* John Stuart Mill, for instance. See also the Rev. Dr.Abbott's "Kernel and Husk" (London), and the great work ofSamuel Laing, "A Modern Zoroastrian."
The opening year 1806 found Paine in New Rochelle. By insufficient nourishment in Carver's house his health was impaired. His means were getting low, insomuch that to support the Bonnevilles he had to sell the Bordentown house and property.*
* It was bought for $300 by his friend John Oliver, whosedaughter, still residing in the house, told me that herfather to the end of his life "thought everything of Paine."John Oliver, in his old age, visited Colonel Ingersoll inorder to testify against the aspersions on Paine's characterand habits.
Elihu Palmer had gone off to Philadelphia for a time; he died there of yellow fever in 1806. The few intelligent people whom Paine knew were much occupied, and he was almost without congenial society. His hint to Jefferson of his impending poverty, and his reminder that Virginia had not yet given him the honorarium he and Madison approved, had brought no result. With all this, and the loss of early friendships, and the theological hornet-nest he had found in New York, Paine began to feel that his return to America was a mistake.
The air-castle that had allured him to his beloved land had faded. His little room with the Bonnevilles in Paris, with its chaos of papers, was preferable; for there at least he could enjoy the society of educated persons, free from bigotry. He dwelt a stranger in his Land of Promise.
So he resolved to try and free himself from his depressing environment. He would escape to Europe again. Jefferson had offered him a ship to return in, perhaps he would now help him to get back. So he writes (Jan. 30th) a letter to the President, pointing out the probabilities of a crisis in Europe which must result in either a descent on England by Bonaparte, or in a treaty. In the case that the people of England should be thus liberated from tyranny, he (Paine) desired to share with his friends there the task of framing a republic. Should there be, on the other hand, a treaty of peace, it would be of paramount interest to American shipping that such treaty should include that maritime compact, or safety of the seas for neutral ships, of which Paine had written so much, and which Jefferson himself had caused to be printed in a pamphlet. Both of these were, therefore, Paine's subjects. "I think," he says, "you will find it proper, perhaps necessary, to send a person to France in the event of either a treaty or a descent, and I make you an offer of my services on that occasion to join Mr. Monroe.... As I think that the letters of a friend to a friend have some claim to an answer, it will be agreeable to me to receive an answer to this, but without any wish that you should commit yourself, neither can you be a judge of what is proper or necessary to be done till about the month of April or May."
This little dream must also vanish. Paine must face the fact that his career is ended.
It is probable that Elihu Palmer's visit to Philadelphia was connected with some theistic movement in that city. How it was met, and what annoyances Paine had to suffer, are partly intimated in the following letter, printed in the PhiladelphiaCommercial Advertiser, February 10, 1806.
"To John Inskeep, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia.
"I saw in the Aurora of January the 30th a piece addressed to you and signed Isaac Hall. It contains a statement of your malevolent conduct in refusing to let him have Vine-st. Wharf after he had bid fifty dollars more rent for it than another person had offered, and had been unanimously approved of by the Commissioners appointed by law for that purpose. Among the reasons given by you for this refusal, one was, that 'Mr Hall was one of Paine's disciples.' If those whom you may chuse to call my disciples follow my example in doing good to mankind, they will pass the confines of this world with a happy mind, while the hope of the hypocrite shall perish and delusion sink into despair.
"I do not know who Mr. Inskeep is, for I do not remember the name of Inskeep at Philadelphia in 'the time that tried men's souls.* He must be some mushroom of modern growth that has started up on the soil which the generous services of Thomas Paine contributed to bless with freedom; neither do I know what profession of religion he is of, nor do I care, for if he is a man malevolent and unjust, it signifies not to what class or sectary he may hypocritically belong.
"As I set too much value on my time to waste it on a man of so little consequence as yourself, I will close this short address with a declaration that puts hypocrisy and malevolence to defiance. Here it is: My motive and object in all my political works, beginning with Common Sense, the first work I ever published, have been to rescue man from tyranny and false systems and false principles of government, and enable him to be free, and establish government for himself; and I have borne my share of danger in Europe and in America in every attempt I have made for this purpose. And my motive and object in all my publications on religious subjects, beginning with the first part of the Age of Reason, have been to bring man to a right reason that God has given him; to impress on him the great principles of divine morality, justice, mercy, and a benevolent disposition to all men and to all creatures; and to excite in him a spirit of trust, confidence and consolation in his creator, unshackled by the fable and fiction of books, by whatever invented name they may be called. I am happy in the continual contemplation of what I have done, and I thank God that he gave me talents for the purpose and fortitude to do it It will make the continual consolation of my departing hours, whenever they finally arrive.
"Thomas Paine."
"'These are the times that try men's souls.' Crisis No. 1, written while on the retreat with the army from fort Lee to the Delaware and published in Philadelphia in the dark days of 1776 December the 19th, six days before the taking of the Hessians at Trenton."
But the year 1806 had a heavier blow yet to inflict on Paine, and it naturally came, though in a roundabout way, from his old enemy Gouverneur Morris. While at New Rochelle, Paine offered his vote at the election, and it was refused, on the ground that he was not an American citizen! The supervisor declared that the former American Minister, Gouverneur Morris, had refused to reclaim him from a French prison because he was not an American, and that Washington had also refused to reclaim him. Gouverneur Morris had just lost his seat in Congress, and was politically defunct, but his ghost thus rose on poor Paine's pathway. The supervisor who disfranchised the author of "Common Sense" had been a "Tory" in the Revolution; the man he disfranchised was one to whom the President of the United States had written, five years before: "I am in hopes you will find us returned generally to sentiments worthy of former times. In these it will be your glory to have steadily labored, and with as much effect as any man living." There was not any question of Paine's qualification as a voter on other grounds than the supervisor (Elisha Ward) raised. More must presently be said concerning this incident. Paine announced his intention of suing the inspectors, but meanwhile he had to leave the polls in humiliation. It was the fate of this founder of republics to be a monument of their ingratitude. And now Paine's health began to fail. An intimation of this appears in a letter to Andrew A. Dean, to whom his farm at New Rochelle was let, dated from New York, August, 1806. It is in reply to a letter from Dean on a manuscript which Paine had lent him.*
* "I have read," says Dean, "with good attention yourmanuscript on dreams, and Examination of the Prophecies inthe Bible. I am now searching the old prophecies, andcomparing the same to those said to be quoted in the NewTestament. I confess the comparison is a matter worthy ofour serious attention; I know not the result till I finish;then, if you be living, I shall communicate the same toyou. I hope to be with you soon." Paine was now living withJarvis, the artist. One evening he fell as if by apoplexy,and, as he lay, his first word was (to Jarvis): "Mycorporeal functions have ceased; my intellect is clear;this is a proof of immortality."
"Respected Friend: I received your friendly letter, for which I am obliged to you. It is three weeks ago to day (Sunday, Aug. 15,) that I was struck with a fit of an apoplexy, that deprived me of all sense and motion. I had neither pulse nor breathing, and the people about me supposed me dead. I had felt exceedingly well that day, and had just taken a slice of bread and butter for supper, and was going to bed. The fit took me on the stairs, as suddenly as if I had been shot through the head; and I got so very much hurt by the fall, that I have not been able to get in and out of bed since that day, otherwise than being lifted out in a blanket, by two persons; yet all this while my mental faculties have remained as perfect as I ever enjoyed them. I consider the scene I have passed through as an experiment on dying, and I find death has no terrors for me. As to the people called Christians, they have no evidence that their religion is true. There is no more proof that the Bible is the word of God, than that the Koran of Mahomet is the word of God. It is education makes all the difference. Man, before he begins to think for himself, is as much the child of habit in Creeds as he is in ploughing and sowing. Yet creeds, like opinions, prove nothing. Where is the evidence that the person called Jesus Christ is the begotten Son of God? The case admits not of evidence either to our senses or our mental faculties: neither has God given to man any talent by which such a thing is comprehensible. It cannot therefore be an object for faith to act upon, for faith is nothing more than an assent the mind gives to something it sees cause to believe is fact. But priests, preachers, and fanatics, put imagination in the place of faith, and it is the nature of the imagination to believe without evidence. If Joseph the carpenter dreamed (as the book of Matthew, chapter 1st, says he did,) that his betrothed wife, Mary, was with child by the Holy Ghost, and that an angel told him so, I am not obliged to put faith in his dream; nor do I put any, for I put no faith in my own dreams, and I should be weak and foolish indeed to put faith in the dreams of others.—The Christian religion is derogatory to the Creator in all its articles. It puts the Creator in an inferior point of view, and places the Christian Devil above him. It is he, according to the absurd story in Genesis, that outwits the Creator, in the garden of Eden, and steals from him his favorite creature, man; and, at last, obliges him to beget a son, and put that son to death, to get man back again. And this the priests of the Christian religion, call redemption.
"Christian authors exclaim against the practice of offering human sacrifices, which, they say, is done in some countries; and those authors make those exclamations without ever reflecting that their own doctrine of salvation is founded on a human sacrifice. They are saved, they say, by the blood of Christ. The Christian religion begins with a dream and ends with a murder.
"As I am well enough to sit up some hours in the day, though not well enough to get up without help, I employ myself as I have always done, in endeavoring to bring man to the right use of the reason that God has given him, and to direct his mind immediately to his Creator, and not to fanciful secondary beings called mediators, as if God was superannuated or ferocious.
"As to the book called the Bible, it is blasphemy to call it the word of God. It is a book of lies and contradictions, and a history of bad times and bad men. There are but a few good characters in the whole book. The fable of Christ and his twelve apostles, which is a parody on the sun and the twelve signs of the Zodiac, copied from the ancient religions of the eastern world, is the least hurtful part. Every thing told of Christ has reference to the sun. His reported resurrection is at sunrise, and that on the first day of the week; that is, on the day anciently dedicated to the sun, and from thence called Sunday; in latin Dies Solis, the day of the sun; as the next day, Monday, is Moon day. But there is no room in a letter to explain these things. While man keeps to the belief of one God, his reason unites with his creed. He is not shocked with contradictions and horrid stories. His bible is the heavens and the earth. He beholds his Creator in all his works, and every thing he beholds inspires him with reverence and gratitude. From the goodness of God to all, he learns his duty to his fellow-man, and stands self-reproved when he transgresses it. Such a man is no persecutor. But when he multiplies his creed with imaginary things, of which he can have neither evidence nor conception, such as the tale of the garden of Eden, the talking serpent, the fall of man, the dreams of Joseph the carpenter, the pretended resurrection and ascension, of which there is even no historical relation, for no historian of those times mentions such a thing, he gets into the pathless region of confusion, and turns either frantic or hypocrite. He forces his mind, and pretends to believe what he does not believe. This is in general the case with the Methodists. Their religion is all creed and no morals.
"I have now my friend given you a fac-simile of my mind on the subject of religion and creeds, and my wish is, that you may make this letter as publicly known as you find opportunities of doing. Yours in friendship."
The "Essay on Dream" was written early in 1806 and printed in May, 1807. It was the last work of importance written by Paine. In the same pamphlet was included a part of his reply to the Bishop of Llandaff, which was written in France: "An Examination of the Passages in the New Testament, quoted from the Old, and called Prophecies of the Coming of Jesus Christ" The Examination is widely known and is among Paine's characteristic works,—a continuation of the "Age of Reason." The "Essay on Dream" is a fine specimen of the author's literary art. Dream is the imagination awake while the judgment is asleep. "Every person is mad once in twenty-four hours; for were he to act in the day as he dreams in the night, he would be confined for a lunatic." Nathaniel Hawthorne thought spiritualism "a sort of dreaming awake." Paine explained in the same way some of the stories on which popular religion is founded. The incarnation itself rests on what an angel told Joseph in a dream, and others are referred to. "This story of dreams has thrown Europe into a dream for more than a thousand years. All the efforts that nature, reason, and conscience have made to awaken man from it have been ascribed by priestcraft and superstition to the workings of the devil, and had it not been for the American revolution, which by establishing the universal right of conscience, first opened the way to free discussion, and for the French revolution which followed, this religion of dreams had continued to be preached, and that after it had ceased to be believed."
But Paine was to be reminded that the revolution had not made conscience free enough in America to challenge waking dreams without penalties. The following account of his disfranchisement at New Rochelle, was written from Broome St., New York, May 4, 1807, to Vice-President Clinton.
"Respected Friend,—Elisha Ward and three or four other Tories who lived within the british lines in the revolutionary war, got in to be inspectors of the election last year at New Rochelle. Ward was supervisor. These men refused my vote at the election, saying to me: 'You are not an American; our minister at Paris, Gouverneur Morris, would not reclaim you when you were emprisoned in the Luxembourg prison at Paris, and General Washington refused to do it.' Upon my telling him that the two cases he stated were falsehoods, and that if he did me injustice I would prosecute him, he got up, and calling for a constable, said to me, 'I will commit you to prison.' He chose, however, to sit down and go no farther with it.
"I have written to Mr. Madison for an attested copy of Mr. Monro's letter to the then Secretary of State Randolph, in which Mr. Monro gives the government an account of his reclaiming me and my liberation in consequence of it; and also for an attested copy of Mr. Randolph's answer, in which he says: 'The President approves what you have done in the case of Mr. Paine.' The matter I believe is, that, as I had not been guillotined, Washington thought best to say what he did. As to Gouverneur Morris, the case is that he did reclaim me; but his reclamation did me no good, and the probability is, he did not intend it should. Joel Barlow and other Americans in Paris had been in a body to reclaim me, but their application, being unofficial, was not regarded. I then applied to Morris. I shall subpoena Morris, and if I get attested copies from the Secretary of State's office it will prove the lie on the inspectors.
"As it is a new generation that has risen up since the declaration of independence, they know nothing of what the political state of the country was at the time the pamphlet 'Common Sense' appeared; and besides this there are but few of the old standers left, and none that I know of in this city.
"It may be proper at the trial to bring the mind of the court and the jury back to the times I am speaking of, and if you see no objection in your way, I wish you would write a letter to some person, stating, from your own knowledge, what the condition of those times were, and the effect which the work 'Common Sense,' and the several members (numbers) of the 'Crisis' had upon the country. It would, I think, be best that the letter should begin directly on the subject in this manner: Being informed that Thomas Paine has been denied his rights of citizenship by certain persons acting as inspectors at an election at New Rochelle, &c.
"I have put the prosecution into the hands of Mr. Riker, district attorney, who can make use of the letter in his address to the Court and Jury. Your handwriting can be sworn to by persons here, if necessary. Had you been on the spot I should have subpoenaed you, unless it had been too inconvenient to you to have attended. Yours in friendship."
To this Clinton replied from Washington, 12th May, 1807:
"Dear Sir,—I had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 4th instant, yesterday; agreeably to your request I have this day written a letter to Richard Riker, Esquire, which he will show you. I doubt much, however, whether the Court will admit it to be read as evidence.
"I am indebted to you for a former letter. I can make no other apology for not acknowledging it before than inability to give you such an answer as I could wish. I constantly keep the subject in mind, and should any favorable change take place in the sentiments of the Legislature, I will apprize you of it.
"I am, with great esteem, your sincere friend."
In the letter to Madison, Paine tells the same story. At the end he says that Morris' reclamation was not out of any good will to him. "I know not what he wrote to the french minister; whatever it was he concealed it from me." He also says Morris could hardly keep himself out of prison.*
* The letter is in Mr. Frederick McGuire's collection ofMadison papers.
A letter was also written to Joel Barlow, at Washington, dated Broome Street, New York, May 4th. He says in this:
"I have prosecuted the Board of Inspectors for disfranchising me. You and other Americans in Paris went in a body to the Convention to reclaim me, and I want a certificate from you, properly attested, of this fact. If you consult with Gov. Clinton he will in friendship inform you who to address it to.
"Having now done with business I come to meums and tuums. What are you about? You sometimes hear of me but I never hear of you. It seems as if I had got to be master of the feds and the priests. The former do not attack my political publications; they rather try to keep them out of sight by silence. And as to the priests, they act as if they would say, let us alone and we will let you alone. My Examination of the passages called prophecies is printed, and will be published next week. I have prepared it with the Essay on Dream. I do not believe that the priests will attack it, for it is not a book of opinions but of facts. Had the Christian Religion done any good in the world I would not have exposed it, however fabulous I might believe it to be. But the delusive idea of having a friend at court whom they call a redeemer, who pays all their scores, is an encouragement to wickedness.
"What is Fulton about? Is he taming a whale to draw his submarine boat? I wish you would desire Mr. Smith to send me his country National Intelligencer. It is printed twice a week without advertisement. I am somewhat at a loss for want of authentic intelligence. Yours in friendship."
It will be seen that Paine was still in ignorance of the conspiracy which had thrown him in prison, nor did he suspect that Washington had been deceived by Gouverneur Morris, and that his private letter to Washington might have been given over to Pickering.*
* In Chapter X. of this volume, as originally printed, therewere certain passages erroneously suggesting that Pickeringmight have even intercepted this important letter ofSeptember 20, 1795. I had not then observed a reference tothat letter by Madison, in writing to Monroe (April 7,1796), which proves that Paine's communication to Washingtonhad been read by Pickering. Monroe was anxious lest someattack on the President should be written by Paine whileunder his roof,—an impropriety avoided by Paine as we haveseen,—and had written to Madison on the subject. Madisonanswers: "I have given the explanation you desired to F. A.M[uhlenberg], who has not received any letter as yet, andhas promised to pay due regard to your request. It is properyou should know that Thomas Paine wrote some time ago asevere letter to the President which Pickering mentioned tome in harsh terms when I delivered a note from Thomas Paineto the Secretary of State, inclosed by T. P. in a letter tome. Nothing passed, however, that betrayed the leastassociation of your patronage or attention to Thomas Painewith the circumstance; nor am I apprehensive that any realsuspicion can exist of your countenancing or even knowingthe steps taken by T. P. under the influence of his personalfeelings or political principles. At the same time thecaution you observe is by no means to be disapproved. Be sogood as to let T. P. know that I have received his letterand handed his note to the Secretary of State, whichrequested copies of such letters as might have been writtenhence in his behalf. The note did not require any answereither to me or through me, and I have heard nothing of itsince I handed it to Pickering." At this time the Secretaryof State's office contained the President's officialrecognition of Paine's citizenship; but this applicationfor the papers relating to his imprisonment by a foreignpower received no reply, though it was evidently couched inrespectful terms; as the letter was open for the eye ofMadison, who would not have conveyed it otherwise. It isincredible that Washington could have sanctioned such anoutrage on one he had recognized as an American citizen,unless under pressure of misrepresentations. PossiblyPaine's Quaker and republican direction of his letter to"George Washington, President of the United States," wasinterpreted by his federalist ministers as an insult.
It will be seen, by Madame Bonneville's and Jarvis' statements elsewhere, that Paine lost his case against Elisha Ward, on what ground it is difficult to imagine. The records of the Supreme Court, at Albany, and the Clerk's office at White Plains, have been vainly searched for any trace of this trial. Mr. John H. Riker, son of Paine's counsel, has examined the remaining papers of Richard Riker (many were accidentally destroyed) without finding anything related to the matter. It is so terrible to think that with Jefferson, Clinton, and Madison at the head of the government, and the facts so clear, the federalist Elisha Ward could vindicate his insult to Thomas Paine, that it may be hoped the publication of these facts will bring others to light that may put a better face on the matter.*
* Gilbert Vale relates an anecdote which suggests that areaction may have occurred in Elisha Ward's family: "At thetime of Mr. Paine's residence at his farm, Mr. Ward, now acoffee-roaster in Gold Street, New York, and an assistantalderman, was then a little boy and residing at NewRochelle. He remembers the impressions his mother and somereligious people made on him by speaking of Tom Paine, sothat he concluded that Tom Paine must be a very bad andbrutal man. Some of his elder companions proposed going intoMr. Paine's orchard to obtain some fruit, and he, out offear, kept at a distance behind, till he beheld, withsurprise, Mr. Paine come out and assist the boys in gettingapples, patting one on the head and caressing another, anddirecting them where to get the best. He then advanced andreceived his share of encouragement, and the impression thiskindness made on him determined him at a very early periodto examine his writings. His mother at first took the booksfrom him, but at a later period restored them to him,observing that he was then of an age to judge for himself;perhaps she had herself been gradually undeceived, both asto his character and writings."
Madame Bonneville may have misunderstood the procedure for which she had to pay costs, as Paine's legatee. Whether an ultimate decision was reached or not, the sufficiently shameful fact remains that Thomas Paine was practically disfranchised in the country to which he had rendered services pronounced pre-eminent by Congress, by Washington, and by every soldier and statesman of the Revolution.
Paine had in New York the most formidable of enemies,—an enemy with a newspaper. This was James Cheetham, of whom something has been said in the preface to this work (p. xvi.). In addition to what is there stated, it may be mentioned that Paine had observed, soon after he came to New York, the shifty course of this man's paper,The American Citizen. But it was the only republican paper in New York, supported Governor Clinton, for which it had reason, since it had the State printing,—and Colonel Fellows advised that Cheetham should not be attacked. Cheetham had been an attendant on Elihu Palmer's lectures, and after his participation in the dinner to Paine, his federalist opponent, theEvening Post, alluded to his being at Palmer's. Thereupon Cheetham declared that he had not heard Palmer for two years. In the winter of 1804 he casually spoke of Paine's "mischievous doctrines." In the following year, when Paine wrote the defence of Jefferson's personal character already alluded to, Cheetham omitted a reference in it to Alexander Hamilton's pamphlet, by which he escaped accusation of official defalcation by confessing an amorous intrigue.*
* "I see that Cheetham has left out the part respectingHamilton and Mrs. Reynolds, but for my own part I wish ithad been in. Had the story never been publicly told Iwould not have been the first to tell it; but Hamilton hadtold it himself, and therefore it was no secret; but mymotive in introducing it was because it was applicable tothe subject I was upon, and to show the revilers of Mr.Jefferson that while they are affecting a morality of horrorat an unproved and unfounded story about Mr. Jefferson, theyhad better look at home and give vent to their horror, ifthey had any, at a real case of their own Dagon (sic) andhis Delilah."—Paine to Colonel Fellows, July 31, 1805.
Cheetham having been wont to write of Hamilton as "the gallant of Mrs. Reynolds," Paine did not give much credit to the pretext of respect for the dead, on which the suppression was justified. He was prepared to admit that his allusion might be fairly suppressed, but perceived that the omission was made merely to give Cheetham a chance for vaunting his superior delicacy, and casting a suspicion on Paine. "Cheetham," wrote Paine, "might as well have put the part in, as put in the reasons for which he left it out. Those reasons leave people to suspect that the part suppressed related to some new discovered immorality in Hamilton worse than the old story."
About the same time with Paine, an Irishman came to America, and, after travelling about the country a good deal, established a paper in New York calledThe People's Friend. This paper began a furious onslaught on the French, professed to have advices that Napoleon meant to retake New Orleans, and urged an offensive alliance of the United States with England against France and Spain. These articles appeared in the early autumn of 1806, when, as we have seen, Paine was especially beset by personal worries. They made him frantic. His denunciations, merited as they were, of this assailant of France reveal the unstrung condition of the old author's nerves. Duane, of the PhiladelphiaAurora, recognized in Carpenter a man he had seen in Calcutta, where he bore the name of Cullen. It was then found that he had on his arrival in America borne thealiasof Mac-cullen. Paine declared that he was an "emissary" sent to this country by Windham, and indeed most persons were at length satisfied that such was the case. Paine insisted that loyalty to our French alliance demanded Cullen's expulsion. His exposures of "the emissary Cullen" (who disappeared) were printed in a new republican paper in New York,The Public Advertiser, edited by Mr. Frank. The combat drew public attention to the new paper, and Cheetham was probably enraged by Paines transfer of his pen to Frank. In 1807, Paine had a large following in New York, his friends being none the less influential among the masses because not in the fashionable world Moreover, the very popular Mayor of New York, De Witt Clinton, was a hearty admirer of Paine. So Cheetham's paper suffered sadly, and he opened his guns on Paine, declaring that in the Revolution he (Paine) "had stuck very correctly to his pen in a safe retreat," that his "Rights of Man" merely repeated Locke, and so forth. He also began to denounce France and applaud England, which led to the belief that, having lost republican patronage, Cheetham was aiming to get that of England.
In a "Reply to Cheetham" (August 21st), Paine met personalities in kind. "Mr. Cheetham, in his rage for attacking everybody and everything that is not his own (for he is an ugly-tempered man, and he carries the evidence of it in the vulgarity and forbiddingness of his countenance—God has set a mark upon Cain), has attacked me, etc." In reply to further attacks, Paine printed a piece headed "Cheetham and his Tory Paper." He said that Cheetham was discovering symptoms of being the successor of Cullen,aliasCarpenter. "Like him he is seeking to involve the United States in a quarrel with France for the benefit of England." This article caused a duel between the rival editors, Cheetham and Frank, which seems to have been harmless. Paine wrote a letter to theEvening Post, saying that he had entreated Frank to answer Cheetham's challenge by declaring that he (Paine) had written the article and was the man to be called to account. In company Paine mentioned an opinion expressed by the President in a letter just received. This got into the papers, and Cheetham declared that the President could not have so written, and that Paine was intoxicated when he said so. For this Paine instituted a suit against Cheetham for slander, but died before any trial.
Paine had prevailed with his pen, but a terrible revenge was plotted against his good name. The farrier William Carver, in whose house he had lived, turned Judas, and concocted with Cheetham the libels against Paine that have passed as history.
On July 1, 1806, two young English gentlemen, Daniel and William Constable, arrived in New York, and for some years travelled about the country. The Diary kept by Daniel Constable has been shown me by his nephew, Clair J. Grèce, LL.D. It contains interesting allusions to Paine, to whom they brought an introduction from Rickman.
"July 1. To the Globe, in Maiden Lane, to dine. Mr. Segar at the Globe offered to send for Mr. Paine, who lived only a few doors off: He seemed a true Painite.
"3d. William and I went to see Thomas Paine. When we first called he was taking a nap.... Back to Mr. Paine's about 5 o'clock, sat about an hour with him.... I meant to have had T. Paine in a carriage with me to-morrow, and went to inquire for one. The price was $1 per hour, but when I proposed it to T. P. he declined it on account of his health.
"4th. Friday. Fine clear day. The annual Festival of Independence. We were up by five o'clock, and on the battery saw the cannons fired, in commemoration of liberty, which had been employed by the English against the sacred cause. The people seemed to enter into the spirit of the day: stores &c were generally shut.... In the fore part of the day I had the honour of walking with T. Paine along the Broadway. The day finished peaceably, and we saw no scenes of quarreling or drunkenness.
"14. A very hot day. Evening, met T. Paine in the Broadway and walked with him to his house.
"Oct. 29 [on returning from a journey]. Called to see T. Paine, who was walking about Carver's shop."
"Nov. 1. Changed snuff-boxes with T. Paine at his lodgings.* The old philosopher, in bed at 4 o'clock afternoon, seems as talkative and well as when we saw him in the summer."
* Dr. Grèce showed me Paine's papier-machë snuff-box, whichhis uncle had fitted with silver plate, inscription,decorative eagle, and banner of "Liberty, Equality." It iskept in a jewel-box with an engraving of Paine on the lid.
In a letter written jointly by the brothers to their parents, dated July 5th, they say that Paine "begins to feel the effects of age. The print I left at Horley is a very strong likeness. He lives with a small family who came from Lewes [Carvers] quite retired, and but little known or noticed." They here also speak of "the honour of walking with our old friend T. Paine in the midst of the bustle on Independence Day." There is no suggestion, either here or in the Diary, that these gentlemen of culture and position observed anything in the appearance or habits of Paine that diminished the pleasure of meeting him. In November they travelled down the Mississippi, and on their return to New York, nine months later, they heard (July 20, 1807) foul charges against Paine from Carver. "Paine has left his house, and they have had a violent disagreement. Carver charges Paine with many foul vices, as debauchery, lying, ingratitude, and a total want of common honour in all his actions, says that he drinks regularly a quart of brandy per day." But next day they call on Paine, in "the Bowery road," and William Constable writes:
"He looks better than last year. He read us an essay on national defence, comparing the different expenses and powers of gunboats and ships of war and, batteries in protecting a sea coast; and gave D. C. [Daniel Constable] a copy of his Examination of the texts of scriptures called prophecies, etc. which he published a short time since. He says that this work is of too high a cut for the priests and that they will not touch it."
These brothers Constable met Fulton, a friend of Paine's just then experimenting with his steam-boat on the Hudson. They also found that a scandal had been caused by a report brought to the British Consul that thirty passengers on the ship by which they (the Constables) came, had "the Bible bound up with the 'Age of Reason,' and that they spoke in very disrespectful terms of the mother country." Paine had left his farm at New Rochelle, at which place the travellers heard stories of his slovenliness, also that he was penurious, though nothing was said of intemperance.
Inquiry among aged residents of New Rochelle has been made from time to time for a great many years. The Hon. J. B. Stallo, late U. S. Minister to Italy, told me that in early life he visited the place and saw persons who had known Paine, and declared that Paine resided there without fault. Paine lived for a time with Mr. Staple, brother of the influential Captain Pelton, and the adoption of Paine's religious views by some of these persons caused the odium.* Paine sometimes preached at New Rochelle.
* Mr. Burger, Pelton's clerk, used to drive Paine aboutdaily. Vale says:"He [Burger] describes Mr. Paine as really abstemious, andwhen pressed to drink by those on whom he called during hisrides, he usually refused with great firmness, but politely.In one of these rides he was met by De Witt Clinton, andtheir mutual greetings were extremely hearty. Mr. Paineat this time was the reverse of morose, and though carelessof his dress and prodigal of his snuff, he was always cleanand well clothed. Mr. Burger describes him as familiar withchildren and humane to animals, playing with the neighboringchildren, and communicating a friendly pat even to a passingdog." Our frontispiece shows Paine's dress in 1803.
Cheetham publishes a correspondence purporting to have passed between Paine and Carver, in November, 1806, in which the former repudiates the latter's bill for board (though paying it), saying he was badly and dishonestly treated in Carver's house, and had taken him out of his Will. To this a reply is printed, signed by Carver, which he certainly never wrote; specimens of his composition, now before me, prove him hardly able to spell a word correctly or to frame a sentence.*
* In the Concord (Mass.) Public Library there is a copy ofCheetham's book, which belonged to Carver, by whom it wasfilled with notes. He says: "Cheetham was a hypocrate turnedTory," "Paine was not Drunk when he wrote the thre pedlarsfor me, I sold them to a gentleman, a Jew for a dollar—Cheetham knew that he told a lie saying Paine was drunk—anyperson reading Cheetham's life of Paine that [sic] his penwas guided by prejudice that was brought on by Cheetham'saltering a peice that Paine had writen as an answer to apeice that had apeared in his paper, I had careyd the peiceto Cheetham, the next Day the answer was printed with thealteration, Paine was angry, sent me to call Cheetham I thenasked how he undertook to mutilate the peice, if aney thingwas rong he knew ware to find him & sad he never permitted aprinter to alter what he had wrote, that the sence of thepeice was spoiled—by this means their freind ship wasbroken up through life———" (The marginalia in thisvolume have been copied for me with exactness by Miss E. G.Crowell, of Concord.)
The letter in Cheetham shows a practised hand, and was evidently written for Carver by the "biographer." This ungenuineness of Carver's letter, and expressions not characteristic in that of Paine render the correspondence mythical. Although Carver passed many penitential years hanging about Paine celebrations, deploring the wrong he had done Paine, he could not squarely repudiate the correspondence, to which Cheetham had compelled him to swear in court. He used to declare that Cheetham had obtained under false pretences and printed without authority letters written in anger. But thrice in his letter to Paine Carver says he means to publish it. Its closing words are: "There may be many grammatical errours in this letter. To you I have no apologies to make; but I hope a candid and impartial public will not view them 'with a critick's eye.'" This is artful; besides the fling at Paine's faulty grammar, which Carver could not discover, there is a pretence to faults in his own letter which do not exist, but certainly would have existed had he written it The style throughout is transparently Cheethan's.
* "A Bone to Gnaw for Grant Thorburn." By W. Carver(1836).
In the book at Concord the unassisted Carver writes: "The libel for wich [sic] he [Cheetham] was sued was contained in the letter I wrote to Paine." This was the libel on Madame Bonneville, Carver's antipathy to whom arose from his hopes of Paine's property. In reply to Paine's information, that he was excluded from his Will, Carver says: "I likewise have to inform you, that I totally disregard the power of your mind and pen; for should you, by your conduct, permit this letter to appear in public, in vain may you attempt to print or publish any thing afterwards." This is plainly an attempt at blackmail. Carver's letter is dated December 2, 1806. It was not published during Paine's life, for the farrier hoped to get back into the Will by frightening Madame Bonneville and other friends of Paine with the stories he meant to tell. About a year before Paine's death he made another blackmailing attempt. He raked up the scandalous stories published by "Oldys" concerning Paine's domestic troubles in Lewes, pretending that he knew the facts personally. "Of these facts Mr. Carver has offered me an affidavit," says Cheetham. "He stated them all to Paine in a private letter which he wrote to him a year before his death; to which no answer was returned. Mr. Carver showed me the letter soon after it was written." On this plain evidence of long conspiracy with Cheetham, and attempt to blackmail Paine when he was sinking in mortal illness, Carver never made any comment. When Paine was known to be near his end Carver made an effort at conciliation. "I think it a pity," he wrote, "that you or myself should depart this life with envy in our hearts against each other—and I firmly believe that no difference would have taken place between us, had not some of your pretended friends endeavored to have caused a separation of friendship between us." But abjectness was not more effectual than blackmail. The property went to the Bonnevilles, and Carver, who had flattered Paine's "great mind," in the letter just quoted, proceeded to write a mean one about the dead author for Cheetham's projected biography. He did not, however, expect Cheetham to publish his slanderous letter about Paine and Madame Bonneville, which he meant merely for extortion; nor could Cheetham have got the letter had he not written it. All of Cheetham's libels on Paine's life in New York are amplifications of Carver's insinuations. In describing Cheetham as "an abominable liar," Carver passes sentence on himself. On this blackmailer, this confessed libeller, rest originally and fundamentally the charges relating to Paine's last years.
It has already been stated that Paine boarded for a time in the Bayeaux mansion. With Mrs. Bayeaux lived her daughter, Mrs. Badeau. In 1891 I visited, at New Rochelle, Mr. Albert Badeau, son of the lady last named, finding him, as I hope he still is, in good health and memory. Seated in the arm-chair given him by his mother, as that in which Paine used to sit by their fireside, I took down for publication some words of his. "My mother would never tolerate the aspersions on Mr. Paine. She declared steadfastly to the end of her life that he was a perfect gentleman, and a most faithful friend, amiable, gentle, never intemperate in eating or drinking. My mother declared that my grandmother equally pronounced the disparaging reports about Mr. Paine slanders. I never remember to have seen my mother angry except when she heard such calumnies of Mr. Paine, when she would almost insult those who uttered them. My mother and grandmother were very religious, members of the Episcopal Church." What Mr. Albert Badeau's religious opinions are I do not know, but no one acquainted with that venerable gentleman could for an instant doubt his exactness and truthfulness. It certainly was not until some years after his return to America that any slovenliness could be observed about Paine, and the contrary was often remarked in former times.* After he had come to New York, and was neglected by the pious ladies and gentlemen with whom he had once associated, he neglected his personal appearance. "Let those dress who need it," he said to a friend.