulx desired me to examine the construction
of the Albion Steam Mills erected by Bolton and Watt. I have
not yet written to him because I had nothing certain to write about.
I have talked with Mr. Rumsey, who is here, upon this matter, and who appears
to me to be master of that subject, and who has procured a model of the
Mill, which is worked originally from the steam. . . . When you see
Mr. Le Roy please to present my compliments. I hope to realize the
opinion of the Academy on the Model, in which case I shall give the Academy
the proper information. We have no certain accounts here of the arrangement
of the new Ministry. The papers mention Count St. Preist for Foreign
Affairs. When you see him please to present my compliments. . . .
Please to present my compliments to M. and Madame de Corney."
"LONDON,
December
16.
"That the King is insane
is now old news. He yet continues in the same state, and the Parliament
are on the business of appointing a Regent. The Dukes of York and
Gloucester have both made speeches in the house of Peers. An embarrassing
question, whether the Prince of Wales has a right in himself by succession
during the incapacity of his father, or whether the right must derive to
him thro' Parliament,
p.200 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
has been agitated
in both Houses. [Illegible] and the speeches of York and Gloucester of
avoiding the question. This day is fixed for bringing the matter
on in the house of Commons. A change of Ministry is expected, and
I believe determined on. The Duke of Portland and his friends will
in all probability come in. I shall be exceedingly glad to hear from
you, and to know if you have received my letters, and also when you intend
setting off for America, or whether you intend to visit England before
you go. In case of change of Ministry here there are certain matters
I shall be glad to see you upon. Remember me to the Marquis de Lafayette.
We bear good things from France, and I sincerely wish them all well and
happy. Remember me to Mr. Short and Mr. Mazzei."
"LONDON,
Jan.
15, 1789.
"My last letter requested
to know if you had any thoughts of coming to England before you sailed
to America. There will certainly be a change of Ministry, and probably
some change of measures, and it might not be inconvenient if you could
know before your sailing, for the information of the new Congress, what
measures the new Ministry here intended to pursue or adopt with respect
to commercial arrangements with America. I am in some intimacy with
Mr. Burke, and after the new Ministry are formed he has proposed to introduce
me to them. The Duke of Portland, at whose seat in the country I
was a few days last summer, will be at the head of the Treasury, and Mr.
Fox Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The King continues, I believe,
as mad as ever. It appears that he has amassed several millions of
money, great part of which is in foreign funds. He had made a Will,
while he had his senses, and devised it
p.201 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
among his children,
but a second Will has been produced, made since he was mad, dated the 25th
of Oct., in which he gives his property to the Queen. This will probably
produce much dispute, and it is attended with many suspicious circumstances.
It came out in the examination of the physicians, that one of them, Dr.
Warrens, on being asked the particular time of his observing the King's
insanity, said the twenty-second of October, and some influence has been
exerted to induce him to retract that declaration, or to say that the insanity
was not so much as to prevent him making a Will, which he has refused to
do."
"LONDON,
February 16.
Your favor of the 23d
December continued to the of Janry. came safe to hand, for which I thank
you. I begin this without knowing of any opportunity of conveyance,
and shall follow the method of your letter by writing on till an opportunity
offers.
"I thank you for the
many and judicious observations about my bridge. I am exactly in
your ideas as you will perceive by the following account. -- I went to
the Iron Works the latter end of Oct. My intention at the time of
writing to you was to construct an experiment arch of 250 feet, but in
the first place, the season was too far advanced to work out of doors and
an arch of that extent could not be worked within doors, and nextly, there
was a prospect of a real bridge being wanted on the spot of 90 feet extent.
The person who appeared disposed to erect a bridge is Mr. Foljambe, nephew
to the late Sir George Saville, and member in the last Parliament for Yorkshire.
He lives
p.202 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
about three
miles from the works, and the River Don runs in front of his house, over
which there is an old ill-constructed Bridge which he wants to remove.
These circumstances determined me to begin an arch of 90 feet with an elevation
of 5 feet. This extent I could manage within doors by working half
the arch at a time. . . . A great part of our time, as you will naturally
suppose, was taken up in preparations, but after we began to work we went
on rapidly, and that without any mistake, or anything to alter or amend.
The foreman of the works is a relation to the proprietors, an excellent
mechanic, and who fell into all my ideas with great ease and penetration.
I stayed at the works till one half the rib, 45 feet, was completed and
framed horizontally together and came up to London at the meeting of Parliament
on the 4th of December. The foreman, whom, as I told him, I should
appoint 'President of the Board of Works, in my absence,' wrote me that
he has got the other half together with much less trouble than the first.
He is now preparing for erecting, and I for returning.
"February 26.
A few days ago I received
a letter from Mr. Foljambe in which he says: 'I saw the rib of your bridge.
In point of elegance and beauty, it far exceeded my expectations and is
certainly beyond anything I ever saw.' -- My model and myself had many
visitors while I was at the works. A few days after I got there,
Lord FitzWilliam, heir to the Marquis of Rockingham, came with Mr. Burke.
The former gave the workmen five guineas and invited me to Wentworth House,
a few miles distant from the works, where I went, and stayed a few days.
p.203 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
"This bridge
I expect will bring forth something greater, but in the meantime I feel
like a bird from its nest, and wishing most anxiously to return.
Therefore, as soon as I can bring anything to bear, I shall dispose of
the contract and bid adieu. I can very truly say that my mind is
not at home.
"I am very much rejoiced
at the account you give me of the state of affairs in France. I feel
exceedingly interested in the happiness of that nation. They are
now got, or getting, into the right way, and the present reign will be
more immortalized in France than any that ever preceded it. They
have all died away, forgotten in the common mass of things, but this will
be to France like an Anno Mundi, or an Anno Domini. The happiness
of doing good and the pride of doing great things unite themselves in this
business. But as there are two kinds of pride the little and the
great, the privileged orders will in some degree be governed by this division.
Those of little pride (I mean littleminded pride) will be schismatical,
and those of the great pride will be orthodox, with respect to the States
General. Interest will likewise have some share, and could this operate
freely it would arrange itself on the orthodox side. To enrich a
nation is to enrich the individuals which compose it. To enrich the
farmer is to enrich the farm -- and consequently the landlord; -- for whatever
the farmer is, the farm will be. The richer the subject, the richer
the revenue, because the consumption from which taxes are raised is in
proportion to the abilities of people to consume; therefore the most effectual
method to raise both the revenue and the rental of a country is to raise
the condition of the people, - - or that order known
p.204 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
in France by
the Tiers
Etat.
But I ought to ask pardon for entering into reasonings in a letter to you,
and only do it because I like the subject.
"I observe in all the
companies I go into the impression which the present circumstances of France
has upon this country. An internal alliance
in
France [between throne and people] is an alliance which England never dreamed
of, and which she most dreads. Whether she will be better or worse
tempered afterwards I cannot judge of, but I believe she will be more cautious
in giving offence. She is likewise impressed with an idea that a
negotiation is on foot between the King [Louis XVI.] and the Emperor for
adding Austrian Flanders to France. This appears to me such a probable
thing, and may be rendered so conducive to the interest and good of all
the parties concerned, that I am inclined to give it credit and wish it
success. I hope then to see the Scheldt opened, for it is a sin to
refuse the bounties of nature. On these matters I shall be glad of
your opinion. I think the States General of Holland could not be
in earnest when they applied to France for the payment of the quota to
the Emperor. All things considered to request it was meanness, and
to expect it absurdity. I am more inclined to think they made it
an opportunity to find how they stood with France. Absalom (I think
it was) set fire to his brother's field of corn to bring on a conversation.
"March 12.
With respect to political
matters here, the truth is, the people are fools. They have no discernment
into principles and consequences. Had Mr. Pitt proposed a National
Convention, at the time of the King's insanity, he had done right; but
instead of this he has absorbed the
p.205 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
right of the
nation into a right of Parliament, -- one house of which (the Peers) is
hereditary in its own right, and over which the people have no control
(not so much as they have over their King); and the other elective by only
a small part of the nation. Therefore he has lessened instead of
increased the rights of the people; but as they have not sense enough to
see it; they have been huzzaing him. There can be no fixed principles
of government, or anything like a constitution in a country where the government
can alter itself, or one part of it supply the other.
"Whether a man that has
been so completely mad as not to be managed but by force and the mad shirt
can ever be confided in afterwards as a reasonable man, is a matter I have
very little opinion of. Such a circumstance, in my estimation, if
mentioned, ought to be a perpetual disqualification.
"The emperor I am told
has entered a caveat against the Elector of Hanover (not the electoral
vote) for king of the Romans. John Bull, however, is not so mad as
he was, and a message has been manufactured for him to Parliament in which
there is nothing particular. The treaty with Prussia is not yet before
Parliament but is to be.
"Had the regency gone
on and the new administration been formed I should have been able to communicate
some matters of business to you, both with respect to America and France;
as an interview for that purpose was agreed upon and to take place as soon
as the persons who were to fill the offices should succeed. I am
the more confidential with those persons, as they are distinguished by
the name of the Blue & Bluff, -- a dress taken up during
p.206 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
the American War, and is the undress uniform of General Washington
with lapels which they still wear. But, at any rate, I do not think
it is worth while for Congress to appoint any Minister to this Court.
The greater distance Congress observes on this point, the better.
It will be all money thrown away to go to any expense about it -- at least,
during the present reign. I know the nation well, and the line of
acquaintance I am in, enables me to judge better than any other American
can judge especially at a distance. If Congress should have any business
to state to the government here, it can easily be done through its Minister
in Paris -- but the seldomer the better.
"I believe I am not so much in the good graces of the Marquis of Landsdowne
as I used to be -- I do not answer his purpose. He was always talking
of a sort of reconnection of England and America, and my coldness and reserve
on this subject checked communication."
"LONDON, APRIL 10.
The king continues in his amended state, but Dr. Willis, his son, and
attendants are yet about his person. He has not been to Parliament,
nor made any public appearance, but he has fixed April 23 for a public
thanksgiving, and he is to go in great parade to offer up his devotions
at St. Paul's on that day. Those about him have endeavored to dissuade
him from this ostentatious pilgrimage, most probably from an apprehension
of some effect it may have upon him, but he persists. . . . The acts
for regulating the trade with America are to be continued as last year.
A paper from the Privy Council respecting the American fly is before Parliament.
I had some conversation with Sir Joseph Banks upon this
p.207 -- CONFIDENTIAL LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
subject, as he was the person whom the Privy Council referred
to. I told him that the Hessian fly attacked only the green plant,
and did not exist in dry grain. He said that with respect to the
Hessian fly, they had no apprehension, but it was the weevil they alluded
to. I told him the weevil had always more or less been in the wheat
countries of America, and that if the prohibition was on that account it
was a necessary fifty or sixty years ago, as now; that I believe it was
only a political manoeuvre of the ministry to please the landed interest,
as a balance for prohibiting the exportation of wool, to please the manufacturing
interest. He did not reply, and as we are on very sociable terms
I went farther by saying -- The English ought not to complain of the non-payment
of debts from America while they prohibit the means of payment.
"I suggest to you a thought on this subject. The debts due before
the war, ought to be distinguished from the debts contracted since, and
all and every mode of payment and remittance under which they have been
discharged at the time they were contracted ought to accompany those debts,
so long as any of them shall continue unpaid; because the circumstances
of payment became united with the debt, and cannot be separated by subsequent
acts of one side only. If this was taken up in America, and insisted
on as a right co-eval with and inseparable from those debts, it would force
some of the restrictions here to give way.
"You speak very truly of this country when you say 'that they are slumbering
under a half reformation of politics and religion, and cannot be excited
by any thing they hear or see to question the remains of prejudice.'
Their ignorance on some matters, is unfathomable, for
p.208 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
instance the Bank of England discounts bills at 5 p cent, but
a proposal is talked of for discounting at 4; and the reason given is
the vast quantity of money, and that money of the good houses discounts
at 4; from this they deduce the great ability and credit of the nation.
Whereas the contrary is the case. This money is all in paper, and
the quantity is greater than the object to circulate it upon, and therefore
shows that the market is glutted, and consequently the ability for farther
paper excretions is lessened. -- If a war should ever break out between
the countries again, this is the spot where it ought to be prosecuted.
They neither feel nor care for anything at a distance, but are frightened
and spiritless at everything which happens at home. The combined
fleet coming up the Channel, Paul Jones, and the Mob of 1738, are the dreadful
eras of this country. But for national puffing none equals them.
The addresses which have been presented are stuffed with nonsense of this
kind. One of them published in the London Gazette and presented by
a Sir William Appleby begins thus, -- 'Britain, the Queen of Isles, the
pride of Nations, the Arbitres of Europe, perhaps of the world.'
. . . On the receipt of your last I went to Sir Joseph Banks
to inform him of your having beard from Ledyard, from Grand Cairo, but
found he had a letter from him of the same date. Sir Joseph is one
of the society for promoting that undertaking. He has an high opinion
of Ledyard, and thinks him the only man fitted for such an exploration.
As you may probably hear of Ledyard by accounts that may not reach here,
Sir Joseph will be obliged to you to communicate to him any
p.209 -- CONFIDENTIAL LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
matters respecting him that may come to you (Sir Joseph Banks,
Bart., Soho Square). . . .
"While writing this I am informed that the Minister has had a conference
with some of the American creditors, and proposed to them to assume the
debts and give them ten shillings on the pound -- the conjecture is that
he means, when the new Congress is established, to demand the payment.
If you are writing to General Washington, it may not be amiss to mention
this -- and if I hear farther on the matter I will inform you. But,
as being a money matter it cannot come forward but thro' Parliament, there
will be notice given of the business. This would be a proper time
to show that the British Acts since the Peace militate against the payment
by narrowing the means by which those debts might have been paid when they
were contracted, and which ought to be considered as constituant parts
of the contract."
"June 17.
I received your last to the 21st May. I am just now informed of
Messrs. Parker and Cutting setting off to-morrow morning for Paris by whom
this will be delivered to you. Nothing new is showing here.
The trial of Hastings, and the Examination of evidence before the House
of Commons into the Slave Trade still continue.
"I wrote Sir Joseph Banks an account of my Experiment Arch. In
his answer he informs me of its being read before
the Royal Society who expressed 'great satisfaction at the Communication!'
'I expect' says Sir Joseph 'many improvements from your Countrymen who
think with vigor, and are in a great measure free from those shackles of
Theory which are imposed on the minds of our people before they are capable
of exerting their mental faculties to
p.210 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
advantage!
In the close of his letter he says: 'We have lost poor Ledyard. He
had agreed with certain Moors to conduct him to Sennar. The time
for their departure was arrived when he found himself ill, and took a large
dose of emetic tartar, burst a blood vessel in the operation, which carried
him off in three days. We sincerely lament his loss, as the papers
we have received from him are full of those emanations of spirit, which
taught you to construct a bridge without any reference to the means used
by your predecessors in that art.' I have wrote to the Walkers and
proposed to them to manufacture me a complete bridge and erect it in London,
and afterwards put it up to sale. I do this by way of bringing forward
a bridge over the Thames -- which appears to me the most advantageous of
all objects. For, if only a fifth of the persons, at a half penny
each, pass over a new bridge as now pass over the old ones the tolls will
pay 25 per-cent besides what will arise from carriage and horses.
Mrs. Williams tells me that her letters from America mention Dr. Franklin
as being exceedingly ill. I have been to see the Cotton Mills, --
the Potteries -- the steel furnaces -- tin plate manufacture -- white lead
manufacture. All those things might be easily carried on in America.
I saw a few days ago part of a hand bill of what was called a geometrical
wheelbarrow, -- but cannot find where it is to be seen. The idea
is one of those that needed only to be thought of, -- for it is very easy
to conceive that if a wheelbarrow, as it is called, be driven round a piece
of land, -- a sheet of paper may be placed in it -- so as to receive by
the tracings of a pencil, regulated by a little mechanism -- the figure
and
p.211 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
content of the
land -- and that neither theodolite nor chain are necessary."
September 15.
When I left Paris I was
to return with the model, but I could now bring over a complete bridge.
Though I have a slender opinion of myself for executive business, I think,
upon the whole that I have managed this matter tolerably well. With
no money to spare for such an undertaking I am the sole patentee here,
and connected with one of the first and best established houses in the
nation. But absent from America I feel a craving desire to return
and I can scarcely forbear weeping at the thoughts of your going and my
staying behind.
"Accept, my dear Sir,
my most hearty thanks for your many services and friendship. Remember
me with an overflowing affection to my dear America -- the people and the
place. Be so kind to shake hands with them for me, and tell our beloved
General Washington, and my old friend Dr. Franklin how much I long to see
them. I wish you would spend a day with General Morris of Morrisania,
and present my best wishes to all the family. -- But I find myself wandering
into a melancholy subject that will be tiresome to read, -- so wishing
you a prosperous passage, and a happy meeting with all your friends and
mine, I remain yours affectionately, etc.
"I shall be very glad
to hear from you when you arrive. If you direct for me to the care
of Mr. Benjamin Vaughn it will find me. Please present my friendship
to Captain Nicholson and family of New York, and to Mr. and Mrs. Few.
"September 18.
I this moment receive
yours of the 13 inst. which being post night, affords me the welcome
p.212 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
opportunity
of acknowledging it. I wrote you on the 15th by post but I was so
full of the thoughts of America and my American friends that I forgot France.
"The people of this Country
speak very differently on the affairs of France. The mass of them,
so far as I can collect, say that France is a much freer country than England.
The Peers, the Bishops, &c. say the National Assembly has gone too
far. There are yet in this country, very considerable remains of
the feudal system which people did not see till the revolution in France
placed it before their eyes. While the multitude here could be terrified
with the cry and apprehension of arbitrary power, wooden shoes, popery,
and such like stuff, they thought themselves by comparison an extraordinary
free people; but this bugbear now loses its force, and they appear to me
to be turning their eyes towards the aristocrats of their own nation.
This is a new mode of conquering, and I think it will have its effect.
"I am looking out for
a place to erect my bridge, within some of the squares would be very convenient.
I had thought of Soho Square, where Sir Joseph Banks lives, but he is now
in Lincolnshire. I expect it will be ready for erecting, and in London,
by the latter end of October. Whether I shall then sell it in England
or bring it over to Paris, and re-erect it there, I have not determined
in my mind. In order to bring any kind of a contract forward for
the Seine, it is necessary it should be seen, and, as economy will now
be a principle in the government, it will have a better chance than before.
"If
you should pass through Bordentown in Jersey, which is not out of your
way from Philadelphia to New
p.213 -- CONFIDENTIAL
LETTERS TO JEFFERSON
York, I shall
be glad you would enquire out my particular friend Col. Kirkbride.
You will be very much pleased with him. His house is my home when
in that part of the country -- and it was there that I made the model of
my bridge."
p.214
CHAPTER
XIX
LONDON
CONTACTS
Burke
at Work on a Pamphlet Defending Monarchy .... Paine Determines to
Answer Him .... Meets Charles James Fox .... An
Unpublished Letter Reporting a Conversation with Fox .... An
Unpublished Letter on English Official Manners.
THE
dawn
of 1790 found Paine in London looking after the interests of the iron bridge,
and conferring there with persons of political consequence. Incidentally
he learned that Burke's pamphlet, "Reflections on the French Revolution,"
was already in the hands of a printer, and would soon be in the hands of
the public -- if Burke, "much at a loss how to go on" would stop revising
it, and permit the printer to proceed with his work. Paine resolved
to answer vigorously Burke's defense of monarchy when it was off the press.
The following
letter from Paine to some person not named, residing probably in Paris,
gives some interesting information about a conversation Paine held with
Charles James Fox, the famous English statesman and orator. The letter
is dated London, April 16, 1790, and is here published for the first time:
p. 215
-- LONDON CONTACTS
My
Dear Friend:
To begin
with our journey, we had a very pleasant one. We got to Boulogne
on Saturday about five o'clock -- (left Paris Thursday about the same time)
passed from Boulogne to Dover in three hours and a half, and got to London
Monday evening. Sent all your packets to W. Corvie, and though we
have alternately called on each other have not yet met. For three
or four days after our arrival I missed the little box for Mr. Macpherson
which gave me exceeding great concern, and it appeared to me that I had
rather have lost my portmanteau. Neither Mr. Rutledge nor I could
divine what had become of it, when, to our great satisfaction it appeared,
as of itself! I know not how, for, going one evening into my room,
it presented itself to me on the table. "Thou little runaway; where
hast thou been, and why hast thou plagued me so?" It had, I suppose,
slipped into some corner, and the girl in putting the room to rights, had
found it!
The morning
after my arrival I went first to Debrets, bookseller, Piccadilly; (be is
the opposition bookseller.) He informed me that Mr. Burke's pamphlet
was in the press, (he is not the publisher,) that he believed Mr. Burke
was much at a loss how to go on; that he had revised some of the sheets,
six, seven, and one nine times! I then made an appointment with Lord
Stanhope, and another with Mr. Fox. The former received me with saying
"have I the pleasure of shaking hands with the author of 'Common Sense'?"
I told him of the condition of Mr. Burke's pamphlet, and that I had formed
to myself the design of answering it, if it should come out at a time when
I could devote myself to it. From Lord Stanhope
p.216
-- LONDON CONTACTS
I
went to Mr. Fox, but how was I disappointed to find that he bad not received
my letter from Paris. That letter, (as you will recollect the contents
of it,) laid down all the principal points with respect to the French Revolution,
the Test Act, &c., which I intended for subjects for conversation when
we met. You will recollect that I expressed some surprise to you
at the postage which the servant took for it, and I cannot avoid suspecting
that he never put the letter in the office. I mention this that you
may question him about it, and be on your guard with respect to your own
letters. I always reproach myself for trusting letters by a servant:
I sent one to the post-office in London to go by packet to America.
The servant brought me 17 shillings out of a guinea, but the letter never
arrived.
The conversation
with Mr. Fox was chiefly on European politics. There will be no peace,
said he, between the Russians, Austrians and Turks, if the King of Prussia
can prevent it. I replied that the Turks must be exceedingly unwise,
indeed, not to see that Prussia would keep the Turks forever at war with
Russia and Austria, if he could, because it took two powerful enemies off
his hands, whom he would dread if that peace was concluded, and rather
than have it concluded, he would probably join in the war, from an apprehension
that if peace was now made with the Turks, Russia and Austria would both
attack him. On this Mr. Fox agreed. I then spoke of the reports which
were circulated when that war first broke out, that the English Court had
spirited up that war on an expectation of drawing France to the support
of the Turks; that the policy, besides being wicked, was exceedingly ill-judged,
for the effect of the policy went to do France a favor by setting
p.217
-- LONDON CONTACTS
her
free from a connection which, by the change of circumstances on the continent
since that connection was formed had not now one Article remaining which
induced the connection, nor any new ones to supply their place, that the
dissolution of it opened the way to a connection between France and Russia,
which was an event the English Cabinet appeared to me not to have sense
enough to foresee.
Mr. Fox
replied that the English Ministry had always denied the accusation of spiriting
up that war, but that, for his part, he believed they were not so clear
of the charge as they wished to appear. I talked to him of Mr. Burke's
pamphlet, and said that I believed I should reply to it. I afterwards
saw Sir George Staunton, to whom I mentioned the same thing. I told
him of a letter I saw from Mr. B. to a gentleman at Paris, the contents
of which surprised me. He asked me if it was not to Mr. Christie,
and spoke of you in very handsome terms. He afterwards told me of
a letter from a gentleman at Paris to Mr. Burke. Perhaps, thought
I, it is my friend Christie, but I did not ask.
But I am
now inclined to think that after all this vaporing of Mr. B., he will not
publish his pamphlet. I called yesterday at Debrets, who told me
that he has stopped the work. (I had not called on Mr. Burke, and
shall not, until his pamphlet comes out, or he gives it up.) I met
Dr. Lawrence, an intimate friend of Mr. Burke, a few days ago, to whom
I said, "I am exceedingly sorry to see a friend of ours so exceedingly
wrong." "Time," says he, "will show if he is." He is, said
I, already wrong with respect to time past.
p.218
-- LONDON CONTACTS
One
of the Messrs. Walker, from Rotherham, has come to London, and we have
sent a person down to conduct at the Bridge. I hope if Mr. Burke
intends to publish, it will be before I am too much engaged. Apropos,
I should have told you that Mr. Burke's letter is to be addressed to Lally
Tollendal.
I shall
in a few days write to my dear friend, the Marquis de Lafayette.
In the meantime I wish you to call upon him and tell him my intention.
I shall send it in the Marquis de la Lucerne's despatches. Forget
not to remember me to him very affectionately, and also to Madame de Lafayette.
Shake hands for me with my old friend, Mr. Mazzei. Call upon our
friends at No. 36 Palais Royal, and forget me not among the rest of our
acquaintances. And if there is anything I can serve you in here,
or elsewhere, the greatest favor you can do me is to inform me of it.
I am, my
Dear Friend, Yours very affectionately,
THOMAS PAINE.
Tomorrow
I dine at Mr. Vaughn's with Dr. Price.
Direct
to me, No. 31 King Street, near Soho Square.
We have
had very cold weather -- snow and rain for a week past!
If you
have an opportunity of seeing the Duke de la Rochefoucault, remember me
to him, and to his very kind and good family. Compliments to Mr.
Short, M. de Condorcet and Mr. Le Roy.
Did you
deliver Mr. Mazzei's letter to Dr. Gern?
p.219
-- LONDON CONTACTS
Send
letters for agent at Philadelphia, M. D'Erembourg. [*]
In
the letter subjoined, from Thomas Paine to a friend, whose name does not
appear, and who was living in London, apparently, Paine makes some scathing
comments on the bad manners of the English Government. The letter
has not been published heretofore.
No.
31 King Street, Tuesday morning.
My Dear
Friend:
On my return
home last night I received your favor of Saturday. I was yesterday
in the City, and called at your house in the evening. Had I known
of your writing to me, I should have stayed or called again. From
your house I went to Mr. Gregory, but he was not at home.
You ask
if I am not a little severe in my strictures upon England. I confess
I have no partiality for what is called, or understood by, the National
Character of England. Had you been in America you would have seen
it in a different point of view to what presents itself to you here.
It appears
to me that the Government has no good manners, and less principle.
It acts wrong and its acts that wrong vulgarly. A Nation is only
a great individual, and that which is good or bad character for an individual
is
--------------------------------------
[*]
This interesting letter is in the collection of Albert M. Todd, of Kalamazoo,
Mich., a member of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, New
York City.
p.220
-- LONDON CONTACTS
good
or bad character for a Nation. Make then an individual
of the same disposition which marks the National character, and you will
not admire him for a neighbor.
I will,
with much pleasure, contribute my services to the business Mr. Forbes agency
is upon to France. After writing this I go to my lodgings, where
I remain for the day.
I expect
some part of the bridge will be erected before Mr. Forbes' return, and
I wish him to see it, as he will most probably be asked some questions
concerning it by my friends on the other side of the water. I will
call on you tomorrow evening about eight o'clock.
Yours sincerely,
THOMAS PAINE.
p.221
CHAPTER
XX
THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE
Paine Visits
Paris .... Lafayette Gives Him Key of Bastille to Send to Washington
.... Letters Accompanying the Key .... Paine's Mother Dies
.... His Iron Bridge Erected in London .... A Bankruptcy ....
Bright Prospects.
WINE visited
Paris in the early part of 1790 and found the French capital still rejoicing
over the fall of the Bastille. Lafayette assured Paine that it was
American principles transplanted to Europe, that had brought about the
overthrow of the iniquitous prison. He told Paine that he had saved
the key of the chief gate to the prison-fortress, and that he wished to
present it to his old friend Washington. Paine, he added, was obviously
the one person to whom this relic of overthrown despotism should be entrusted
for transmission to America.

Paine was, of course,
delighted, and, returning to London, at once wrote to Washington, as follows:
"LONDON,
May
1, 1790. --
Sir, --
Our very good friend
the Marquis de Lafayette has entrusted to my care the key of the Bastille,
and a drawing, handsomely framed, representing the demolition of that detestable
prison, as a present to your Excellency, of which his letter will more
p.222 -- THE
KEY OF THE BASTILLE
particularly
inform. I feel myself happy in being the person thro' whom the marquis
has conveyed this early trophy of the spoils of despotism, and the first
ripe fruits of American principles transplanted into Europe to his great
master and patron. When he mentioned to me the present he intended
you, my heart leaped with joy. It is something so truly in character
that no remarks can illustrate it, and is more happily expressive of his
remembrance of his American friends than any letters can convey.
That the principles of America opened the Bastille is not to be doubted,
and therefore the key comes to the right place.
"I beg leave to suggest
to your Excellency the propriety of congratulating the King and Queen of
France (for they have been our friends,) and the National Assembly, on
the happy example they are giving to Europe. You will see by the
King's speech, which I enclose, that he prides himself on being at the
head of the Revolution; and I am certain that such a congratulation will
be well received and have a good effect.
"I should rejoice to
be the direct bearer of the marquis's present to your Excellency, but I
doubt I shall not be able to see my much loved America till next spring.
I shall therefore send it by some American vessel to New York. I
have permitted no drawing to be taken here, though it has been often requested,
as I think there is a propriety that it should first be presented.
But Mr. West wishes Mr. Trumbull to make a painting of the presentation
of the key to you.
"I returned from France
to London about five weeks ago, and I am engaged to return to Paris when
the Constitution
p.223 -- THE
KEY OF THE BASTILLE
shall be proclaimed,
and to carry the American flag in the procession. I have not the
least doubt of the final and complete success of the French Revolution.
Little ebbings and flowings, for and against, the natural companions of
revolutions, sometimes appear; but the full current of it, is, in my opinion,
as fixed as the Gulf Stream.
"I have manufactured
a bridge (a single arch) of one hundred and ten feet span, and five feet
high from the cord of the arch. It is now on board a vessel coming
from Yorkshire to London, where it is to be erected. I see nothing
yet to disappoint my hopes of its being advantageous to me. It is
this only thing which keeps me in Europe, and happy shall I be when I shall
have it in my power to return to America. I have not heard of Mr.
Jefferson since he sailed, except of his arrival. As I have always
indulged the belief of having many friends in America, or rather no enemies,
I have here but to mention my affectionate regards, and am, Sir, with the
greatest respect, &c.
"If any of my friends
are disposed to favor me with a letter it will come to hand by addressing
it to the care of Benjamin Vaughn, Esq., Jeffries Square, London."
A month later Paine
wrote again to Washington about the key of the Bastille. This is
the letter:
"LONDON,
May 31, 1790.
SIR,
By Mr. James Morris,
who sailed in the May Packet, I transmitted you a letter from the Marquis
de Lafayette, at the same time informing you that the Marquis had entrusted
to my charge the key of the Bastille, and a drawing of that prison, as
a present to your Excellency. Mr. J. Rutledge, jun'r, had intended
p.224 -- THE
KEY OF THE BASTILLE
coming in the
ship `Marquis de Lafayette,' and I had chosen that opportunity for
the purpose of transmitting the present; but, the ship not sailing at the
time appointed, Mr. Rutledge takes his passage on the packet, and I have
committed to his care that trophy of liberty which I know it will give
you pleasure to receive. The French Revolution is not only complete
but triumphant, and the envious despotism of this nation is compelled to
own the magnanimity with which it has been conducted.
"The political hemisphere
is again clouded by a dispute between England and Spain, the circumstances
of which you will hear before this letter can arrive. A messenger
was sent from hence the 6th inst. to Madrid with very peremptory demands,
and to wait there only forty-eight hours. His return has been expected
for two or three days past. I was this morning at the Marquis del
Campo's but nothing is yet arrived. Mr. Rutledge sets off at four
o'clock this afternoon, but should any news arrive before the making up
the mail on Wednesday June 2, I will forward it to you under cover.
"The views of this court
as well as of the nation, so far as they extend to South America, are not
for the purpose of freedom, but conquest. They already talk of sending
some of the young branches to reign over them, and to pay off their national
debt with the produce of their mines. The bondage of those countries
will, as far as I can perceive, be prolonged by what this court has in
contemplation.
"My bridge is arrived
and I have engaged a place to erect it in. A little time will determine
its fate, but I yet see no cause to doubt of its success, tho' it is very
probable
p.225 -- THE
KEY OF THE BASTILLE
that a war,
should it break out, will as in all new things, prevent its progress so
far as regards profits.
"In the partition in
the box, which contains the key of the Bastille, I have put up half a dozen
razors, manufactured from cast-steel made at the works where the bridge
was constructed, which I request you to accept as a little token from a
'very grateful heart.'
"I received about a week
ago a letter from Mr. G. Clymer. It is dated the 4th February, but
has been travelling ever since. I request you to acknowledge it for
me and that I will answer it when my bridge is erected. With much
affection to all my friends, and many wishes to see them again, I am, etc."
The key reached Washington,
in New York, and he wrote acknowledging Paine's "agreeable letters" on
August 10,1790. Washington also wrote:
"It must, I
dare say, give you great pleasure to learn by repeated opportunities, that
our new government answers its purposes as well as could have been reasonably
expected, that we are gradually overcoming the difficulties which presented
in its first organization, and that our prospects in general are growing
more favorable."
Several amusing paragraphs
concerning the key of the Bastille are in despatches addressed to his government
in Paris, by Louis Otto, Charge dAffaires. Otto wrote:
p.226 --
THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE
"August 4, 1790.
In attending yesterday
the public audience of the President, I was surprised by a question from
the Chief Magistrate, 'whether I would like to see the key of the Bastille?'
One of his secretaries showed me at the same moment a large key, which
had been sent to the President by desire of the Marquis de Lafayette.
I dissembled my surprise in observing to the President that 'the time had
not yet come in America to do ironwork equal to that before him.'
The Americans present looked at the key with indifference, and as if wondering
why it had been sent. But the serene face of the President showed
that he regarded it as an homage from the French nation."
Another despatch
of the French Charg d'Affairs, dated Dec. 13, 1790, says "The key of the
Bastille, regularly shown at the President's audiences, is now also on
exhibition in Mrs. Washington's salon, where it satisfies the curiosity
of the Philadelphians. I am persuaded, Monseigneur, that it is only
their vanity that finds pleasure in the exhibition of this trophy, but
Frenchmen here are not the less piqued, and many will not enter the President's
house on this account."
The key of the Bastille
is now on exhibition at Washington's fine old home in Mount Vernon, Va.,
where it is treasured as one of the most valuable of the relics there displayed.
Hanging on the wall next to the famous key is a copy of Paine's letter
to Washington apprising him of Lafayette's gift.
p.227 --
THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE
Washington's razors made
in the Rotherham ironworks are, no doubt, in some other collection of Washington
relics and curiosities, probably with no mention of Rotherham on the card
which informs visitors that these razors belonged to the nation's first
president.
Paine left London for
a brief time in May, 1790, going to Thetford, where his aged mother had
just died, and he probably also visited Rotherham to attend to matters
connected with his bridge.
Paine's iron bridge,
110 feet long, was at last, June, 1790, erected in London, at Leasing Green,
now known as Paddington Green. It was put up at the joint expense
of Paine and Peter Whiteside, an American merchant in London. The
newspapers published descriptions of the bridge, which were chiefly praiseful,
and many persons journeyed to the Green to see the novelty in engineering.
A fee of one shilling was charged for viewing the bridge. It is said
that the site of Paine's bridge on Paddington Green was where the statue
to Mrs. Siddons, an English actress, now stands.
Disaster overtook Whiteside's
business, however, and he was forced to make an assignment. His assignees,
finding the sum of 620 on his books debited to Paine's bridge, descended
upon the inventor
p.228 --
THE KEY OF THE BASTILLE
for that amount, which
he probably did not owe, as it was Whiteside's business investment.
Two American merchants in London, Murdoch and Cleggett, signed Paine's
bail-bond, and helped him scrape together the money to pay the amount.
Paine may have lost additional money in the collapse of Whiteside's business,
including funds he had deposited for the weekly transmission of nine shillings
to his mother. The bridge exhibition prospered, however, delegations
from other cities flocking to London to see "the wonderful invention,"
and it looked as if this impecunious idealist was at last to come into
a fortune.
p.229
CHAPTER
XXI
"THE; RIGHTS OF MAN"
Paine in Winter
Quarters at 'The Angel" ...... Burke's Pamphlet Appears ....
Paine Sets Feverishly to Work on His Reply ..... "The Rights of
Man" Printed, February, 1791, ..... Paine Goes to Paris ....
His Arguments Against Monarchy .... The Society for Promoting Constitutional
Knowledge ..... Conservative American Disapproval of "Rights of
Man" ..... Its Embarrassing Dedication to Washington.
INTERESTED
as was Paine in the success of his patents, in the news he received of
political matters in America, and in the prospect of financial rewards
from the bridge invention, which might at last bring him ease and comfort,
the author was far more deeply stirred by the call of his fellow-man in
England, suffering under the corrupt government of that day.
Thomas Paine was, in
the fall of 1790, living at the old Angel Inn in Islington [*], which was
then one of the many little towns surrounding the city of London, and is
now a part of the great metropolis. In the first week of November
appeared Burke's much
------------------------------------
[*] "The
Angel" at Islington is shown in one of Hogarth's pictures, entitled
"The
Stage Coach." The old building was torn down long since, and
has twice been replaced by more modern, but, of course, less picturesque
structures. The present building is still known as "The Angel."

p.230 --
THE RIGHTS OF MAN
heralded book "Reflections
on the Revolution in France," and Paine at once began writing his reply.
I have always believed
that Paine took up his winter lodgings in the quiet old Angel, far from
Soho and other districts of London where Paine's address was well-known,
for the distinct purpose of obtaining the solitude and privacy necessary
to an author for the writing of so vastly important a work as Paine contemplated
as his answer to Burke.
When Burke's book appeared
(Nov. 1, 1790) Paine set feverishly to work on his reply, for which he
selected the appropriate title, "Rights of Man."
"Rights of Man,"Part
I, with a dedication to George Washington, was printed in February, 1791,
by one Johnson, who had delayed by reason of excessive timidity, putting
the work on his presses. Only a very few copies were printed, when
Johnson, perhaps intimidated by the government, suspended his work.
Only one copy is known to be in existence. This rare book is in the
British Museum, London. J. S. Jordan, at 166 Fleet Street, having greater
courage, took over the work, and published the first edition March 13,
1791. Paine entrusted the work to a committee of three friends --
William Godwin, Thomas Brand Hollis and Thomas Holcroft -- and
p.231 --
THE RIGHTS OF MAN
went over to Paris, from
which city he sent Jordan a brief preface, which reached Jordan in time
for inclusion in his first edition. (See Vol. VI, p. 3.)
"Rights of Man"
remains today, as when published, more than 130 years ago, the most forceful
and most lucid exposition of basic human rights ever written.
There had been rumors
in London, which reached Paine, that Burke was a "masked pensioner" receiving
1500 a year from the government. He mentions the "rumor" in his
reply to Burke, and Burke did not trouble himself to deny it. We
know now that he was expecting the "masked pension" to be increased to
2500, to which figure the pension was raised soon afterwards. Burke
was hardly in a position therefore to attempt any denial.
Burke's book was a defense
of monarchy and hereditary succession based on the revolution of 1688,
which Burke accepted as authoritative.
Paine, replying in "Rights
of Man, Part I," dedicated to George Washington, inquires how one revolution
can be authoritative and not another? He asks pointedly how the seventeenth
century came to acquire a monopoly in revolution? if, in one century, a
revolution can substitute one family on the, throne for another family,
why might not the same
p.234 --
THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Gouverneur Morris, a
republican but of the most conservative type, was in Paris just now on
a secret financial mission entrusted to him by Washington. His old
dislike for Paine as a radical seems to have been revived and intensified
by the principles expressed in "Rights of Man." Perhaps dealing
with royalty had aroused in him a distaste for the common people who were
Paine's great concern.
Jefferson had requested
Morris to pose for a bust of Washington -- the resemblance between them
being rather striking by the famous French sculptor, Houdon. When
Jefferson left Paris to return to America, Morris appears to have tried
to pose as Washington in the eyes of political Europe.
About this time Morris
makes an interesting entry in his diary. In the comfort of his luxurious
quarters in Paris, he comments on Paine's "wretched apaitments," -- probably
a judgment colored by his prejudice against the author. At any rate,
in those apartments, epoch-making books were being written.
Morris was not the only
American with a penchant for royalty. John Adams was another figure
of the days of the American Revolution whose apostacy to hereditary monarchy
and nobility was noted. Although he had declared with a certain amount
of fervency that "History will ascribe the American
p.235 --
THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Revolution to Thomas
Paine," the publication of "Rights of Man" by Paine was most distasteful
to him, and he vigorously denounced the book. Tobias Lear, Washington's
secretary, reported to Washington that he had heard Adams say, with his
hand upon his breast: "I detest that book, and its tendency, from the bottom
of my heart."
On July 29, 1791, Jefferson
wrote to Paine:
"Indeed I am
glad that you did not come away till you had written your 'Rights of
Man.' A writer under the name of Publicola has attacked
it, and a host of champions has entered the arena immediately in your defence."
The dedication of
"Rights
of Man," Part I, to Washington caused the President some embarrasment
because Washington, anxious to free America from British garrisons, was
trying to accomplish his object by offering a liberal commercial treaty
to England. It was on this mission that Gouverneur Morris had been
sent to Europe. In October, 1789, Washington, in his own hand, had
written Gouverneur Morris requesting him to go abroad in the capacity of
private agent, and on the authority and credit of this letter, to converse
with His Britannic Majesty's Ministers on these points; viz., whether there
were any, and what objections to performing
p.236 --
THE RIGHTS OF MAN
those articles in the
treaty which remained to be performed on his part, and whether they incline
to a treaty of commerce with the United States on any, and what terms?
Paine, of course, knew
nothing about the secret mission of Morris, and had no reason to suppose
his extravagant, though whole-hearted, dedication to Washington would cause
the President any perplexity. The author sent fifty copies of his
book to Washington, through Mr. Green, of Portsmouth, England, who was
about to embark for America. By Mr. Green he sent also a cordial
letter to Washington, presenting the books "as a token of remembrance."
These copies of "Rights of Man, Part I," and the letter were, no
doubt, received by the President toward the end of August or the beginning
of September.
In his letter to Washington
Paine gives some interesting information about the number printed in the
first edition, its reception by the public, his intention of bringing out
a cheap edition, etc. This is the letter in full:
"LONDON,
July 21, 1791-
DEAR
SIR. --
I received your favor
of last August by Col. Humphries since which I have not written to or heard
from you. I mention this that you may know no letters have miscarried.
I took the liberty
p.237 -- THE
RIGHTS OF MAN
of addressing
my late work 'Rights of Man,' to you; but tho' I left it at that
time to find its way to you, I now request your acceptance of fifty copies
as a token of remembrance to yourself and my friends. The work has
had a run beyond anything that has been published in this country on the
subject of government, and the demand continues. In Ireland it has
had a much greater. A letter I received from Dublin, 10th of May,
mentioned that the fourth edition was then on sale. I know not what
number of copies were printed at each edition, except the second, which
was ten thousand. The same fate follows me here as I at first experienced
in America, strong friends and violent enemies, but as I have got the ear
of the country, I shall go on, and at least shew them, what is a novelty
here, that there can be a person beyond the reach of corruption.
"I arrived here from
France about ten days ago. M. de Lafayette is well. The affairs
of that country are verging to a new crisis, whether the government shall
be monarchial and hereditary or wholly representative? I think the
latter opinion will very generally prevail in the end. On this question
the people are much forwarder than the National Assembly.
"After the establishment
of the American Revolution, it did not appear to me that any object could
arise great enough to engage me a second time. I began to feel myself
happy in being quiet; but I now experience that principle is not confined
to time or place, and that the ardor of Seventy-six is capable of renewing
itself. I have another work on hand which I intend shall be my last,
for I long much to return to America. It is not natural that fame
p.238 -- THE
RIGHTS OF MAN
should wish
for a rival, but the case is otherwise with me, for I do most sincerely
wish there was some person in this country that could usefully and successfully
attract the public attention, and leave me with a satisfied mind to the
enjoyment of quiet life: but it is painful to see errors and abuses and
sit down a senseless spectator. Of this your own mind will interpret
mine.
"I have printed sixteen
thousand copies; when the whole are gone of which there remain between
three and four thousand I shall then make a cheap edition, just sufficient
to bring in the price of the printing and paper, as I did by 'Common
Sense.'
"Mr. Green who will present
you this, has been very much my friend. I wanted last October to
draw for fifty pounds on General Lewis Morris who has some money of mine,
but as he is unknown in the commercial line, and American credit not very
good, and my own expended, I could not succeed, especially as Gov'r Morris
was then in Holland. Col. Humphries went with me to your agent Mr.
Walsh, to whom I stated the case, and took the liberty of saying that I
knew you would not think it a trouble to receive it of Gen. Morris on Mr.
Walsh's account, but he declined it. Mr. Green afterwards supplied
me and I have since repaid him. He has a troublesome affair on his
hands here, and is in danger of losing thirty or forty thousand pounds,
embarked under the flag of the United States is East India property.
The persons who have received it withhold it, and shelter themselves under
some law contrivance. He wishes to state the case to Congress, not
only on his own account, but as a matter that may be nationally interesting.
p.239 -- THE
RIGHTS OF MAN
"The public
papers will inform you of the riots and tumults at Birmingham, and of some
disturbances at Paris, and as Mr. Green can detail them to you more particularly
than I can do in a letter, I leave those matters to his information. I
am, etc.,
"THOMAS
PAINE."
From the general
tenor of Paine's letter we may infer that the author was, at this time,
living very agreeably in London, under the government he is said to have
offended.
Washington, ever prudent,
thought it best to defer acknowledging Paine's gift and the presentation
letter until a later period. A space of more than ten months elapsed,
during which the author was entirely in the dark as to whether his letter
and the books were received by the President, when one day the long silence
was broken by the receipt of this letter:
"Philadelphia,
May 6, 1792.
"Thomas Paine, Esq.,
"Dear Sir:
"To my friends, and those
who know my occupations, am sure no apology is necessary for keeping their
letters so much longer unanswered, than my inclination would lead me to
do. I shall therefore offer no excuse for not having sooner acknowledged
the receipt of your letter of the 21st of June [July]. My thanks,
however, for the
p.240 -- THE
RIGHTS OF MAN
token of your
remembrance, in the fifty copies of 'The Rights of Man,' are offered
with no less cordiality, than they would have been had I answered your
letter in the first moment of receiving it.
"The duties of my office,
which at all times, especially during the session of Congress, require
an unremitting attention, naturally become more pressing towards the close
of it; and as that body have resolved to rise tomorrow, and as I have determined,
in case they should, to set out for Mount Vernon on the next day, you will
readily conclude that the present is a busy moment with me; and to that
I am persuaded your goodness will impute my not entering into the several
points touched upon in your letter. Let it suffice, therefore, at
this time, to say, that I rejoice in the information of your personal prosperity,
and, as no one can feel a greater interest in the happiness of mankind
than I do, that it is the first wish of my heart that the enlightened policy
of the present age may diffuse to all men those blessings to which they
are entitled, and lay the foundation of happiness for future generations.
With great esteem, I
am, dear Sir, &c.
"P.S. Since writing the
foregoing, I have received your letter of the 13th of February, with the
twelve copies of your new work, which accompanied it, and for which you
must accept my additional thanks."
Events of the utmost
importance had transpired in the interval between the date of Paine's letter
to Washington and the author's receipt of the President's acknowledgment.
p.241 --
THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Washington's reply was
friendly and cordial enough, but in its deliberate vagueness and in the
fact that no mention is made of the extremely complimentary dedication
to Washington, it is not difficult to perceive the President's lack of
enthusiasm for the spread of revolution in Europe. Washington at
this time was chiefly interested in the restoration of normal commerce
and the peaceful development of international trade.
p.242
CHAPTER
XXII
PAINE PROPOSES A FRENCH
REPUBLIC
Flight of the
French Royalty .... Lafayette and Paine .... Return of the
King .... Paine Mistaken for an Aristocrat .... A Narrow Escape
.... The First Republican Manifesto .... Paine's Republican
Club .... A Translation of "Rights of Man," Part I.
THE royal
plumage, which excited the pity of Mr. Burke, took flight from the French
capital, while the city slept, in the very early hours of June 21, 1791.
Paris had scarcely awakened on that fateful day, when Lafayette, much agitated,
burst into Paine's bedroom, shouting "The birds are flown!"
The author had not yet
arisen; although he had been awake for some time in consequence of shouting
in the street. Paine, seeming unperturbed by the news, Lafayette
drew a few steps nearer, and repeated excitedly, "I tell you the birds
are flown!"
The author of "Rights
of Man" calmly replied, "It is well. I hope that there will be no attempt
to recall them." The streets were packed with an excited throng.
Lafayette induced Paine to dress at once and go with him to the street.
There they found the people in an uproar, discussing excitedly the sudden
flight of the royal family. Lafayette was recognized
p.243 --
PAINE PROPOSES A FRENCH REPUBLIC
by the throng gathered
outside the Hotel de Ville, (City Hall,) and was accused by the crowd of
aiding the King to escape. He retorted, with a smile, "Since each
of you saves twenty sous tax by the suppression of the Civil List, I see
no reason for complaint."
Thomas Christie, a nephew
of Joseph Priestley, was in the crowd, and, seeing his friends Paine and
Lafayette, spoke to them. "You see," Christie said, "the absurdity
of monarchical governments -- a whole nation disturbed by the folly of
one man."
Louis XVI had seen
the storm-clouds gathering in the political skies, and, after conference
with his friends, decided there was safety only in flight. He left
a letter denouncing all liberal measures to which he had affixed his name
since October, 1789. This letter settled his future as a ruler of
France. Then it became known that the most powerful of the revolutionary
figures -- Robespierre and Marat particularly -- had at no time considered
a republic, and did not even know what a republic was.
Paine was a witness on
June 25 of the return of the King, who had been captured at Varennes, 150
miles from Paris, and dragged, with his family, back to the capital.
He saw the ridiculous, though pathetic, spectacle of the people forcibly
bringing back to Paris the unwanted monarch who had relieved them
p.244 --
PAINE PROPOSES A FRENCH REPUBLIC
of his presence!
Paine had an unpleasant experience on this occasion, as a result of his
not having decorated his hat with the popular cockade. Some ruffians
in the crowd noted the absence of the cockade, and set upon the author
with cries of "Aristocrat! A la lanterne!" He was treated rather
roughly before being rescued by a Frenchman who spoke English, and who,
after talking to Paine, informed the crowd that the omission of the cockade
was quite accidental. It was indeed a curious turn of fate that so
ardent a republican, and friend of the people, engaged at this very time
in founding the first republican society in France and writing its manifesto,
which was soon to be placarded throughout Paris, should be set upon by
the crowd, and only by chance miss being strung up on a lamppost!
This Republican Manifesto,
posted in the streets of Paris on July 1, read as follows:
"Brethren and
fellow citizens:
"The serene tranquillity,
the mutual confidence which prevailed amongst us, during the time of the
late King's escape, the indifference with which we beheld him return, are
unequivocal proofs that the absence of a King is more desirable than his
presence, and that he is not only a political superfluity, but a grievous
burden, pressing hard on the whole nation.
p.245 -- PAINE
PROPOSES A FRENCH REPUBLIC
"Let us not
be imposed upon by sophisms; all that concerns us is reduced to four points.
"He has abdicated the
throne in having fled from his post. Abdication and desertion are
not characterized by the length of absence; but by the single act of flight.
In the present instance, the act is everything, and the time nothing.
"The nation can never
give back its confidence to a man who, false to his trust, perjured to
his oath, conspires a clandestine flight, obtains a fraudulent passport,
conceals a King of France under the disguise of a valet, directs his course
towards a frontier covered with traitors and deserters, and evidently meditates
a return into our own country, with a force capable of imposing his own
despotic laws.
"Whether ought his flight
to be considered as his own act, or the act of those who fled with him?
Was it a spontaneous resolution of his own, or was it inspired into him
by others? The alternative is immaterial; whether fool or hypocrite,
idiot or traitor, he has proved himself equally unworthy of the important
functions that had been delegated to him.
"In every sense that
the question can be considered, the reciprocal obligation which subsisted
between us is dissolved. He holds no longer any authority. We owe
him no longer obedience. We see in him no more than an indifferent
person; we can regard him only as Louis Capet.
"The history of France
presents little else than a long series of public calamity, which takes
its source from the vices of the Kings; we have been the wretched victims
that
p.246 -- PAINE
PROPOSES A FRENCH REPUBLIC
have never ceased
to suffer either for them or by them. The catalogue of their oppressions
was complete, but to complete the sum of their crimes, treason yet was
wanting. Now the only vacancy is filled up, the dreadful list is
full; the system is exhausted; there are no remaining errors for them to
commit, their reign is consequently at an end.
"What kind of office
must that be in a government which requires for its execution neither experience
nor ability? that may be abandoned to the desperate chance of birth, that
may be filled by an idiot, a madman, a tyrant, with equal effect as by
the good, the virtuous, and the wise? An office of this nature is
a mere nonentity: it is a place of show, not of use. Let France then,
arrived at the age of reason, no longer be deluded by the sound of words,
and let her deliberately examine, if a King, however insignificant and
contemptible in himself, may not at the same time be extremely dangerous.
"The thirty millions
which it costs to support a King in the clat of stupid brutal luxury,
presents us with an easy method of reducing taxes, which reduction would
at once release the people, and stop the progress of political corruption.
The grandeur of nations consists, not, as Kings pretend, in the splendor
of thrones, but in a conspicuous sense of their own dignity, and in a just
disdain of those barbarous follies and crimes, which, under the sanction
of royalty, have hitherto desolated Europe.
"As to the personal safety
of Louis Capet, it is so much the more confirmed, as France will not stoop
to degrade herself by a spirit of revenge against a wretch who has dishonored
himself. In defending a just and glorious
p.247 -- PAINE
PROPOSES A FRENCH REPUBLIC
cause, it is
not possible to degrade it, and the universal tranquillity which prevails
is an undeniable proof that a free people know how to respect themselves."
It is said that besides
affixing the manifesto to walls and trees where it would be seen and read
by passing pedestrians, one brave spirit nailed a copy on the door of the
National Assembly!
The bill was torn from
the Assembly door by Malouet, a royalist member, who was greatly angered
by what he read. He and Martineau, a deputy representing Paris, complained
about it to the Assembly, and great agitation resulted. The prosecution
of Thomas Paine and Achille Duchtelet was proposed. A majority of
the deputies, however,. were unprepared to commit themselves on the subject,
and no action was taken by the Assembly.
Paine's Republican Club
had overnight become a very important organization. Its manifesto
was a fruitful topic of conversation (and disputation) with both the royalists
and those who favored the republican idea. There is no doubt that
it converted to republicanism a great many who were only lukewarm in their
support of monarchy.
The royalists, who had
been alarmed by the advent of a republican club in Paris and by the vigorous
p.248 --
PAINE PROPOSES A FRENCH REPUBLIC
denunciation of monarchy
in the bills posted on walls by members of the club, would have been astounded
to learn-which they did not-that the club was composed of only five members!
This was not known until some years later, when Paine made known the number
of members at the time the club was organized and the manifesto issued.
Who the members were besides Paine, Duchtelet and Condorcet has never
been known positively but it is probable that the two other members were
Nicholas Bonneville and Jean Pierre Brissot, both warm friends of Paine.
A translation of "Rights
of Man," Part I, by Franois Soule, appeared in Paris, May, 1791.
The translator hid his identity under his initials. The edition was
printed by Buisson, rue Hautefeuille, Paris, and sold in large numbers.
Paine wrote a special preface for this French edition. The dedication
to Washington, translated, was given in full. At the end of the title-page
appears, in very large type, the date, Mai 1791.
In the Paris Moniteur,
of
July 8, we find this brief but spirited statement by Paine of his attitude
toward kings and monarchy:
"I am not the
personal enemy of Kings. Quite the contrary. No man wishes
more heartily than myself to see
p.249 -- PAINE
PROPOSES A FRENCH REPUBLIC
them all in
a happy and honorable state of private individuals; but I am the avowed,
open, and intrepid enemy of what is called monarchy; and I am such by principles
which nothing can either alter or corrupt -- by my attachment to humanity;
by the anxiety which I feel within myself for the dignity and honor of
the human race; by the disgust which I experience when I observe men directed
by children and governed by brutes; by the horror which all the evils that
monarchy has spread over the earth excite within my breast; and by those
sentiments which make me shudder at the calamities, the exactions, the
wars, and the massacres with which monarchy has crushed mankind: in short,
it is against all the hell of monarchy that I have declared war."
p.250
CHAPTER
XXIII
PAINE RETURNS TO
LONDON
Back in England
.... A Meeting Prevented .... A Manifesto Against Taxation
.... Paine and Clio Rickman .... Rickman's "Life of Paine
Everyday Life of the Great Pamphleteer .... Letter to the
Addressers .... Rights of Man," Part II .... A Note
to Washington.
PAINE determined
now to return to London that he might attend the celebration in that city
of the second anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, to which be had
been invited. He arrived in the British capital on July 13, the day
preceding the anniversary date, and registered at the White Bear, Piccadilly.
Learning that his Republican Manifesto, which had created so much commotion
in Paris, had also excited the Britons, Paine decided not to attend.
The celebration was to be held at the Crown and Anchor, but persons opposed
to Paine and to the French Revolution persuaded the owner to close his
doors against the advertised meeting. Great indignation was felt
about this attempt to prevent a gathering in honor of the fall of the much
detested French prison, and it was decided to issue a manifesto. Paine
wrote it and it was adopted at a meeting held on August 20 at the Thatched
House Tavern. John Horne Tooke
p.251 --
PAINE RETURNS TO LONDON
signed Paine's paper
as chairman of the meeting. It was the first distinct warning England
had that a revolution was at her doors. The manifesto was headed
"Address and Declaration
of the Friends of Universal Peace and Liberty." The "address"
was preceded by a forceful "Declaration of the Volunteers of Belfast,"
some quotations from which appear in the second paragraph.
"Friends and
Fellow Citizens: At a moment like the present, when wilful misrepresentations
are industriously spread by partisans of arbitrary power and the advocates
of passive obedience and court government, we think it incumbent upon us
to declare to the world our principles, and the motives of our conduct.
"We rejoice at the glorious
event of the French Revolution. If it be asked, 'What is the French Revolution
to ?' we answer, as has already been answered in another place [*], 'It
is much-much to us as men; much to us as Englishmen. As men, we rejoice
in the freedom of twentyfive millions of men. We rejoice in the prospect
which such a magnificent example opens to the world!
"We congratulate the
French nation for having laid the axe to the root of tyranny, and for erecting
government on the sacred hereditary rights of man; rights which appertain
to all, and not to any on more than another.
"We know of no human
authority superior to that of a whole nation; and we profess and claim
it as our
---------------------------------------------------
[*] "Declaration
of the Volunteers of Belfast."
p.252 --
PAINE RETURNS TO LONDON
principle that
every nation has at all times an inherent and indefeasable right to constitute
and establish such govern. ment for itself as best accords with its disposition,
interest, and happiness.
"As Englishmen we also
rejoice, because we are immediately interested in the French Revolution.
"Without inquiring into
the justice, on either side, of the reproachful charges of intrigue and
ambition which the English and French Courts have constantly made on each
other, we confine ourselves to this observation: -- that if the Court of
France only was in fault, and the numerous wars which have distressed both
countries are chargeable to her alone, that court now exists no longer,
and the cause and the consequence must cease together. The French
therefore, by the revolution they have made, have conquered for us as well
as for themselves, if it be true that their Court only was in fault, and
ours never.
"On this side of the
case the French Revolution concerns us immediately: we are oppressed with
a heavy national debt, a burthen of taxes, an expensive administration
of government, beyond those of any people in the world.
"We have also a very
numerous poor; and we hold that the moral obligation of providing for old
age, helpless infancy and poverty, is far superior to that of supplying
the invented wants of Courtly extravagance, ambition and intrigue.
"We believe there is
no instance to be produced, but in England, of seven millions of inhabitants,
which make but little more than one million families, paying yearly seventeen
millions of taxes.
p.253 -- PAINE
RETURNS TO LONDON
"As it has always
been held out by the administrations that the restless ambition of the
Court of France rendered this expenses necessary to us for our own defence,
we consequently rejoice, as men deeply interested in the French Revolution;
for that Court, as we have already said, exists no longer, and consequently
the same enormous expenses need not continue to us.
"Thus rejoicing as we
sincerely do, both as men and Englishmen, as lovers of universal peace
and freedom, and as friends to our national prosperity and reduction of
our public expenses, we cannot but express our astonishment that any part
or any members of our own government should reprobate the extinction of
that very power in France or wish to see it restored, to whose influence
they formerly attributed (whilst they appeared to lament) the enormous
increase of our own burthens and taxes. What, then, are they sorry
that the pretence for new oppressive taxes, and the occasion for continuing
many old taxes, will be at an end? If so, and if it is the policy
of Courts and Court government to prefer enemies to friends, and a system
of war to that of peace, as affording more pretences for places, offices,
pensions, revenue and taxation, it is high time for the people of every
nation to look with circumspection to their own interests.
"Those who pay the expenses,
and -not those who participate in the emoluments arising from them, are
the persons immediately interested in inquiries of this kind. We
are a part of that national body on whom this annual expense of seventeen
millions falls; and we consider the present opportunity of the French Revolution
as a most happy one for lessening the enormous load under which
p.254 -- PAINE
RETURNS TO LONDON
this nation groans. If this be not done we shall there
have reason to conclude that the cry of intrigue and ambition against other
Courts is no more than the common cant of all Courts.
"We think it also necessary to express our astonishment that a government
desirous of being called FREE, should prefer connexion with the most despotic
and arbitrary powers in Europe. We know of none more deserving this
description than those of Turkey and Prussia, and the whole combination
of German despots.
"Separated as we happily are by nature from the tumults of the continent,
we reprobate all systems and intrigues which sacrifice (and that too at
a great expense) the blessings of our natural situation. Such systems
cannot have a natural origin.
"If we are asked what government is, we hold it to be nothing more than
a national association; and we hold that to be the best which secures to
every man his rights and promotes the greatest quantity of happiness with
the least expense. We live to improve, or we live in vain; and therefore
we admit of no maxims of government or policy on the mere score of antiquity
or other men's authority, the old whigs or ,the new.
"We will exercise the reason with which we are endued, or we possess
it unworthily. As reason is given at all times, it is for the purpose
of being used at all times.
"Among the blessings which the French Revolution has produced to that
nation we enumerate the abolition of the feudal system, of injustice, and
of tyranny, on the 4th of August, 1789. Beneath the feudal system
all Europe has long groaned, and from it England is not yet free.
Game
p.255 -- PAINE
RETURNS TO LONDON
laws, borough tenures, and tyrannical monopolies of numerous
kinds still remain amongst us; but rejoicing as we sincerely do in the
freedom of others till we shall haply accomplish our own, we intended to
commemorate this prelude to the universal extirpation of the feudal system
by meeting on the anniversary of that day (the 4th of August) at the Crown
and Anchor: from this meeting we were prevented by the interference of
certain unnamed and skulking persons with the master of the tavern, who
informed us that on their representation he would not receive us.
Let those who live by or countenance feudal oppressions take the reproach
of this ineffectual meanness and cowardice to themselves: they cannot stifle
the public declaration of our honest, open, and avowed opinions.
"These are our principles, and these our sentiments; they embrace the
interest and happiness of the great body of the nation of which we are
a part. As to riots and tumults, let those answer for them who by
wilful misrepresentations endeavor to excite and promote them; or who seek
to stun the sense of the nation, and lose the great cause of public good
in the outrages of a mis-informed mob. We take our ground on principles
that require no such riotous aid.
"We have nothing to apprehend from the poor for we are pleading their
cause; and we fear not proud oppression for we have truth on our side.
"We say and we repeat it that the French Revolution opens to the world
an opportunity in which all good citizens must rejoice, that of promoting
the general happiness of man, and that it moreover offers to this country
in
p.256 -- PAINE
RETURNS TO LONDON
particular an
opportunity of reducing our enormous taxes. These are our objects, and
we will pursue them."
The English Court
no doubt viewed with pleasure the downfall of the French King who had aided
America in her revolution against Britain, but was now alarmed to see signs
of French revolutionary principles carried across the Channel into England.
The British government
now took a hand in affairs by preventing the assembly of republicans in
their usual meeting places in London, plainly showing its fear of the consequences
of unrestricted assembly and free-speech. There were already many
"constitutional clubs" in England and Ireland. "Rights of Man"
was their testament and Paine was looked upon as a savior.
Paine's home in London
was at this time in the house of Thomas Clio Rickman, 7 Upper Mary-le-bone
Street. Rickman was an ardent republican and Paine's devoted friend.
He was a publisher and bookseller, and also maintained a book-bindery.
Rickman had known Paine in Lewes in the days before Paine came to America,
and he was delighted to have so congenial a spirit take up his residence
with him and his family. One of Rickman's boys had been named Thomas
Paine Rickman and the others also bore the names

p.257 --
PAINE RETURNS TO LONDON
of great republicans.
Rickman was a poet, too, and several of his florid effusions were dedicated
to Paine or related to the author of "Rights of Man."
In 1819 -- ten years
after Paine's death -- Rickman published a "Life of Thomas Paine,"
which for many years ranked as the only authentic biography of the noted
author. It contained much valuable first-hand information.
These paragraphs from Rickman's book give us an interesting glimpse of
Paine's everyday life at this period:
"Mr. Paine's life in
London was a quiet round of philosophical leisure and enjoyment.
It was occupied in writing, in a small epistolary correspondence, in walking
about with me to visit different friends, occasionally lounging at coffee-houses
and public places, or being visited by a select few. Lord Edward
Fitzgerald, the French and American Ambassadors, Mr. Sharp the engraver,
Romney the painter, Mrs. Wolstonecraft, Joel Barlow, Mr. Hull, Mr. Christie,
Dr. Priestley, Dr. Towers, Col. Oswald, the walking Stewart, Captain Sampson
Perry, Mr. Tuffin, Mr. William Choppin, Captain De Stark, Mr. Horne Tooke,
&c. &c., were among the number of his friends and acquaintance;
and of course, as he was my inmate, the most of my associates were frequently
his. At this time he read but little, took his nap after dinner,
and played with my family at some game in the evening, as chess, dominos
and drafts, but never at cards; in recitations, singing, music, &c.;
or passed it in conversation: the part he took
p.258 --
PAINE RETURNS TO LONDON
in the latter was always
enlightened, full of information, entertainment and anecdote. Occasionally
we visited enlightened friends, indulged in domestic jaunts and recreations
from home, frequently lounging at the White Bear, Picadilly, with his old
friend the walking Stewart, and other clever travellers from France, and
different parts of Europe and America. When by ourselves we sat very
late, and often broke in on the morning hours, indulging the reciprocal
interchange of affectionate and confidential intercourse. 'Warm from
the heart and faithful to its fires' was that intercourse, and gave to
us the 'feast of reason and the flow of soul.' "
"Mr. Paine in his person
was about five feet ten inches high, and rather athletic; he was broad-shouldered,
and latterly stooped a little. His eye, of which the painter could
not convey the exquisite meaning, was full, brilliant and singularly piercing;
it had in it the 'muse of fire.' In his dress and person he was generally
very cleanly, and wore his hair cued, with side curls, and powdered, so
that he looked altogether like a gentleman of the old French school.
His manners were easy and gracious; his knowledge was universal and boundless;
in private company and among his friends his conversation had every fascination
that anecdote, novelty and truth could give it. In mixed company
and among strangers he said little, and was no public speaker."
In Rickman's home Paine
wrote Part II of "Rights of Man" and his "Letter to the Addressers."
[*] The
-----------------------------------------------
[*] The
small, square mahogany table on which Paine wrote the "Address to the
Addressers" and "Rights of Man," Part II, is (p.259) still,
I believe, a treasured possession of Edward Truelove, a London bookseller.
I endeavored to purchase it for the Paine Memorial House, but the family
was disinclined to part with it.
p.259 --
PAINE RETURNS TO LONDON
latter was written in
reply to the "Royal Proclamation Against Seditious Writings," May
21, 1792. The "Letter to the Addressers" followed "Rights
of Man," and was published by both Rickman and H. D. Symonds.
Subsequently another printer published it as Part III of "Rights of
Man." Both of these works had a tremendous vogue. The government
prosecuted Rickman and Symonds for printing this work of Paine. The
second part of "Rights of Man" was published by Jordan, February
17, 1792.
In Part II, "Rights
of Man," Paine freely discusses his political philosophy, which may
be given, briefly, as follows:
1. Government
is the organization of the aggregate of those natural rights which individuals
are not competent to secure individually, and therefore surrender to the
control of society in exchange for the protection of all rights.
2. Republican government
is that in which the welfare of the whole nation is the object.
3. Monarchy is
government, more or less arbitrary, in which the interests of an individual
are paramount to those of the people generally.
p.260 -- PAINE
RETURNS TO LONDON
4. Aristocracy
is government, partially arbitrary, in which the interests of a class are
paramount to those of the people generally.
5. Democracy is
the whole people governing themselves without secondary means.
6. Representative
government is the control of a nation by persons elected by the whole nation.
7. The Rights of
Man mean the right of all to representation.
Paine dedicated Part
II to his good friend Lafayette. In a preface he refers to Burke's
evasion of any reply to "Rights of Man," Part I, and Burke's statement
that the only refutation it deserved was "criminal justice"! Paine,
apologizing for the pun, remarks that the book's condemnation, which was
the only answer Burke offered, being unable to refute the work, was, indeed,
"criminal justice"!
Paine had not yet received
any acknowledgment from Washington of his receipt of fifty copies of Part
I, dedicated to him, but he made up a package of a dozen copies of Part
II, and sent them to the President with this hurried note: [*]
--------------------------------------------
[*] This
communication, which, I believe, has not been published heretofore, is
in the manuscript collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, New York.
p.261 -- PAINE RETURNS TO LONDON
"London, Feb.
13th, 1792.
"Sir:
"An opportunity immediately
offering, I have had a dozen copies of my new work put up for the purpose
(the work being not yet published,) to present to you and Mr. Jefferson.
I hope the fifty copies of my former work, which were sent to Portsmouth,
(England) to the care of Mr. Greene, have come safe to your hands.
"Wishing you every happiness,
I remain,
"Your much obliged obedient Humble servant,
"THOMAS PAINE."
"George Washington, "President
of the United States."
p.262
CHAPTER
XXIV
THE PROSECUTION OF
"RIGHTS OF MAN"
The Success
of "Rights of Man" .... 200,000 Copies Sold .... Government
Prosecution Begun .... Paine Summonsed Letter to Dundas ....
Information Against Paine .... British and American Governmental
Expenses Compared .... Paine in Court .... A Meeting at Epsom
.... Paine's Letter to the Lewes' Meeting .... Gifts and a
Letter to the Society for Constitutional Information.
THE British
public was hungering for Part II of "Rights of Man." Part
I had uttered the unspoken thoughts of thousands of Britons, and their
appetites were whetted for a further elucidation of their ideas.
Fifty thousand copies of Part I had been sold within a very short time.
In his preface to the
second part Paine speaks of his finding the work too bulky to be made into
one volume and his determination to publish his ideas on the "Rights
of Man" in two separate books. He says:
"Several other
reasons contributed to produce this determination. I wished to know
the manner in which a work, written in a style of thinking and expression
at variance with what had been customary in England, would be received,
before I proceeded further. A great field was opening to the view
of mankind by means of the
p.263 -- THE
PROSECUTION OF "RIGHTS OF MAN"
French Revolution.
Mr. Burke's outrageous opposition thereto brought the controversy into
England. He attacked principles which he knew (from information)
I would contest with him, because they are principles I believe to be good,
and which I have contributed to establish, and conceive myself bound to
defend."
A publisher in London
named Chapman had offered Paine one thousand guineas (approximately $5000)
for the manuscript of Part II, but the writer declined, telling Chapman
that he "wished to reserve it in his own hands." The offer probably
came from the British Ministry through Chapman. At any rate Paine
thought that the government wished to destroy his work. Chapman was
frightened, if not actually intimidated, and declined to proceed with its
publication. Half of the book was already in type, and printed.
Paine took the work away from Chapman, turning it over to J. S. Jordan,
166 Fleet Street. Jordan published "Rights of Man," Part II,
on February 17, 1792.
Part Second met with
instant success. The demand for Part II increased, of course, the
sale of Part I, and editions were printed of the two parts together.
The popularity of "Rights of Man" may be estimated by the fact that
by the end of 1793, 200,000 copies had been sold!
p.264 --
THE PROSECUTION OF "RIGHTS OF MAN"
Government prosecutions
commenced within three months of the appearance of Part II. On May
14 Paine, learning that the government had issued a summons against Jordan,
hastened to assure the publisher that he would assume entire responsibility
and would pay all the expense of Jordan's defence. He did not know
that Jordan had privately compromised the matter by agreeing to plead guilty,
surrendering all his notes relating to Paine, and receiving a verdict against
the book. On May 21, at Rickman's house, where he was living, a summons
was left for the author, demanding his appearance on June 8 before the
Court of King's Bench. A royal proclamation against "seditious writings"
was issued on the same day.
Henry Dundas, Secretary
for the Home Department, in a debate on the proclamation in the House of
Commons, on May 25, said that the proceedings were taken against Jordan,
the publisher, because Thomas Paine, the author, could not be found.
Paine, knowing this was untrue, immediately addressed a letter to the Attorney-General.
Referring to what Secretary Dundas had stated in the House, Paine, in his
letter, said:
"Mr. Paine,
Sir, so far from secreting himself never went a step out of his way, nor
in the least instance varied
p.265 -- THE
PROSECUTION OF "RIGHTS OF MAN"
from his usual
conduct, to avoid any measure you might choose to adopt with respect to
him. It is on the purity of his heart, and the universal utility
of the principles and plans which his writings contain, that he rests the
issue; and he will not dishonor it by any kind of subterfuge. The
apartments which he occupied at the time of writing the work last winter,
he has continued to occupy to the present hour, and the solicitors of the
prosecution know where to find him; of which there is a proof in their
own office, as far back as the 21st of May, and also in the office of my
own attorney. But admitting, for the sake of the case, that the reason
for proceeding against the publication was, as Mr. Dundas stated, that
Mr. Paine could not be found, that reason can now exist no longer.
The instant that I was informed that an information was preparing to be
filed against me as the author of, I believe, one of the most useful and
benevolent books ever offered to mankind, I directed my attorney to put
in an appearance; and as I shall meet the prosecution fully and fairly,
and with a good and upright conscience, I have a right to expect that no
act of littleness will be made use of on the part of the prosecution towards
influencing the future issue with respect to the author. This expression
may, perhaps, appear obscure to you, but I am in the possession of some
matters which serve to show that the action against the publisher is not
intended to be a real action."
Paine then says that
should his suspicions in this matter prove to be well-founded, he would
withdraw from his intention of defending the publisher, and
p.266 --
THE PROSECUTION OF "RIGHTS OF MAN"
he suggests that the
government's case against Jordan be abandoned. Paine adds, significantly,
at the close of his letter:
"I believe that
Mr. Burke, finding himself defeated, has been one of the promoters of this
prosecution; and I shall return the compliment by showing, in a future
publication, that he has been a masked pensioner at 1500 per annum for
about ten years. Thus it is that the public money is wasted, and
the dread of public investigation is produced."
The information against
Paine -- hand-written in those days, of course-covered forty-one pages,
octavo. It is a curiosity of those times, well worth careful perusal.
It runs in part as follows:
"Thomas Paine,
late of London, gentleman, being a wicked, malicious, seditious, and ill-disposed
person, and being greatly disaffected to our said Sovereign Lord, the now
King, and to the happy constitution and government of this kingdom . .
. and to bring them into hatred and contempt, on the sixteenth day
of February, in the thirty-second year of the reign of our said present
Sovereign Lord, the King, with force and arms at London aforesaid, to wit,
in the parish of St. Mary-le-Bone, in the Ward of Cheap, he, the said Thomas,
wickedly, maliciously and seditiously, did write and publish, and caused
to be written and published, a certain false, scandalous, malicious, and
seditious libel, of and concerning the said late happy Revolution, and
the said settlements and limitations of the
p.267 -- THE
PROSECUTION OF "RIGHTS OF MAN"
crown and regal
governments of the said kingdoms and dominions . . . intituled, 'Rights
of Man, Part the Second, Combining principle and practice.' --
In one part thereof, according to the tenor and effect following, that
is to say, 'All hereditary government is in its nature tyranny. An
heritable crown' (meaning, amongst others, the crown of this kingdom)
'or an heritable throne,' (meaning the throne of this kingdom),
'or by what-other fanciful name such things may be called, have no other
significant explanation than that mankind are heritable property.
To inherit a government is to inherit the people, as if they were flocks
and herds.' . . . 'The time is not very distant when England will
laugh at itself for sending to Holland, Hanover, Zell, or Brunswick, for
men' (meaning the said
King William the Third,
and King George the First) 'at the expense of a million a year, who
understood neither her laws, her language, nor her interest, and whose
capacities would scarcely have fitted them for the office of a parish constable.
If government could be trusted to such hands, it must be some easy and
simple thing indeed; and materials fit for all the purposes may be found
in every town and village in England.' In contempt of our said Lord
the now King and his laws, to the evil example of all others in like case
offending, and against the Peace of our said Lord the King, his crown and
dignity. Whereupon the said Attorney General of our said Lord the
King, who for our said Lord the King in this behalf, prosecuteth for our
said Lord the King, prayeth the consideration of the court here in the
premises, and that due process of law may be awarded against him, the said
Thomas Paine,
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PROSECUTION OF "RIGHTS OF MAN"
in this behalf,
to make him answer to our said Lord the King, touching and concerning the
premises aforesaid.
"To this information
the defendant hath appeared, and pleaded Not Guilty, and thereupon issue
is joined."
In this indictment
(or "information") we observe the British government of 1792 taking the
first step in its attempt to destroy Thomas Paine.
In the information (specifications
and quotations) Paine's comment on the celebration of the William and Mary
centenary is repeated three times. This comment by Paine seems to
have been very irritating:
"I happened
to be in England at the celebration of the centenary of |