By R.W. Morrell

THE TORCH OF FREEDOM which Thomas Paine laid down in 1809 was picked up and carried forward in a brilliant manner by Joseph Lewis. 

Like Paine, he wrote many books on political and religious freedom. Some of them are: The Ten Commandments; The Bible Unmasked; The Tyranny of God; In the Name of Humanity; Thomas Paine, Author of the Declaration of Independence; Voltaire: The Incomparable Infidel; Spair : A Land Blighted by Religion; Atheism and Other Addresses; Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine; The Tragic Patriot; An Atheist Manifesto; Ingersoll the Magnificent. 

He was a major factor in having Thomas Paine placed in the Hall of Fame and a bronze bust placed therein. He was largely instrumental in having the United States government issue a postage stamp honoring Paine. Paine’s battle was in three countries: his native England: his adopted America; and France, where he received an honorary citizenship. In all three countries the unstoppable Joseph Lewis succeeded, despite widespread opposition, in having erected an imposing monument to his beloved Thomas Paine. He was also working to place monuments to Thomas Paine in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Providence, Rhode Island. 

Just as Paine will live forever in the minds of lovers and defenders of liberty, so the efforts of Joseph Lewis will forever be remembered by those who wish to honor Thomas Paine by doing something about it. Both were brilliant men and both devoted themselves so that freedom might ring throughout the world. 

Richard Gimbel, Colonel, U.S.A.F. (Retired). 

“Telford (Thomas Telford the engineer) acquired a copy of the first part of Paine’s Rights of Man upon its publication in 1791. Its instantaneous effect upon his thought is revealed in a letter to Andrew Little. ‘I am convinced’, he wrote, that the situation of Great Britain….is yet such that nothing short of some signal revolution can prevent her sinking into Bankruptcy…”

Quote from: Thomas Telford by L.T.C. Rolt. 1959. p.18.