Refutation of Charges of Immorality.
Louis Masquerier:
"Paine who wrote in man's defense,
'Rights of Man' and 'Common Sense,
Let not pious virulence
Stain his honest fame."
Paine has been represented by his religious enemies as the embodiment
of all that is bad. He was, they assert, drunken, filthy, and immoral.
Banished from respectable society, he associated, they say, only with
the low and vile. The following testimony covers all the years that
elapsed from the beginning of his public career to the end of his life.
Dr. Franklin, writing from England while Paine was yet a resident of
that country, says: "Mr. Thomas Paine is very well recommended to me as
an ingenious worthy young man."
That his previous life had been above serious reproach is shown by a
letter to the Excise Office in which he says: "No complaint of the least
dishonesty or intemperance has ever appeared against me."
James B. Elliot: "Paine's pamphlet ['Case of the Officers of Excise']
secured for him the acquaintance of Oliver Goldsmith, who became and
remained his friend until his death, and by whom he was introduced to
Benjamin Franklin."
"At a coffeehouse in London Paine met that other great thinker,
Franklin. They became fast friends."--_Elbert Hubbard_.
"Invited by Franklin he went to America."--_Encyclopedia of Social
Reform_.
"His associates in Philadelphia were people of the highest
respectability and importance.... He was welcomed everywhere."--_James
B. Elliott_.
Referring to his first year in America Bancroft says: "In that time he
had frequented the society of Rittenhouse, Clymer and Samuel Adams." Dr.
Rush says: "He visited in the families of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Rittenhouse
and Mr. George Clymer." Referring to the members of the Philosophical
Society, founded by Franklin, Dr. Conway says: "Paine was welcomed
into their circle by Rittenhouse, Clymer, Rush, Muhlenberg, and other
representatives of the scientific and literary metropolis."
Writing in his journal at a later period John Hall, the English
mechanician who then resided in Philadelphia, mentions among Paine's
visitors and intimate associates Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, Dr. Rush,
Tench Francis, Robert Morris, Rittenhouse, etc.
The Library of the World's Best Literature alludes to scientific
experiments made by Paine "for the entertainment of Washington whose
guest he was for some time."
Francis Marion Lemmon: "When my father [a son of one of Washington's
officers] was about twelve years of age he was employed by George
Washington to carry messages from his military camp to that of his
father and other military posts, and for about four years lived as one
of the family of Washington. It was my father's privilege during his
service with Washington to meet and become acquainted with a number
of the most popular and influential men of that time--such as Thomas
Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Paine, General
Lafayette and General Francis Marion.... My father told me, when I was
a boy, of the visits these men paid to Uncle George and Aunt Martha
Washington, as he always called them, and he told me that Aunt Martha
always called Paine 'Brother Tom' and always looked forward when a visit
of Brother Tom was expected."
Alluding to Paine's conduct and public services during the Revolution,
Dr. Conway says:
"They are best measured in the value set on them by the great leaders
most cognizant of them,--by Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams,
Madison, Robert Morris, Chancellor Livingston, R. H. Lee, Colonel
Laurens, General Greene, Dickinson. Had there been anything dishonorable
or mercenary in Paine's career, these are the men who would have known
it; but their letters are searched in vain for even the faintest hint of
anything disparaging to his patriotic self-devotion during those eight
weary years."
Henry Adams: "Thomas Paine, down to the time of his departure for
Europe, in 1787, was a fashionable member of society [in New York],
admired and courted as the greatest literary genius of his day."
The oldest and one of the most powerful political organizations in
this country, outside of the regular political parties, is the Tammany
Society of New York. Whatever shortcomings may be justly charged to this
society in later times it was in its earlier days, when devoted mainly
to social and benevolent purposes, one of the most honorable and
respectable of societies. Paine was the hero of this society.
Dr. Conway says: "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." Paine was at this time a resident of France.
"Visited France in the summer of 1787, where he made the acquaintance
of Buffon, Malesherbes, La Rochefoucauld, and other eminent
men."--_Chambers' Encyclopedia_.
"Dr. Robinet, the French historian, says on this visit (1787) Paine,
who had long known the 'soul of the people,' came into' relation with
eminent men of all groups, philosophical and political--Condorcet,
Achille Duchatelet, Cardinal De Brienne, and, he believes also Danton,
who like the English republican [Paine] was a Freemason."--_Dr. Conway_.
Gilbert Patten Brown (in Masonic Monthly, July, 1916): "In the St.
John's Regimental Lodge (the first Masonic body to be constituted among
the troops) Thomas Paine (like Capt. James Monroe, Capt. John Marshall
and many other of minor mention) was entered, crafted and raised a
Master Mason."
Franklin, who in 1774 introduced Paine to the New World as "an ingenious
worthy young man" in 1787, after an acquaintance of thirteen years,
reaffirms his former estimate of the man. In a letter of introduction to
the Duke of Rochefoucauld he says: "The bearer of this is Mr. Paine, the
author of a famous piece entitled 'Common Sense,' published with great
effect on the minds of the people at the beginning of the Revolution. He
is an ingenious, honest man; and as such I beg leave to recommend him to
your civilities."
Lamb's Biographical Dictionary: "Visiting London, he at once became a
social and diplomatic feature of that metropolis."
Thomas "Clio" Rickman: "Mr. Paine's life in London was a quiet round
of philosophical leisure and enjoyment.... Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the
French and American embassadors, Mr. Sharp, the engraver, Romney, the
painter, Mrs. Wollstonecraft, Joel Barlow,... Dr. Priestley,...
Mr. Horne Tooke, etc., were among the number of his friends and
acquaintances."
"His manners were easy and gracious; his knowledge was universal and
boundless; in private company and among his friends his conversation had
every fascination that anecdote, novelty and truth could give it."
"Mr. Paine in his person was about five feet ten inches high, and
rather athletic.... His eye, of which the painter could not convey the
exquisite meaning, was full, brilliant and singularly piercing."
Alexander Wilson: "The penetration and intelligence of his eye bespeak
the man of genius."
John Adams, in a letter to his wife, refers to Paine as "a man who,
General Lee says, has genius in his eyes." Carlyle describes him as "the
man with the black beaming eyes." Walter Morton, who was with him when
he died, says, "His eye glistened with genius under the pangs of death."
Dr. Thomas Cooper: "I have dined with Mr. Paine in literary society,
in London, at least a dozen times, when his dress, manners, and
conversation were such as became the character of an unobtrusive
intelligent gentleman, accustomed to good society."
Regarding Paine's associations in England his biographer, Dr. Conway,
says: "There [Rotherham] and in London he was 'lionized' as Franklin had
been in Paris. We find him now passing a week with Edmund Burke, now at
the country seat of the Duke of Portland, or enjoying the hospitalities
of Lord Fitzwilliam at Wentworth House. He is entertained and consulted
on public affairs by Fox, Lord Landsdowne, Sir George Staunton, Sir
Joseph Banks."
"The Americans in London--the artists West and Trumbull, the Alexanders
(Franklin's connections), and others were fond of him as a friend and
proud of him as a countryman."--_Ibid_.
"His personal acquaintance," says Dr. Conway, "included nearly every
great or famous man of his time, in England, America, France."
Paine not only enjoyed the friendship and esteem of the notables of the
world, he was the idol of the common people who knew him. Before the
Revolution in France began he spent two years in England, engaged a part
of the time perfecting his iron bridge. The leading manufacturing firm
of Rotherham encouraged him and fitted up a shop for him to work in.
Nearly a half century later Professor Lesley of Philadelphia, then a
young man, visited Rotherham. Notwithstanding the long time that had
elapsed he found Paine's memory still green and one of the cherished
possessions of Yorkshire. The results of his visit are thus related by
Dr. Conway:
"Professor Lesley of Philadelphia tells me that when visiting in early
life the works at Rotherham, Paine's workshop and the very tools he used
were pointed out. They were preserved with care. He conversed with
an aged and intelligent workman who had worked under Paine as a lad.
Professor Lesley, who had shared some of the prejudice against Paine,
was impressed by the earnest words of the old man. Mr. Paine he said was
the most honest man, and the best man he ever knew. After he had been
there a little time everybody looked up to him, the Walkers and their
workmen. He knew the people for miles round, and went into their homes;
his benevolence, his friendliness, his knowledge, made him beloved by
all, rich and poor. His memory had always lasted there."
M. and Madame de Bonneville: "Not a day [in Paris] escaped without his
receiving many visits. Mr. Barlow, Mr. [Robert] Fulton, Mr. [Sir Robert]
Smith, came very often to see him. Many travelers also called on him."
"Paine was, indeed, so overrun with visitors and adventurers that he
appropriated two mornings of each week at the Philadelphia House for
levees. These, however, became insufficient to stem the constant stream
of visitors, including spies and lion-hunters, so that he had little
time for consultation with the men and women whose cooperation he needed
in public affairs. He therefore leased an out-of-the-way house [the
old Madame Pompadour mansion], reserving knowledge of it for particular
friends, while still retaining his address at the Philadelphia House,
where the levees were continued."--_Dr. Conway_.
"Here [at Paine's house] gathered sympathetic spirits from America,
England, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, freed from prejudices of
race, rank, or nationality."--_Ibid_.
"And now the old hotel became the republican capitol of Europe. There
sat an international Premier with his Cabinet."--_Ibid_.
"A grand dinner was given by Paine at the Hotel de Ville to Dumouriez,
where this brilliant general met Brissot, Condorcet, Santerre, and
several eminent English radicals."--_Ibid._
"In the beautiful courtyard of the Palais Royal, I saw today for the
first time the statue of Camille Desmoulins, one of the most heroic
figures of the French Revolution.... He was one of Paine's warmest
friends in Paris. Desmoulins had known Paine when the latter was a
member of the Convention and doubtless was one of the interesting
coterie that met at Paine's house in the Faubourg St. Denis."--_William
M. van der Weyde_.
"When Bonaparte returned from Italy he called on Paine and invited him
to dinner."--_Clio Rickman_.
"Among the persons I was in the habit of receiving Paine deserves to be
mentioned."--_Madame Roland._
Among Paine's most intimate French friends, besides the Bonnevilles with
whom he lived for several years, were the Rolands, the Brissots, the
Condorcets, and the Lafayettes, France's purest and noblest souls.