But a faction, acting in disguise, was rising in America; they had lost
sight of first principles. They were beginning to contemplate government
as a profitable monopoly, and the people as hereditary property. It
is, therefore, no wonder that the _Rights of Man_ was attacked by that
faction, and its author continually abused. But let them go on; give
them rope enough and they will put an end to their own insignificance.
There is too much common sense and independence in America to be long
the dupe of any faction, foreign or domestic.
But, in the midst of the freedom we enjoy, the licentiousness of the
papers called Federal, (and I know not why they are called so, for they
are in their principles anti-federal and despotic,) is a dishonour
to the character of the country, and an injury to its reputation
and importance abroad. They represent the whole people of America as
destitute of public principle and private manners. As to any injury they
can do at home to those whom they abuse, or service they can render
to those who employ them, it is to be set down to the account of
noisy nothingness. It is on themselves the disgrace recoils, for the
reflection easily presents itself to every thinking mind, that _those
who abuse liberty when they possess it would abuse power could they
obtain it_; and, therefore, they may as well take as a general motto,
for all such papers, _We and our patrons are not fit to be trusted with
power_.
There is in America, more than in any other country, a large body
of people who attend quietly to their farms, or follow their several
occupations; who pay no regard to the clamours of anonymous scribblers,
who think for themselves, and judge of government, not by the fury of
newspaper writers, but by the prudent frugality of its measures, and the
encouragement it gives to the improvement and prosperity of the country;
and who, acting on their own judgment, never come forward in an election
but on some important occasion. When this body moves, all the little
barkings of scribbling and witless curs pass for nothing. To say to this
independent description of men, "You must turn out such and such persons
at the next election, for they have taken off a great many taxes, and
lessened the expenses of government, they have dismissed my son, or my
brother, or myself, from a lucrative office, in which there was nothing
to do"--is to show the cloven foot of faction, and preach the language
of ill-disguised mortification. In every part of the Union, this faction
is in the agonies of death, and in proportion as its fate approaches,
gnashes its teeth and struggles. My arrival has struck it as with an
hydrophobia, it is like the sight of water to canine madness.
As this letter is intended to announce my arrival to my friends, and to
my enemies if I have any, for I ought to have none in America, and as
introductory to others that will occasionally follow, I shall close it
by detailing the line of conduct I shall pursue.
I have no occasion to ask, and do not intend to accept, any place or
office in the government.(1) There is none it could give me that would
be any ways equal to the profits I could make as an author, for I have
an established fame in the literary world, could I reconcile it to my
principles to make money by my politics or religion. I must be in every
thing what I have ever been, a disinterested volunteer; my proper sphere
of action is on the common floor of citizenship, and to honest men I
give my hand and my heart freely.
1 The President (Jefferson) being an intimate friend of
Paine, and suspected, despite his reticence, of sympathizing
with Paine's religions views, was included in the
denunciations of Paine ("The Two Toms" they were called),
and Paine here goes out of his way to soften matters for
Jefferson.--_Editor._.
I have some manuscript works to publish, of which I shall give proper
notice, and some mechanical affairs to bring forward, that will employ
all my leisure time. I shall continue these letters as I see occasion,
and as to the low party prints that choose to abuse me, they are
welcome; I shall not descend to answer them. I have been too much used
to such common stuff to take any notice of it. The government of England
honoured me with a thousand martyrdoms, by burning me in effigy in every
town in that country, and their hirelings in America may do the same.
City of Washington.