"Because you left a record that has floated down the years,
Because your words undying have conquered low-born jeers,
Because the ones who listened are victors over fears,
As Thomas Paine the Hero we salute you!
"Philanthropist and Patriot, a-down the Yet-to-be!
Your thoughts are sweeping deathless as breezes o'er the sea,
And hearts of men and women by you are made more free,
As Thomas Paine the Future will salute you!"
Alden Freeman: "One hundred years ago today there passed from life into
the undying fame of assured immortality a chieftain among the Fathers
of our Country, the foremost agitator of the American Revolution--Thomas
Paine."
Samuel H. Preston: "He who will live forever in the history of this
republic as the author-hero of the Revolution; he who consecrated
a long, laborious life in both hemispheres to the sacred cause of
humanity; he who, in his sublime patriotism, adopted the world for his
country, and who, in his boundless philanthropy, embraced all mankind
for his brethren; this man--this great, and grand, and good, and heroic
man--has been robbed of honor and reputation, and blackened and hunted
by the sleuth-hounds of superstition, as though he had been the embodied
curse of earth.
"But, so sure as the affairs of men have an eternal destiny, shall
justice be awarded Thomas Paine. The flowers of poesy will be woven in
amaranthine wreaths above his last resting-place, and his once-blackened
name will whiten with purity through all the wasteless years."
Rev. Frank S. C. Wicks: "Why this ingratitude? In one word, bigotry!
Religious bigotry, that serpent that has left its trail of slime all
over the pages of human history.
"He was pursued by religious bigotry, and but for religious bigotry the
name of Thomas Paine would share with Washington the love and honor of
his countrymen."
Rev. Thomas B. Gregory: "Our gratitude has been abundantly shown to
Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and others who figured in the
great drama, but to our shame it must be said we have been slow in
acknowledging our debt to the man who did more than any other to bring
about this country's freedom.
"But superstition is slowly dying, ignorance is gradually disappearing,
and by and by Thomas Paine will come into his own and take his place
along with the greatest in our national pantheon."
Rev. Solomon Southwick, D.D.: "Had Thomas Paine been a Grecian or Roman
patriot in olden times, and performed the same services as he did for
this country, he would have had the honor of an Apotheosis. The Pantheon
would have been opened to him, and we should at this day regard his
memory with the same veneration that we do that of Socrates and
Cicero. But posterity will do him justice. Time, that destroys envy and
establishes truth, will clothe his character in the habiliments that
justly belong to it."
"Paine was one of the glories of his age.... He has a powerful
vindicator--posterity."--_M. M. Mangasarian_.
Frances Wright D'Arusmont: "Rest in peace, noble patriot; a glorious
resurrection awaits thee."
"For nearly a century this noble man--the real founder of our
republic--has been buried beneath the cruel stones of obloquy. But
slowly the angels of Justice are rolling back these stones from his
sepulchre, and the resurrection of Thomas Paine is at hand."--_Six
Historic Americans_.
Current Literature: "The present indications are that posterity will
preserve the favorable, rather than the unfavorable, picture of Thomas
Paine. His influence is steadily growing."
Col. John C. Bundy: "Paine's influence is waxing broader, deeper
and more aggressive with each succeeding generation. At the end of a
century, more of his theological and political works are sold each year
than those of any other theologian or politician America has ever known.
All the progress of the century has been in the direction in which he
steered."
The Nation (London): "The magnitude, variety, and immediate efficacy of
Paine's writings constitute him one of the chief personal forces of the
revolutionary age.... He carried into the New England across the water
a consuming passion for human justice and liberty, not as platform
phrases, but as hard, concrete goods worth fighting and dying for, which
set America afire, when she was confusedly pondering an impossible and
unnatural reconciliation. From America to France, fresh in the throes of
her great upheaval, he passed, not as an incendiary, but as a moderating
and constructive influence in her national convention, risking his very
life for the cause of clemency in dealing with a traitorous king. From
France to England, carrying the same doctrines of liberty in politics
and religion, not a cold utilitarian conception of individual rights,
but a rich human gospel of a commonwealth sustained by a passion of
humanity as deep and real as ever influenced the soul of man.
"He will recover a glorious though tardy fame among those who take the
necessary trouble to rectify false estimates and to do honor to one of
the most truly honorable men who have striven to serve mankind."
"He died broken with many griefs, to be remembered by a later age as the
great Commoner of mankind."--_Library of The World's Best Literature._
Charles Edward Russell: "The soul of Thomas Paine was 'like a star and
dwelt apart.' He kept his own self-respect and the integrity of his
mind."
"He lived a long, laborious, and useful life. The world is better for
his having lived. For the sake of truth he accepted hatred and reproach.
He ate the bitter bread of sorrow. His friends were untrue to him
because he was true to himself, and true to them. He lost the respect
of what is called society, but kept his own. His life is what the world
calls a failure, and what history calls success."--_Ingersoll._
Daniel Edwin Wheeler: "History continually reverses her statements
at the command of Truth, and the latter is slowly but certainly
rehabilitating the name and fame of Paine. The slime of a mythology
which has for over a century stained his reputation is disappearing and
the prophet pamphleteer is coming into his own."
Dr. Muzzey, of New York, honored by Harvard, the Sorbonne of Paris, and
the University of Berlin, at the tomb of Thomas Paine, in 1909, gave
utterance to this tribute: "The democracy for which Robert Burns sang
and for which Thomas Paine labored is still a bright ideal in the
distant future, the star of brotherhood over a humanity still in
the cradle. Today, and only today, Thomas Paine is beginning to be
appreciated as the prophet of that democracy which means full human
brotherhood. His fame will grow with the years. The marvelous services
of his brain, of his pen, which was never dipped in the ink of malice
or slander, of his wonderful devotion as a soldier, as a prophet of
freedom,... is coming to be understood. As the realization of that
service of Paine grows, it will loom larger and larger. And when the day
of democracy shall have come, when the principles for which Paine stood
shall have fully replaced the awful dogmas of the past, as they are
slowly and surely replacing those dogmas, then he will come to his own."
Rev. James Kay Applebee: "I see Thomas Paine as he looms up in
history--a great, grand figure. The reputation bigots have created for
him fades away, even as the creeds for which they raved and lied fade
away; but distinct and luminous, there remains the noble character of
Thomas Paine created by himself."
"The stigma is on his detractors, not on him."--_Rev. Eugene Rodman
Shippen._
R. B. Marsh: "No feeling of shame has been so poignant as that which
overwhelmed me when I saw that ignorantly and blindly following my
instructors I had added my voice to the all but universal outcry against
this man.
"His fame and memory have been obscured for a hundred years, only to
shine with greater luster when the truth is known. The day-dawn of his
fame even now is brightening the sky.
"He has been the victim of almost infinite injustice; but I rejoice
in the confident belief that time will fully vindicate his memory, and
restore him to his just rank among the heroes of humanity."--_Hon.
George W. Julian._
That there is a rapidly growing disposition to do justice to the memory
of Thomas Paine is attested by a recent occurrence. On the 14th of
October, 1905, at New Rochelle, where, less than one hundred years
before, Paine, because of his religious belief, was denied burial in
a Christian cemetery, the beautiful monument erected at his grave by
admiring friends was rededicated and assigned to the custody of that
city, where, held as a sacred treasure, it is now guarded with watchful
and loving care. The nation, the state, and the city united to make
the event a memorable one. Major General Frederick D. Grant sent two
companies of United States troops and a regimental band; the state of
New York sent a battery which fired a salute of thirteen guns; the mayor
delivered a eulogy on Paine, and the city council participated in the
exercises. The school children of New Rochelle sang the "Star Spangled
Banner" and one of Paine's own songs. Various civic and military
societies also took part in the celebration--the Grand Army of the
Republic, Woman's Auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic, Spanish
War Veterans, Minutemen, Washington Continental Guards, and Sons of
the American Revolution. Dr. Conway, Paine's faithful biographer, sent
a letter of greeting from Paris, and a daughter of France a handsome
wreath to lay upon the patriot's tomb.
Henry S. Clark (Mayor of New Rochelle):
"This memorial should serve and will remain an object lesson,
inculcating not only patriotism, but the fundamental idea which appeared
only in Paine's writings--political equality for all men."
"We accept this splendid memorial and pledge ourselves to ever protect
and preserve it."
"The two chief centers by which the lovers of liberty, humanity and
progress will love to linger and gather inspiration in America will
henceforth be the mausoleum of Washington by the Potomac, and
this monument of Paine by his old home in your lovely city of New
Rochelle."--_T. B. Wakeman_.
"Ah! well may we cherish this spot sacred to Paine the Patriot. Perhaps
his dream will come true, and when there is a Republic of the World,
here will be the shrine of all nations."--_A. Outrant Sherman._
John Burroughs: "I honor the memory of Thomas Paine and am glad to know
that it shines brighter and brighter as time goes on."
Rear Admiral George W. Melville: "Greater honor is coming to the name of
Thomas Paine as the years roll on.... In America he will always be known
as one of the greatest and brightest minds that stood for the liberties
of men."
Hon. D. W. Wilder: "After a century of abuse it is pleasing to know that
a pure patriot and a very great man is at last being appreciated."
Theodore Schroeder: "Paine's sympathy for mankind had made kings
his foes, his mercy cost him his liberty, his generosity kept him in
poverty, his charity made him enemies, and by intellectual honesty he
lost his friends. Federalist judges of election, for whose liberty he
had fought, denied him the right to vote, because he was a citizen of
France; imprisoned in France because he was not a citizen of France;
maligned because he was brave; shunned because he was honest; hated by
those to whom he had devoted his whole existence; denied a burial place
in the soil he helped make free by the church which first taught him the
lesson of humanity; thus ended the life of Thomas Paine.
"The world is growing better, more just and more hospitable. The narrow
intolerance which once threatened to erase Paine's hame from the pages
of history is passing away. Gradually we are coming to know that a
kingly crown or priestly robe never rested upon a nobler man."
"His unselfish devotion to the rights of man is now being recognized,
and the brutal intolerance which tried to obliterate his name from
history is rapidly disappearing."--_Yoshiro Oyama_.
"The verdict of a century is being reversed today. In a little while the
voice of detraction will be hushed forever."--_Marshall J. Gauvin_.
Hector Macpherson: "The wheel of time has come round full circle. Men
of all sorts and conditions are willing to do justice to the man who, in
the midst of great obstacles and with unflinching and self-sacrificing
purpose held aloft the lighted torch of humanitarianism, and passed it
on to succeeding generations."
George Allen White: "What turbulent curses and ravenous conspiracies
fell for decades afoul thy noble head! How did the welkin ring with the
uttermost invectives of hell-brewed hate! But a hundred years later and
Thomas Paine--Thomas Paine the unspeakable--has been rehabilitated. His
fame is secure and untarnished now. Rising the monuments. Splendid
the horoscope of his future. Smoking the calumets. Like an impossible,
unbelievable dream vanishes the memory of those tempestuous days of
shameless bigotry."
Judge Charles B. Waite: "King and priest stood side by side, the one
enslaving the body, the other the mind. Men and women were subjected
to the most atrocious cruelties. Now and then, while mankind were
struggling with their destiny, voices were heard--voices in the
night--penetrating the surrounding gloom and reaching every ear. Such
a voice was that of Shelley; such a voice was that of Voltaire; such a
voice was that of Goethe; such was that of Thomas Paine.
"Thomas Paine has been pursued with falsehood and calumny for more than
a hundred years, but his name and fame grow brighter and brighter as the
years roll by. Already he is enrolled among the immortals as one of the
real saviors of the World."
Mrs. Josephine K. Henry: "Thomas Paine--'One of the few, the immortal
names that were not born to die."
"As an American woman I enshrine with gratitude the memory of the
philosopher, poet, counselor, historian, moralist, statesman and
liberator--the immortal Thomas Paine."
J. Atwood Culbertson: "Whether his remains now lie wrapped in the
immaculate shroud of winter snow, or, hid beneath earth's coverlet of
green, feed to fragrance the springtime flowers, kissed to life by April
sun; or whether his dust imparts the gold to the summer's grain, or
lends the tint to the autumn leaf, we do not know, we cannot say; but
immortal is the name of Thomas Paine."