"Anything lower, meaner, more contemptible, I cannot imagine, to take
an aged man--a man tired to death after a complicated life of toil,
struggle, anxiety--weak, dragged down, at death's door;... then to
pull him into the mud, distort everything he does and says; oh, it's
infamous."
"Thomas Paine had a noble personality, as exhibited in presence,
face, voice, dress, manner, and what may be called his atmosphere and
magnetism, especially the later years of his life. I am sure of it. Of
the foul and foolish fictions yet told about the circumstances of his
decease, the absolute fact is that he lived a good life, after its kind;
he died calmly and philosophically, as became him."
Dr. Morrison Davidson: "He died as he lived, one of the grandest
examples of intellectual piety, fidelity and rectitude that ever lived."
New York Advertiser (June 9, 1809): "With heartfelt sorrow and poignant
regret, we are compelled to announce to the world that Thomas Paine is
no more. This distinguished philanthropist, whose life was devoted to
the cause of humanity, departed this life yesterday morning; and, if any
man's memory deserves a place in the breast of a freeman, it is that of
the deceased, for,
"'Take him for all in all,
We ne'er shall look upon his like again.'"
(Paine's remains were buried on his farm at New Rochelle. Ten years
later, because of America's ingratitude and neglect, William Cobbett
had his bones disinterred and sent to England. In connection with
their reinterment he had planned a great popular demonstration. "When I
return," he said, "I shall cause them to speak the common sense of
the great man; I shall gather together the people of Liverpool and
Manchester in one assembly with those of London, and those bones will
effect the reformation of England in Church and State."
Cobbett, probably waiting for a more opportune time, failed to carry out
his cherished scheme. The bones of Paine reposed for nearly thirty
years in their coffin and then disappeared. As late as 1854 a Unitarian
clergyman claimed to have in his possession "the skull and the right
hand of Thomas Paine.")
"The skull and the right hand of Thomas Paine!" What priceless relics!
Could they be found America should repossess them, place them in a
casket of gold and preserve them in a shrine at her national capitol.
Within that skull was conceived this great republic. That hand wrote the
inspired volume which transformed a vague dream into a glorious reality.
That hand, too, wrote two other immortal works which, slowly but surely,
are effecting what Cobbett contemplated, "the reformation of England in
Church and State."
"His 'Rights of Man' is now the political constitution of England,
his 'Age of Reason' is the growing constitution of its Church."--_Dr.
Conway._
"As to his bones, no man knows the place of their rest to this day. His
principles rest not. His thoughts, untraceable like his dust, are blown
about the world which he held in his heart. For a hundred years no
human being has been born in the civilized world without some spiritual
tincture from that heart whose every pulse was for humanity, whose
last beat broke a fetter of fear, and fell on the throne of
thrones."--_Ibid._