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Preface
AT
Hornsey, England, I saw a small square mahogany table, bearing at its
centre the following words: "This Plate is inscribed by Thos. Clio
Rickman in Remembrance of his dear friend Thomas Paine, who on this
table in the year 1792 wrote several of his invaluable Works."
The
works written by Paine in Rickman's house were the second part of "The
Rights of Man," and "A Letter to the Addressers." Of these two books
vast numbers were circulated, and though the government prosecuted them,
they probably contributed largely to make political progress in England
evolutionary instead of revolutionary. On this table he set forth
constitutional reforms that might be peacefully obtained, and which have
been substantially obtained. And here he warned the "Addressers,"
petitioning the throne for suppression of his works "It is dangerous in
any government to say to a nation, Thou shall not read. This is now done
in Spain, and was formerly done under the old government of France; but
it served to procure the downfall of the latter, and is subverting that
of the former; and it will have the same tendency in all countries;
because Thought, by some means or other, is got abroad in the world, and
cannot be restrained, though reading may."
At
this table the Quaker chieftain, whom Danton rallied for hoping to make
revolutions with rosewater, unsheathed his pen and animated his Round
Table of Reformers for a conflict free from the bloodshed he had
witnessed in America, and saw threatening France. This little table was
the field chosen for the battle of free speech; its abundant ink-spots
were the shed blood of hearts transfused with humanity. I do not wonder
that Rickman was wont to show the table to his visitors, or hat its
present owner, Edward Truelove -- a bookseller who has suffered
imprisonment for selling proscribed books, -- should regard it with
reverence.
The
table is what was once called a candle-stand, and there stood on it, in
my vision, Paine's clear, honest candle, lit from his "inner light," now
covered by a bushel of prejudice. I myself had once supposed his light
an infernal torch; now I sat at the ink-spotted candle-stand to write
the first page of this history, for which I can invoke nothing higher
than the justice that inspired what Thomas Paine here wrote.
The
educated ignorance concerning Paine is astounding. I once heard an
English prelate speak of "the vulgar atheism of Paine." Paine founded
the first theistic society in Christendom; his will closes with the
words, "I die in perfect composure, and resignation to the will of my
Creator, God." But what can be expected of an English prelate when an
historian like Jared Sparks, an old Unitarian minister, could suggest
that a letter written by Franklin, to persuade some one not to publish a
certain attack on religion, was "probably" addressed to Paine.
(Franklin's "Writings," vol. x., p. 281.) Paine never wrote a page that
Franklin could have so regarded, nor anything in the way of religious
controversy until three years after Franklin's death. "The remarks in
the above letter," says Sparks, "are strictly applicable to the
deistical writings which Paine afterwards published." On the contrary,
they are strictly inapplicable. They imply that the writer had denied a
"particular providence," which Paine never denied, and it is asked, "If
men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it?" Paine's
"deism" differed from Franklin's only in being more fervently religious.
No one who had really read Paine could imagine the above question
addressed to the author to whom the Bishop of Llandaff wrote: "There is
a philosophical sublimity in some of your ideas when speaking of the
Creator of the Universe." The reader may observe at work, in this
example, the tiny builder, prejudice, which has produced the large
formation of Paine mythology. Sparks, having got his notion of Paine's
religion at second-hand, becomes unwittingly a weighty authority for
those who have a case to make out. The American Tract Society published
a tract entitled "Don't Unchain the Tiger," in which it is said: "When
an infidel production was submitted -- probably by Paine -- to Benjamin
Franklin, in manuscript, he returned it to the author, with a letter
from which the following is extracted: `I would advise you not to
attempt unchaining the Tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen
by any other person." Thus our Homer of American history nods, and a
tract floats through the world misrepresenting both Paine and Franklin,
whose rebuke is turned from some anti-religious essay against his own
convictions. Having enjoyed the personal friendship of Mr. Sparks, while
at college, and known his charity to all opinions, I feel certain that
he was an unconscious victim of the Paine mythology to which he added.
His own creed was, in essence, little different from Paine's. But how
many good, and even liberal, people will find by the facts disclosed in
this volume that they have been accepting the Paine mythology and
contributing to it? It is a notable fact that the most effective
distortions of Paine's character and work have proceeded from unorthodox
writers -- some of whom seem not above throwing a traditionally hated
head to the orthodox mob. A recent instance is the account given of
Paine in Leslie Stephen's "History of English Thought in the Eighteenth
Century." On its appearance I recognized the old effigy of Paine
elaborately constructed by Oldys and Cheetham, and while writing a paper
on the subject (Fortnightly Review, March, 1879) discovered that those
libels were the only "biographies" of Paine in the London Library, which
(as I knew) was used by Mr. Stephen. The result was a serious
miscarriage of historical and literary justice. In his second edition
Mr. Stephen adds that the portrait presented "is drawn by an enemy," but
on this Mr. Robertson pertinently asks why it was allowed to stand?
("Thomas Paine: an Investigation," by John M. Robertson, London, 1888).
Mr. Stephen, eminent as an agnostic and editor of a biographical
dictionary, is assumed to be competent, and his disparagements of a
fellow heretic necessitated by verified facts. His scholarly style has
given new lease to vulgar slanders. Some who had discovered their
untruth, as uttered by Paine's personal enemies, have taken them back on
Mr. Stephen's authority. Even brave O. B. Frothingham, in his high
estimate of Paine, introduces one or two of Mr. Stephen's depreciations
(Frothingham's "Recollection and Impressions," 1891).
There has been a sad absence of magnanimity among eminent historians and
scholars in dealing with Paine. The vignette in Oldys -- Paine with his
"Rights of Man" preaching to apes; -- the Tract Society's picture of
Paine's death-bed -- hair on end, grasping a bottle, -- might have
excited their inquiry. Goethe, seeing Spinoza's face demonized in a
tract, was moved to studies of that philosopher which ended in
recognition of his greatness. (The chivalry of Goethe is indeed almost
as rare as his genius, but one might have expected in students of
history an historic instinct keen enough to suspect in the real Paine
some proportion to his monumental mythology, and the pyramidal cairn of
curses covering his grave. What other last-century writer on political
and religious issues survives in the hatred and devotion of a time
engaged with new problems? What power is confessed in that writer who
was set in the place of a decadent Satan, hostility to him being a sort
of sixth point of Calvinism, and fortieth article of the Church? Large
indeed must have been the influence of a man still perennially denounced
by sectarians after heretical progress has left him comparatively
orthodox, and retained as the figure-head of "Freethought" after his
theism has been abandoned by its leaders.
"Religion," said Paine, "has two principal enemies, Fanaticism and
Infidelity." It was his strange destiny to be made a battle-field
between these enemies. In the smoke of the conflict the man has been
hidden. In the catalogue of the British Museum Library I counted 327
entries of books by or concerning Thomas Paine, who in most of them is a
man-shaped or devil-shaped shuttlecock tossed between fanatical and
"infidel" rackets.
Here surely were phenomena enough to attract the historic sense of a
scientific age, yet they are counterpart of an historic suppression of
the most famous author of his time. The meager references to Paine by
other than controversial writers are perfunctory; by most historians he
is either wronged or ignored. Before me are two histories of "American
Slavery" by eminent members of Congress; neither mentions that Paine was
the first political writer who advocated and devised a scheme of
emancipation. Here is the latest "Life of Washington" (1889), by another
member of Congress, who manages to exclude even the name of the man who,
as we shall see, chiefly converted Washington to the cause of
independence. And here is a history of the "American Revolution" (1891),
by John Fiske, who, while recognizing the effect of "Common Sense,"
reveals his ignorance of that pamphlet, and of all Paine's works, by
describing it as full of scurrilous abuse of the English people, -- whom
Paine regarded as fellow-sufferers with the Americans under royal
despotism.
It
may be said for these contemporaries that the task of sifting out the
facts about Paine was formidable. The intimidated historians of the last
generation, passing by this famous figure, left an historic vacuum,
which has been filled with mingled fact and fable to an extent hardly
manageable by any not prepared to give some years to the task. Our
historians, might, however, have read Paine's works, which are rather
historical documents than literary productions. None of them seem to
have done this, and the omission appears in many a flaw in their works.
The reader of some documents in this volume, left until now to slumber
in accessible archives, will get some idea of the cost to historic truth
of this long timidity and negligence. But some of the results are more
deplorable and irreparable, and one of these must here be disclosed.
In
1802 an English friend of Paine, Redman Yorke, visited him in Paris. In
a letter written at the time Yorke states that Paine had for some time
been preparing memoirs of his own life, and his correspondence, and
showed him two volumes of the same. In a letter of Jan. 25, 1805, to
Jefferson, Paine speaks of his wish to publish his works, which will
make, with his manuscripts, five octavo volumes of four hundred pages
each. Besides which he means to publish "a miscellaneous volume of
correspondence, essays, and some pieces of poetry." He had also, he
says, prepared historical prefaces, stating the circumstances under
which each work was written. All of which confirms Yorke's statement,
and shows that Paine had prepared at least two volumes of autobiographic
matter and correspondence. Paine never carried out the design mentioned
to Jefferson, and his manuscripts passed by bequest to Madame
Bonneville. This lady, after Paine's death, published a fragment of
Paine's third part of "The Age of Reason," but it was afterwards found
that she had erased passages that might offend the orthodox. Madame
Bonneville returned to her husband in Paris, and the French
"Biographical Dictionary" states that in 1829 she, as the depositary of
Paine's papers, began "editing" his life. This, which could only have
been the autobiography, was never published. She had become a Roman
Catholic. On returning (1833) to America, where her son, General
Bonneville, also a Catholic, was in military service, she had personal
as well as religious reasons for suppressing the memoirs. She might
naturally have feared the revival of an old scandal concerning her
relations with Paine. The same motives may have prevented her son from
publishing Paine's memoirs and manuscripts. Madame Bonneville died at
the house of the General, in St. Louis. I have a note from his widow,
Mrs. Sue Bonneville, in which she says: "The papers you speak of
regarding Thomas Paine are all destroyed -- at least all which the
General had in his possession. On his leaving St. Louis for an
indefinite time all his effects -- a handsome library and valuable
papers included were stored away, and during his absence the storehouse
burned down, and all that the General stored away were burned."
There can be little doubt that among these papers burned in St. Louis
were the two volumes of Paine's autobiography and correspondence seen by
Redman Yorke in 1802. Even a slight acquaintance with Paine's career
would enable one to recognize this as a catastrophe. No man was more
intimately acquainted with the inside history of the revolutionary
movement, or so competent to record it. Franklin had deposited with him
his notes and papers concerning the American Revolution. He was the only
Girondist who survived the French Revolution who was able to tell their
secret history. His personal acquaintance included nearly every great or
famous man of his time, in England, America, France. From this witness
must have come testimonies, facts, anecdotes, not to be derived from
other sources, concerning Franklin, Goldsmith, Ferguson, Rittenhouse,
Rush, Fulton, Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, the Adamses, Lees, Morrises,
Condorcet, Vergennes, Sièyes, Lafayette, Danton, Genêt, Brissot,
Robespierre, Marat, Burke, Erskine, and a hundred others. All this, and
probably invaluable letters from these men, have been lost through the
timidity of a woman before the theological "boycott" on the memory of a
theist, and the indifference of this country to its most important
materials of History.
When I undertook the biography of Edmund Randolph I found that the great
mass of his correspondence had been similarly destroyed by fire in New
Orleans, and probably a like fate will befall the Madison papers, Monroe
papers, and others, our national neglect of which will appear criminal
to posterity. After searching through six States to gather documents
concerning Randolph which should all have been in Washington City, the
writer petitioned the Library Committee of Congress to initiate some
action towards the preservation of our historical manuscripts. The
Committee promptly and unanimously approved the proposal, a definite
scheme was reported by the Librarian of Congress, and -- there the
matter rests. As the plan does not include any device for advancing
partisan interests, it stands a fair chance of remaining in our national
oubliette of intellectual desiderata.
In
writing the "Life of Paine" I have not been saved much labor by
predecessors in the same field. They have all been rather controversial
pamphleteers than biographers, and I have been unable to accept any of
their statements without verification. They have been useful, however,
in pointing out regions of inquiry, and several of them -- Rickman,
Sherwin, Linton -- contain valuable citations from contemporary papers.
The truest delineation of Paine is the biographical sketch by his friend
Rickman. The "Life" by Vale, and sketches by Richard Carlile, Blanchard,
and others, belong to the controversial collectanea in which Paine's
posthumous career is traceable. The hostile accounts of Paine, chiefly
found in tracts and encyclopædias, are mere repetitions of those written
by George Chalmers and James Cheetham.
The
first of these was published in 1791 under the title: "The Life of
Thomas Pain, Author of 'The Rights of Men,' with a Defence of his
Writings. By Francis Oldys, A.M., of the University of Pennsylvania.
London. Printed for John Stockdale, Pickadilly." This writer, who begins
his vivisection of Paine by accusing him of adding "e" to his name,
assumed in his own case an imposing pseudonym. George Chalmers never had
any connection with the University of Philadelphia, nor any such degree.
Sherwin (1819) states that Chalmers admitted having received £500 from
Lord Hawksbury, in whose bureau he was a clerk, for writing the book;
but though I can find no denial of this I cannot verify it. In his later
editions the author claims that his book had checked the influence of
Paine, then in England, and his "Rights of Man," which gave the
government such alarm that subsidies were paid several journals to
counteract their effect. (See the letter of Freching, cited from the
Vansitart Papers, British Museum, by W. H. Smith, in the Century,
August, 1891.) It is noticeable that Oldys, in his first edition,
entitles his work a "Defence" of Paine's writings -- a trick which no
doubt carried this elaborate libel into the hands of many "Paineites."
The third edition has, With a Review of his Writings." In a later
edition we find the vignette of Paine surrounded by apes. Cobbett's
biographer, Edward Smith, describes the book as "one of the most
horrible collections of abuse which even that venal day produced." The
work was indeed so overweighted with venom that it was sinking into
oblivion when Cobbett reproduced its libels in America, for which he did
penance through many years. My reader will perceive, in the earlier
chapters of this work, that Chalmers tracked Paine in England with
enterprise, but there were few facts that he did not manage to twist
into his strand of slander.
In
1809, not long after Paine's death, James Cheetham's "Life of Thomas
Paine " appeared in New York. Cheetham had been a hatter in Manchester,
England, and would probably have continued in that respectable
occupation had it not been for Paine. When Paine visited England and
there published "The Rights of Man" Cheetham became one of his
idolaters, took to political writing, and presently emigrated to
America. He became editor of The American Citizen, in New York. The
cause of Cheetham's enmity to Paine was the discovery by the latter that
he was betraying the Jeffersonian party while his paper was enjoying its
official patronage. His exposure of the editor was remorseless; the
editor replied with personal vituperation; and Paine was about
instituting a suit for libel when he died. Of Cheetham's ingenuity in
falsehood one or two specimens may be given. During Paine's trial in
London, for writing "The Rights of Man," a hostile witness gave
testimony which the judge pronounced "impertinent"; Cheetham prints it
"important." He says that Madame de Bonneville accompanied Paine on his
return from France in 1802; she did not arrive until a year later. He
says that when Paine was near his end Monroe wrote asking him to
acknowledge a debt for money loaned in Paris, and that Paine made no
reply. But before me is Monroe's statement, while President, that for
his advances to Paine "no claim was ever presented on my part, nor is
any indemnity now desired." Cheetham's book is one of the most malicious
ever written, and nothing in it can be trusted.
Having proposed to myself to write a critical and impartial history of
the man and his career, I found the vast Paine literature, however
interesting as a shadow measuring him who cast it, containing
conventionalized effigies of the man as evolved by friend and foe in
their long struggle. But that war has ended among educated people. In
the laborious work of searching out the real Paine I have found a
general appreciation of its importance, and it will be seen in the
following pages that generous assistance has been rendered by English
clergymen, by official persons in Europe and America, by persons of all
beliefs and no beliefs. In no instance have I been impeded by any
prejudice, religious or political. The curators of archives, private
collectors, owners of important documents bearing on the subject, have
welcomed my effort to bring the truth to light. The mass of material
thus accumulated is great, and its compression has been a difficult
task. But the interest that led me to the subject has increased at every
step; the story has abounded in thrilling episodes and dramatic
surprises; and I have proceeded with a growing conviction that the
simple facts, dispassionately told, would prove of importance far wider
than Paine's personality, and find welcome with all students of history.
I have brought to my task a love for it, the studies of some years, and
results of personal researches made in Europe and America:
qualifications which I count less than another which I venture to claim
-- the sense of responsibility, acquired by a public teacher of long
service, for his words, which, be they truths or errors, take on life,
and work their good or evil to all generations.
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