The Life Of Thomas Paine Volume II Part 23

"Yours in friends.h.i.+p

"Thomas Paine.*

"remember me in the circle of your friends."

* The original is in possession of Mr. William F.

Havermeyer, Jr.

Mr. E. M. Woodward, in his account of Bordentown, mentions among the "traditions" of the place, that Paine used to meet a large number of gentlemen at the "Was.h.i.+ngton House," kept by Debora Applegate, where he conversed freely "with any proper person who approached him."

"Mr. Paine was too much occupied in literary pursuits and writing to spend a great deal of his time here, but he generally paid several visits during the day. His drink was invariably brandy. In walking he was generally absorbed in deep thought, seldom noticed any one as he pa.s.sed, unless spoken to, and in going from his home to the tavern was frequently observed to cross the street several times. It is stated that several members of the church were turned from their faith by him, and on this account, and the general feeling of the community against him for his opinions on religious subjects, he was by the ma.s.s of the people held in odium, which feeling to some extent was extended to Col.

Kirkbride."

These "traditions" were recorded in 1876. Paine's "great power of conversation" was remembered. But among the traditions, even of the religious, there is none of any excess in drinking.

Possibly the turning of several church-members from their faith may not have been so much due to Paine as to the parsons, in showing their "religion" as a gorgon turning hearts to stone against a benefactor of mankind. One day Paine went with Colonel Kirkbride to visit Samuel Rogers, the Colonels brother-in-law, at Bellevue, across the river. As he entered the door Rogers turned his back, refusing his old friend's hand, because it had written the "Age of Reason." Presently Borden-town was placarded with pictures of the Devil flying away with Paine. The pulpits set up a chorus of vituperation. Why should the victim spare the altar on which he is sacrificed, and justice also? Dogma had chosen to grapple with the old man in its own way. That it was able to break a driven leaf Paine could admit as truly as Job; but he could as bravely say: Withdraw thy hand from me, and I will answer thee, or thou shalt answer me! In Paine too it will be proved that such outrages on truth and friends.h.i.+p, on the rights of thought, proceed from no G.o.d, but from the destructive forces once personified as the adversary of man.

Early in March Paine visited New York, to see Monroe before his departure for France. He drove with Kirkbride to Trenton; but so furious was the pious mob, he was refused a seat in the Trenton stage. They dined at Government House, but when starting for Brunswick were hooted These were the people for whose liberties Paine had marched that same road on foot, musket in hand. At Trenton insults were heaped on the man who by camp-fires had written the _Crisis_, which animated the conquerors of the Hessians at that place, in "the times that tried men's souls." These people he helped to make free,--free to cry _Crucify!_

Paine had just written to Jefferson that the Louisianians were "perhaps too much under the influence of their priests to be sufficiently free."

Probably the same thought occurred to him about people nearer home, when he presently heard of Colonel Kirkbride's sudden unpopularity, and death. On October 3d Paine lost this faithful friend.*

* It should be stated that Burlington County, in which Bordentown is situated, was preponderantly Federalist, and that Trenton was in the hands of a Federalist mob of young well-to-do rowdies. The editor of the _True American_, a Republican paper to which Paine had contributed, having commented on a Fourth of July orgie of those rowdies in a house a.s.sociated with the revolution, was set upon with bludgeons on July 12th, and suffered serious injuries. The Grand Jury refused to present the Federalist ruffians, though the evidence was clear, and the mob had free course.

The facts of the Paine mob are these: after dining at Government House, Trenton, Kirkbride applied for a seat on the New York stage for Paine.

The owner, Voorhis, cursed Paine as "a deist," and said, "I 'll be d.a.m.ned if he shall go in my stage." Another stage-owner also refused, saying, "My stage and horses were once struck by lightning, and I don't want them to suffer again." When Paine and Kirkbride had entered their carriage a mob surrounded them with a drum, playing the "rogue's march."

The local reporter (_True American_) says, "Mr. Paine discovered not the least emotion of fear or anger, but calmly observed that such conduct had no tendency to hurt his feelings or injure his fame." The mob then tried to frighten the horse with the drum, and succeeded, but the two gentlemen reached a friend's house in Brunswick in safety. A letter from Trenton had been written to the stage-master there also, to prevent Paine from securing a seat, whether with success does not appear.

CHAPTER XVII. NEW ROCh.e.l.lE AND THE BONNEVILLES

The Bonnevilles, with whom Paine had resided in Paris, were completely impoverished after his departure. They resolved to follow Paine to America, depending on his promise of aid should they do so. Foreseeing perils in France, Nicolas, unable himself to leave at once, hurried off his wife and children--Benjamin, Thomas, and Louis. Madame Bonneville would appear to have arrived in August, 1803. I infer this because Paine writes, September 23d, to Jefferson from Stonington, Connecticut; and later letters show that he had been in New York, and afterwards placed Thomas Paine Bonneville with the Rev. Mr. Foster (Universalist) of Stonington for education. Madame Bonneville was placed in his house at Bordentown, where she was to teach French.

At New York, Paine found both religious and political parties sharply divided over him. At Lovett's Hotel, where he stopped, a large dinner was given him, March 18th, seventy being present One of the active promoters of this dinner was James Cheetham, editor of the _American Citizen_, who, after seriously injuring Paine by his patronage, became his malignant enemy.

In the summer of 1803 the political atmosphere was in a tempestuous condition, owing to the widespread accusation that Aaron Burr had intrigued with the Federalists against Jefferson to gain the presidency.

There was a Society in New York called "Republican Greens," who, on Independence Day, had for a toast "Thomas Paine, the Man of the People,"

and who seem to have had a piece of music called the "Rights of Man."

Paine was also apparently the hero of that day at White Plains, where a vast crowd a.s.sembled, "over 1,000," among the toasts being: "Thomas Paine--the bold advocate of rational liberty--the People's friend." He probably reached New York again in August A letter for "Thomas Payne"

is in the advertised Letter-list of August 6th, and in the _American Citizen_ (August 9th) are printed (and misprinted) "Lines, extempore, by Thomas Paine, July, 1803."*

* On July 12th the _Evening Post _(edited by William Coleman) tries to unite republicanism and infidelity by stating that Part I. of the "Age of Reason" was sent in MS.

to Mr. Fellows of New York, and in the following year Part II. was gratuitously distributed "from what is now the office of the Aurora." On September 24th that paper publishes a poem about Paine, ending:

"Quick as the lightning's vivid flash The poet's eye o'er Europe rolls; Sees battles rage, hears tempests crash, And dims at horror's threatening scowls.

"Mark ambition's ruthless king, With crimsoned banners scathe the globe; While trailing after conquest's wing, Man's festering wounds his demons probe.

"Palled with streams of reeking gore That stain the proud imperial day, He turns to view the western sh.o.r.e, Where freedom holds her boundless sway.

"'T is here her sage triumphant sways An empire in the people's love; 'T is here the sovereign will obeys No king but Him who rules above."

The verses, crudely expressing the contrast between President Jefferson and King George--or Napoleon, it is not clear which,--sufficiently show that Paine's genius was not extempore. His reputation as a patriotic minstrel was high; his "Hail, great Republic," to the tune of "Rule Britannia," was the established Fourth-of-July song, and it was even sung at the dinner of the American consul in London (Erving) March 4, 1803, the anniversary of Jefferson's election. Possibly the extempore lines were sung on some Fourth-of-July occasion. I find "Thomas Paine"

and the "Rights of Man" favorite toasts at republican celebrations in Virginia also at this time. In New York we may discover Paine's coming and going by rancorous paragraphs concerning him in the _Evening Post_.*

"And having spent a lengthy life in evil, Return again unto thy parent Devil!"

Perhaps the most malignant wrong done Paine in this paper was the adoption of his signature, "Common Sense," by one of its contributors!

Another paragraph says that Franklin hired Paine in London to come to America and write in favor of the Revolution,--a remarkable example of federalist heredity from "Toryism." On September 27th the paper prints a letter purporting to have been found by a waiter in Lovett's Hotel after Paine's departure,--a long letter to Paine, by some red-revolutionary friend, of course gloating over the exquisite horrors filling Europe in consequence of the "Rights of Man." The pretended letter is dated "Jan.

12, 1803," and signed "J. Oldney." The paper's correspondent pretends to have found out Oldney, and conversed with him. No doubt many simple people believed the whole thing genuine.

The most learned physician in New York, Dr. Nicholas Romayne, invited Paine to dinner, where he was met by John Pintard, and other eminent citizens. Pintard said to Paine: "I have read and re-read your 'Age of Reason,' and any doubts which I before entertained of the truth of revelation have been removed by your logic. Yes, sir, your very arguments against Christianity have convinced me of its truth." "Well then," answered Paine, "I may return to my couch to-night with the consolation that I have made at least one Christian."* This authentic anecdote is significant John Pintard, thus outdone by Paine in politeness, founded the Tammany Society, and organized the democratic party. When the "Rights of Man" appeared, the book and its author were the main toasts of the Tammany celebrations; but it was not so after the "Age of Reason" had appeared. For John Pintard was all his life a devotee of Dutch Reformed orthodoxy. Tammany, having begun with the populace, had by this time got up somewhat in society. As a rule the "gentry" were Federalists, though they kept a mob in their back yard to fly at the democrats on occasion. But with Jefferson in the presidential chair, and Clinton vice-president, Tammany was in power. To hold this power Tammany had to court the clergy. So there was no toast to Paine in the Wigwam of 1803.**

* Dr. Francis' "Old New York," p. 140.

** The New York Daily Advertiser published the whole of Part I. of the "Rights of Man" in 1791 (May 6-27), the editor being then John Pintard. At the end of the publication a poetical tribute to Paine was printed. Four of the lines run:

"Rous'd by the reason of his manly page, Once more shall Paine a listening world engage; From reason's source a bold reform he brings, By raising up mankind he pulls down kings."

President Jefferson was very anxious about the const.i.tutional points involved in his purchase of Louisiana, and solicited Paine's views on the whole subject. Paine wrote to him extended communications, among which was the letter of September 23d, from Stonington. The interest of the subject is now hardly sufficient to warrant publication of the whole of this letter, which, however, possesses much interest.

At the great celebration (October 12, 1792) of the third Centenary of the discovery of America, by the sons of St Tammany, New York, the first man toasted after Columbus was Paine, and next to Paine "The Rights of Man." They were also extolled in an ode composed for the occasion, and sung.

"Your two favours of the 10 and 18 ult. reached me at this place on the 14th inst.; also one from Mr. Madison. I do not suppose that the framers of the Const.i.tution thought anything about the acquisition of new territory, and even if they did it was prudent to say nothing about it, as it might have suggested to foreign Nations the idea that we contemplated foreign conquest. It appears to me to be one of those cases with which the Const.i.tution had nothing to do, and which can be judged of only by the circ.u.mstances of the times when such a case shall occur.

The Const.i.tution could not foresee that Spain would cede Louisiana to France or to England, and therefore it could not determine what our conduct should be in consequence of such an event. The cession makes no alteration in the Const.i.tution; it only extends the principles of it over a larger territory, and this certainly is within the morality of the Const.i.tution, and not contrary to, nor beyond, the expression or intention of any of its articles... Were a question to arise it would apply, not to the Cession, because it violates no article of the Const.i.tution, but to Ross and Morris's motion. The Const.i.tution empowers Congress to declare war, but to make war without declaring it is anti-const.i.tutional. It is like attacking an unarmed man in the dark.

There is also another reason why no such question should arise. The english Government is but in a tottering condition and if Bonaparte succeeds, that Government will break up. In that case it is not improbable we may obtain Canada, and I think that Bermuda ought to belong to the United States. In its present condition it is a nest for piratical privateers. This is not a subject to be spoken of, but it may be proper to have it in mind.

"The latest news we have from Europe in this place is the insurrection in Dublin. It is a disheartening circ.u.mstance to the english Government, as they are now putting arms into the hands of people who but a few weeks before they would have hung had they found a pike in their possession. I think the probability is in favour of the descent [on England by Bonaparte]...

"I shall be employed the ensuing Winter in cutting two or three thousand Cords of Wood on my farm at New Roch.e.l.le for the New York market distant twenty miles by water. The Wood is worth 3 1/2 dollars per load as it stands. This will furnish me with ready money, and I shall then be ready for whatever may present itself of most importance next spring. I had intended to build myself a house to my own taste, and a workshop for my mechanical operations, and make a collection, as authors say, of my works, which with what I have in ma.n.u.script will make four, or five octavo volumes, and publish them by subscription, but the prospects that are now opening with respect to England hold me in suspence.

"It has been customary in a President's discourse to say something about religion. I offer you a thought on this subject. The word, religion, used as a word _en ma.s.se_ has no application to a country like America.

In catholic countries it would mean exclusively the religion of the romish church; with the Jews, the Jewish religion; in England, the protestant religion or in the sense of the english church, the established religion; with the Deists it would mean Deism; with the Turks, Mahometism &c, &c, As well as I recollect it is _Lego, Religo, Relegio, Religion_, that is say, tied or bound by an oath or obligation.

The french use the word properly; when a woman enters a convent, she is called a novitiate; when she takes the oath, she is a _religieuse_, that is, she is bound by an oath. Now all that we have to do, as a Government with the word religion, in this country, is with the civil rights of it, and not at all with its _creeds_. Instead therefore of using the word religion, as a word en ma.s.se, as if it meant a creed, it would be better to speak only of its civil rights; _that all denominations of religion are equally protected, that none are dominant, none inferior, that the rights of conscience are equal to every denomination and to every individual and that it is the duty of Government to preserve this equality of conscientious rights_. A man cannot be called a hypocrite for defending the civil rights of religion, but he may be suspected of insincerity in defending its creeds.

"I suppose you will find it proper to take notice of the impressment of American seamen by the Captains of British vessels, and procure a list of such captains and report them to their government. This pretence of searching for british seamen is a new pretence for visiting and searching American vessels....

"I am pa.s.sing some time at this place at the house of a friend till the wood cutting time comes on, and I shall engage some cutters here and then return to New Roch.e.l.le. I wrote to Mr. Madison concerning the report that the british Government had cautioned ours not to pay the purchase money for Louisiana, as they intended to take it for themselves. I have received his [negative] answer, and I pray you make him my compliments.

"We are still afflicted with the yellow fever, and the Doctors are disputing whether it is an imported or a domestic disease. Would it not be a good measure to prohibit the arrival of all vessels from the West Indies from the last of June to the middle of October. If this was done this session of Congress, and we escaped the fever next summer, we should always know how to escape it. I question if performing quarantine is a sufficient guard. The disease may be in the cargo, especially that part which is barrelled up, and not in the persons on board, and when that cargo is opened on our wharfs, the hot steaming air in contact with the ground imbibes the infection. I can conceive that infected air can be barrelled up, not in a hogshead of rum, nor perhaps sucre, but in a barrel of coffee. I am badly off in this place for pen and Ink, and short of paper. I heard yesterday from Boston that our old friend S.

Adams was at the point of death. Accept my best wishes."

When Madame Bonneville left France it was understood that her husband would soon follow, but he did not come, nor was any letter received from him. This was probably the most important allusion in a letter of Paine, dated New York, March 1, 1804, to "Citizen Skipwith, Agent Commercial d'Amerique, Paris."

"Dear Friend--I have just a moment to write you a line by a friend who is on the point of sailing for Bordeaux. The Republican interest is now compleatly triumphant. The change within this last year has been great.