Theodore Parker: "His instincts were humane and elevated,' and his life
was devoted mainly to the great purposes of humanity."
"We find in Paine united two qualities which were rare in the eighteenth
century--political sagacity and humanity."--_Hector Macpherson._
"His career is only reduced to intelligible consistency when we
recognize that the impelling force behind his social, political
and religious activities was an overmastering passion for
humanity."--_Ibid._
Edwin C. Walker:. "Paine was the least insular, the least
provincial--the most cosmopolitan--of all whose names have come down
to us from the ages gone... His sympathies were broader even than all
humanity, for they enclosed other forms of life as well, and were as
varied as the needs of all who suffered and aspired."
Ellery Sedgwick: "He hated cruelty in every form. He hated war, he hated
slavery, he hated injustice; and his public life was one long battle
against every form of oppression."
"His free lance was ever at the service of the poor and oppressed, but
never to be bought by favors of the court, or awed by the menaces of
kings or the anathemas of priests."--_Hugh Byron Brown._
J. W. Whicker: "The growth of knowledge in the passing years will hallow
the name of this author, this patriot, this hero of two continents. His
life and his deeds are one sweet story of service for his kind."
John R. Charlesworth: "His weapon was a pen. His mind jeweled with
gems of thought, richer by far than silver or gold, he gave of his
intellectual treasures without price."
"Long live the man, in early contest found,
Who spoke-his heart when dastards trembled round;
Who, fired with more than Greek or Roman rage,
Flashed truth on tyrants from his manly page."
--Dr. Joseph B. Ladd.
Rev. Brooke Hereford: "Thomas Paine was the great defender of human
rights and merits the everlasting gratitude of man."
Rev. Dr. David Swing: "He was one of the best and grandest men that ever
trod the planet."
Charles Phillips: "Thomas Paine, no matter what may be the difference of
opinion as to his principles, must ever remain a proud example of mind,
unpatronized and unsupported, eclipsing the factitious beams of rank,
and wealth, and pedigree. I never saw him in his captivity, or heard
the revilings by which he has since been assailed, without cursing in my
heart that ungenerous feeling which, cold to the necessities of genius,
is clamorous in the publication of its defects.
"Ye great ones of his nation [England]! ye pretended moralists, so
forward now to cast your interested indignation upon the memory of
Paine!--where were you in the day of his adversity? Which of you,
to assist his infant merit, would diminish even the surplus of your
debaucheries? Where the mitred charity, the practical religion?
Consistent declaimers, rail on! What though his genius was the gift of
Heaven, his heart the altar of friendship! What though wit and eloquence
and anecdote flowed freely from his tongue, while Conviction made his
voice her messenger! What though thrones trembled, and prejudice fled,
and freedom came, at his command! He dared to question the creed
which you, believing, contradicted, and to despise the rank which you,
boasting of, debased."
William Lee:
"Immortal Paine, thy fame can never die!"