The works of Thomas Paine : a hero in the American revolution. With an account of his life ...

Front matter

i hrVkm'

7,

*^4^-~*^-

Preface

The Publisher deeming these memoirs incomplete and defective, from the omision of some important circumstances which would tend to illustrate yet more, he thinks, than we have hitherto done, the injustice and persecution Mr. Paine experienced, not only from us as a people and nation, but from the British government, to whose arbitrary rule and maladministration he was obnoxious. We acknowledge many omissions, which if detailed and duly considered by our readers, would tend to exalt his character in no small measure, but in preparing the succeeding pages for publication, we did not contemplate more than supplying such materials as would compel the prejudiced and those who had thoughtlessly joined in the opposition he experienced when living, or who had subsequently assailed his reputation, to pause and consider whether they did so wisely and justly. We think we have supplied abundant materials for this purpose, sufficient, if they were duly considered, effectually to turn the tide of prejudice, and that henceforward the name of. Paine, which has been Cast out as evil, will be regarded with especial reverence, and held in grateful remembrance : all we ask is an attentive perusal, and we think the dark cloud which has obscured his fair fame and memory will then have passed away for ever.

We have passingly noticed, although the publisher thinks not sufficiently, the prosecution which Mr. Paine was exposed to from the British government, and the strenuous exertions made to suppress his writings. The history of all the various movements of hostility and petty malignity would be interesting, but would occupy too much space in detail. We can only mention the first demonstration or commencement of hostilities

IV PREFACE.

in a Royal Proclamation, dated May 19, 1792, by King G-eorge III. : —

" Whereas, divers wicked and seditious writings have been published, and industriously circulated, tending to excite tumult and disorder, and raise groundless jealousies and discontents in the minds of our faithful and loving subjects respecting the laws, civil and religious, established in this kingdom ;" with very much more to the same effect. And then there are strict orders and command given " to all magistrates to discover and punish the authors and printers of such wicked and seditious writings, it being our determination to carry the laws vigorously into execution against such offenders as aforesaid." A prosecution was commenced against Paine himself, the printers, publishers, and even against all known buyers and possessors of his works ; the writings were ignominiously and publicly burnt by the common hangman ; and a series of persecution and prosecutions was directed against the writings of Paine, and the sellers of his works, his readers and admirers, which have been continued till within a very few years. It would be altogether beyond our power to detail all the vexatious prosecutions and sufferings of individuals as a consequence of these and similar enactments; if collected, they would fill a folio volume not inferior to Fox's Book of Martyrs, most of them sufferers in a purer and better cause, and of a higher, nobler, and more disinterested character than those described by that historian. Without, therefore, entering into further details, we submit what we have written to the magnanimity and sense of justice of the American people, with the full confidence of a satisfactory verdict and a triumphant acquittal of all the charges with which the malevolence and bigotry of the clergy and their adhereats may have obscured his fair fame.

In conclusion, to the reader. Certain we are that when opinions are free, cither in matters of government or religion, truth will finally and powerfully prevail. T. I.

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.

Perhaps there are few men who have rendered greater services to the cause of humanity in general, and our country in particular, who have been requited with more ingratitude, or have had more injustice done to their character and motives, than the subject of these few pages. That Mr. Paine should have, towards the close of his life, chosen the United States for his retreat, was perhaps very injudicious; he could not have gone, under the circumstances (just having published his Age of Reason), to a more unfavourable part of the world. A country like ours, at that period, and perhaps even now (although not to an equal extent as formerly), abounding in fanatics, was but little disposed to favour a man whose mind was bold, inquiring, liberal, free from prejudice, and who in principle was a Deist. Of all wrath, fanatical wrath is the most intense ; nor can it be a matter of much surprise, if by many his eminent revolutionary services were forgotten, , that great numbers, indeed all the religious community, afforded him but an ungracious reception, and that he was treated with neglect and illiberality. Now that almost half a century has elapsed since his decease, we may perhaps be better prepared to do justice to his character, especially as toleration, candour, and charity are more predominant than formerly, and the nation has more of reason, judgment, and good sense, we will hope, and less pious enthusiasm, or fanaticism.

VI THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.

But however this may be, there were a chosen and enlightened few who, like himself, u bold enough to be honest, and honest enough to be bold/' feeling his value, continued to be his sincerely attached friends to his last hour; from some of these, as well as from other sources, we have gleaned the following particulars : —

Thomas Paine was born at Thetford, county of Norfolk, England, Jan. 29th, 1737. His father, Joseph Paine, was a staymaker by trade, and a member of the society of Quakers. His parents were respectable, although not in circumstances to afford him a college education ; all his learning, therefore, was obtained from a common English grammar school, where he acquired a slight knowledge of Latin, although it does not appear he ever was much of a proficient in the dead languages. He left school at thirteen years of age, or thereabouts, and during his studies he indicated no remarkable symptoms of that talent and genius which was to shine out so brightly in after life. After leaving school, he resided with his father, where he remained two or three years, then left his native town, and proceeded to London, with the hope of acquiring a knowledge of the world, that he might improve his circumstances, and employ whatever of talent he might possess, to the best advantage. After staying in London a short time, he went to Dover, but not succeeding in his business to his satisfaction, he went on board a privateer ; but it is not known how long he remained at sea, or what induced him to quit the naval profession and resume his own business. When he was about twenty-two years of age, he settled at Sandwich, and there became acquainted with a young woman of the name of Mary Lambert, the daughter of an exciseman, whom he married. She died the next year, at Margate. After her death he moved to London, and thence to his native town, Thetford, where he obtained a place in the Excise, which he retained till 1774. In 1768, he re-

THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. VU

moved to Lewes, in Sussex, where he married a Miss Oliver, with whom he lived but a short time, when a separation took place, the real cause of which, although many have been assigned, as is usual in such cases, was never known to the public. He was much respected whilst at Lewes, and mixed freely in circles far above him in circumstances and social position, which can only be regarded as a just tribute due to his talents, conduct, and conversational powers. He was the author of several small pamphlets, and articles in the county newspaper, by which means, it is probable, he obtained some reputation, and was the cause of his obtaining an introduction to Dr. Franklin, then in London, who it appears soon discovered, in his interviews with Paine, that he was conversing with a man of no ordinary character, and which resulted in the Doctor furnishing him with a letter of introduction to one of his mostintimate friends in the United States. Under Dr. Franklin's patronage and advice he sailed for America, and arrived in Philadelphia in 1775. The circumstances under which he arrived in our city, and the glorious results of his advice and counsel, have been so admirably and eloquently described by the late lamented Gr. Lippard, that we cannot do better than employ his very language, as conveying a better and more perfect idea of the invaluable services of Paine, in this peculiar juncture of our national affairs, than we could otherwise furnish or supply : —

" It was in the time when a band of rebels sat in Carpenter's Hall, when the smoke of Lexington and Bunker Hill was yet in the sky, and the undried blood of Warren, and all the martyrs, was yet upon the ground — it was in this time, in the blood-red dawn of our Revolution, that a scene of some interest took place in the city of AYilliam Penn. Look yonder, and behold that solitary lamp, flinging its dim light through the shadows of a neatly furnished room.

" Grouped around the table, the glow of the lamp pouring

Vlll THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.

full in their faces, are four persons — a Boston Lawyer, a Philadelphia Printer, a Philadelphia Doctor, and a Virginia Planter.

" Come with me into that lonely room. Let us seat ourselves there. Let us look into the faces of these men — that man with the bold brow and resolute look, is one John Adams, from Boston; next to him sits the calm-faced Benjamin Bush; there you see the marked face of the printer, one Benjamin Franklin; and last of all, your eye rests upon a man distinguished above all others, by his height, the noble outlines of his form, and the solemn dignity of his brow. That man is named Washington — one Mr. George Washington, from Mount Vernon.

u And these men are all members of the rebel Congress. They have met here to talk over the affairs of their country. Their conversation is deep-toned — cautious — hurried. Every man seems afraid to give utterance to the thoughts of his bosom. Confiscation — the gibbet — the axe ! These have been the reward of brave men before now, who dared to speak treason against his Majesty by the grace of God. Therefore is the conversation of the four patriots burthened with restraint and gloom. They talk of Bunker Hill, of Lexington, of the blood-thirsty British ministry, of the weak and merciless British king.

" Then, from the lips of Franklin, comes the great question — Where is this war to end ? Are we fighting only for a change in the British ministry ? Or — or — for the independence of our native land ? There is silence in that room. Washington!, Adams, Hush, all look into each others' faces, and arc silent. Bound to England by the ties of ancestry — language — religion — the very idea of separation from her seems a blasphemy.

"Yes, with their towns burnt, their people murdered — ■ Bunker Hill smoking there, Lexington bleeding yonder— still

THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. IX

these colonists cling to the name of England, still shudder at the big word that chokes their utterance to speak — Independence.

" At this moment, while all is still, a visiter is announced. A man somewhat short in stature, clad in a coat of faded brown. He takes his seat at the table, is introduced to these gentlemen by Franklin, and then informed of the topic under discussion. Look at his brow, his flashing eye, as in earnest words he pours forth his soul. Washington, Adams, Hush, Franklin, all are hushed into silence. At first, the man in the brown coat startles, horrifies them with his political blasphemy. But as he goes on, as his broad solid brow warms with fire, as his eye flashes the full light of a soul roused into all its life, as those deep, earnest tones speak of the Independence of America — her glorious future — -her people, that shall swell into countless millions — her navy, that shall whiten the uttermost sea — her destiny, that shall stride over the wrecks of thrones, to the universal empire of the Western Continent. Then behold — they rise round the table — they press that man in the brown coat by the hand — nay, the Virginia planter, Washington, grasps both his hands, and in a voice deepened by emotion, begs him, for the sake of God, to write these words in a book — a book that shall be read in all the houses, and thundered from all the pulpits in America. — Do you see the picture, my friends ? That man in the brown coat, standing there, flushed, trembling with the excitement of his own thoughts — that splendidly formed Virginia planter on one side grasping him by the hand, those great-souled men encircling him on the other, John Adams, Benjamin Bush, Benjamin Franklin ? Their gleaming eyes shine with one soul, and read on the great cloud of the future this one word — Independence

" Let this scene pass. Let us follow this man in the brown coat through the year 1775.

" The day after this scene, that modest Virginia planter,

X THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.

George Washington,* was named commander-in-chief of the Continental army.

" And in the summer days of ; 75, that man in the brown coat was seen walking up and down, in front of the old State House. His great forehead shone in full sunlight, while, with his hand placed behind his back, he went slowly along the pavement. Then he would hurry to his lonely garret, seize the quill, and write down the deep thoughts of his brain.

. " Then forth again for a walk in the old State-House Square — up and down, under these old trees, he wanders all the afternoon — at night, there is a light burning all night, till the break of day.

" Let us look into that garret window — what see you there ? A rude and neglected room— a man short in stature sitting beside an old table, with scattered sheets of paper all about him — the light of the unsnuffed candle upon his brow — that unfailing quill in his hand !

" Ah ! my friends, you may talk to me of the sublimity of your battles, whose poetry is bones and skulls, whose glories are like the trophies of the butcher's shambles — but for me, there is no battle so awfully sublime as one like this now being fought before your eyes.

" A poor, neglected author, sitting in his garret — the world, poverty, time, space, all forgotten — as with his soul kindled into one steady blaze, he plies that fast-moving quill. That quill writes down words on paper, that which shall burn into the brains of kings, words like arrows, winged with fire and pointed with vitriol. *

u Go on, brave author, sitting in your garret, alone at this dread hour — go on — on, through the silent watches of the night, and God's blessiDgs fall, like breezes of June, upon your damp brow. Go on, in the name of God and man, for you arc writing the thoughts of a nation into birth.

"For many days, in the year 1775, was that man in the

THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. XI

brown coat seen walking up and down the State House Square. The proud Tory passed by him with scorn. Yet he was thinking great thoughts which would eat away the throne of that Tory's king ! The Tory, the vulgar rich man, the small dog in office, passed by him with scorn, but men of genius took him by the arm, and called him Brother. Look yonder ! There in a lonely garret, night after night, burns that solitary lamp — burns, and burns on, till break of day.

" At last the work is done. At last, grappling the loose sheets in his trembling hands — trembling, because feverish with the toil of his brain — he rushes forth one morning. — His book is written ; it must now be printed — scattered to the homes of America. But not one printer will touch the book, not a publisher but grows pale at the sight of those dingy pages. Because it ridicules the British monarchy ; because it speaks out in plain words, that nothing now remains to be done but to declare the New World free and independent.

u This shocks the trembling printers — touch such a mass of treasonable stuff? — never! But at last a printer is found, a bold Scotchman, named Robert Bell. Write that name on your hearts, for it is worthy of all reverence ! He transformed those loose pages into type, and on the 1st of January, 1776, ' Common Sense' burst on the people of the New World like a Prophecy ! — Yes, that book bursts on the hearts and homes of America like a light from Heaven.

" It is read by the mechanic at his bench ; the merchant at his desk, even the preacher in his pulpit reads it to his people, and scatters its great truths with the teachings of Revelation.

" l It burst from the press/ says the great Doctor Rush, 1 with an effect which has been rarely produced by types or paper, in any age or country/

" Ramsay, in his History of the Revolution, and his brother historian, Gordon, solemnly state the fact, that this book was

Xll THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.

the most important cause of the separation from the mother country. Thomas Jefferson, Joel Barlow, George Washington, unite in their praises of this work. Long after its publi cation, Jefferson sent a government ship to bring the author home from France ; Washington invited him to the shelter of his own home ; Barlow described him, yes, the man in the brown coat, as l one of the most benevolent and disinterested of mankind; endowed with the clearest perception, an uncommon share of original genius, and the greatest breadth of thought/

"In August, 1785, after the battle was fought, and the empire was established, Congress, in a solemn resolution, stamped the author of Common Sense with their approbation, as one of the greatest of the great men of the Revolution.

" This book was the cause and forerunner of the Declaration of Independence. In this book, for the first time, were written these great words : ' The Free and Independent States of America/

" Let us follow this man in the brown coat through the scenes of the Revolution.

"In the full prime of early manhood, he joins the army of the Revolution ; he shares the crust and the cold with Washington and his men — he is with those brave soldiers on the toilsome march, with them by the camp-fire, with them in the hour of battle. Why is he with them ?

u Is the day dark — has the battle been bloody — do the American soldiers despair ? Hark ! that printing-press yonder, which moves with the American camp in all its wanderings, is scattering pamphlets through the- ranks of the army, — pamphlets written by the author-soldier ; written sometimes on the head of a drum — or by the midnight fire, or amid the corses of the dead. Pamphlets that stamp great hopes and greater truths, in plain words, upon the hearts of the Continental army. Tell me, was not that a sublime sight, to see a

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. Xlll

man of genius who might have shone as an orator, a poet ; a novelist, following, with untiring devotion, the bloody stamped footsteps of the Continental army ?

"Yes, in the dark days of '76, when the soldiers of Washington tracked their footsteps on the soil of Trenton, in the snows of Princeton, there, first among the heroes and patriots, there, unflinching in the hour of defeat, writing the i Crisis' by the light of the camp-fire, was the author-hero of the Revolution. Yes, we will look into the half-clad ranks of Washington's army, we will behold each corporal surrounded by a group of soldiers, as he reads aloud the pamphlets of the author-soldier. What hope, what joy, what energy, gleams over the veteran faces, as words like these break on the frosty air : ' These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country ; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph/ Do not words like these stir up the blood ?

" Yet can you imagine their effect when read to groups of starved and bleeding soldiers, by the red watch-fire, in the cold air of the winter dawn ?

" Such words as these stirred up the starved Continentals to the attack on Trenton, and there, in the dawn of that glorious morning, George Washington, standing sword in hand over the dead body of the Hessian Ehal, confessed the magic influence of the author-hero's pen.

" The vilest enemy of the author-hero, a base hireling of the English court, yes, even he, blasphemer, libeller of Jefferson, and Franklin, and Madison, as he was, even he, a thing so small in soul that his very masters were ashamed of him, was forced to confess that 'the cannon of Washington was not 2

Xiv THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE.

more formidable to the British, than the pen of the author of Common Sense/

" Is there a heart that does not throb at the name of the author of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, the statesmanhero of the Revolution ?

" And do your hearts throb at the mention of his name, and yet refuse to pay a tribute of one solitary pulsation of justice to the memory of his brother-patriot, his forerunner in the work of freedom, the author-hero of the Eevolution, Thomas Paine V

This elegant and eloquent tribute of respect to Paine, which also contains so much historical and reliable information, was part of an address delivered on the occasion of the celebration of the birth-day of Thomas Paine, by the Society of the Sunday Institute, in the city of Philadelphia. It needs no apology for its insertion ; it is worthy of preservation, and we doubt not but our readers will regard it with favour. We will now resume the current of our biographical detail. We have hastily passed over the most unimportant and uninteresting portion of Paine's life — but having brought him to America at the instance of Dr. Franklin, we will endeavour to furnish some particulars of those great events which called his talents into activity, in which he took so prominent and decided a part, and on which his reputation both for good and evil, according to the peculiar views of his friends or enemies, is principally founded. He arrived here (Philadelphia) in 1774, although Dr. Rush states it was in 1772; but he is undoubtedly mistaken in his dates, as we have ample means of determining. The difficulties in which this country was involved with Great Britain had commenced, and Dr. Franklin was in London, with the hopes of some amicable adjustment; but, as the prospect became more and more faint, and the signs of the coming

THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. XV

contest more evident and unmistakable, the Doctor very naturally, and with his usual sagacity, selected Paine as a man every way calculated to render important services to his country in the coming struggle. With a short letter of recommendation, therefore, he arrived in this country, where his first design appears to have been, according to Dr. Rush, to open a school for the instruction of young ladies in several branches of knowledge, which at that time were seldom taught in the schools of our country. Yale, in his Life of Paine, undoubtedly the best which has been written — and to which we stand indebted for much and valuable information — awards great credit to Franklin, in that he had the genius to discover Paine's peculiar tact and talent, and despatch him to this country without committing himself as to his real motives in so doing ; and he also very justly remarks, " That this conduct of Franklin, in preferring Paine to himself for this important object, whilst it reflects the greatest credit upon Paine' s natural abilities, acquisitions, and moral virtues, redounds also to Franklin's glory; it marks also the calumniators of Paine, those who have attempted to present him to the public as a demoralized, vulgar, and illiterate man, as base, unprincipled slanderers, whose calumnies are not the less venomous for proceeding from reverend persons."

Paine himself describes his arrival here, in the winter of 1774, a few months, as he says, before the battle of Lexington, which was fought in April, 1775. His first employment was with Mr. Aitken, a bookseller; and as editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, his introduction to that work, dated Jan. 24, 1775, concludes thus : " Thus encompassed with difficulties, this first number of the Pennsylvania Magazine entreats a favourable reception, of which we shall only say, that like the early snowdrop, it comes forth in a barren season, and contents itself with foretelling the reader that choicer flowers are preparing to appear." " For this/' Dr. Rash tells us, "he

XVI THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE

received about one hundred and twenty-five dollars a year, and that the work was well sustained by Paine ; that his Song on the Death of General Wolfe, and his Reflections on the Death of Lord Give, gave it a sudden currency which few works of that kind have since had in our country."

Meantime Franklin had arrived, and his intercourse and conversation with Paine resulted in the offer to put into his hands materials for the history of the times, when Paine somewhat surprised the philosopher, by showing him his copy of Common Sense, and that he had anticipated his designs and wishes. We have examined, with some attention, the conflicting claims of many individuals as to who first broached the doctrine of American Independence. Dr. Rush contends strongly for the merit of the suggestion ; he it was, he says, who suggested to Mr. Paine the propriety of preparing the public mind by means of some work of sufficient length for a perpetual separation from Great Britain; and Paine immediately began to prepare his famous pamphlet in favour of that measure. When completed, it was shown to Dr. Franklin, Samuel Adams, and Judge Wilson, and they approving of it, it was printed by Robert Bell, a Scotchman • and " Common Sense," says Dr. Rush, " burst from the press with an effect which has been rarely produced by types and paper in any age or country."

Whether the idea of independence was original with Paine, or the suggestion of some other person, it is certain that the real merit of efficiency, consistency, and determination of purpose, as well as all the qualities and exertions which could insure success, must unequivocally be his. At this period, no one talked about independence; no one thought about it. Petition after petition had been presented to the English government, but had met with only contemptuous refusals and rejections, and nothing but anger and despair seemed to be excited in the public mind — anger, at the unworthy treatment

THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XV11

received, and despair at being unable to offer any effectual resistance to oppression. It was a gloomy period of our national history. Paine's book — Common Sense — however, brought light out of darkness, and soon produced, what his writings upon all subjects rarely fail to produce, such is their manly, honest, straightforward, and logical character and tendency, " a change of opinion." The people were not prepared, and the greatest compliment which can be paid to the work " Common Sense," is the effect it so rapidly had upon the people who had before no predisposition towards its principles. Paine himself says, in Crisis, No. III. :

" Independence was a doctrine scarce and rare even towards the conclusion of the, year 1775. All our politics had been founded on the hope or expectation of making the matter up, — a hope which, though general on the side of America, had never entered the head or heart of the British Court." Again, in Crisis, No. VII., he says: "I found the disposition of the people such that they might have been led by a thread and governed by a reed. Their attachment to Britain was obstinate, and it was at that time a kind of treason to speak against it."

Even Cheetham, who wrote so much in opposition to Paine, and was his most decided and virulent enemy, is compelled to say :

"This pamphlet, of forty octavo pages, holding out relief by proposing independence to an oppressed and despairing people, was published in January, 1776, speaking a language which the colonists had felt, but not thought of. Its popularity, terrible in its consequences to the parent country, was unexampled in the history of the press." At first, involving the colonists, it was thought, in the crime of rebellion, and pointing to a road leading inevitably to ruin, it was read with indignation and alarm ; but when the reader (and everybody read it, recovering the first shock) reperused it, its arguments 2* B