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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

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

p.vii

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

p.1

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

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,

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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."

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,

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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."
 

"I wrote you last Tuesday 21st inst., including a copy of the King's speech, since which nothing material has happened at camp.  Genl. McDougal was sent last Wednesday night 22d to attack a party of the enemy who lay over the Schuylkill at Grey's Ferry where they have a bridge.

Genls. Greene 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

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

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.

"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

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.

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

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

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.

"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

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

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 GÈrard, 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 GÈrard had written to his government from Philadelphia (September 18,) regarding aid given to the British by Quakers.  GÈrard, 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

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.

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

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,