While Washington and Lafayette were in Virginia, preparing for their
grapple with Cornwallis, Philadelphia was in apprehension of an attack
by Sir Henry Clinton, for which it was not prepared. It appeared
necessary to raise for defence a body of men, but the money was wanting.
Paine (September 20th) proposed to Robert Morris the plan of "empowering
the tenant to pay into the Treasury one quarter's rent, to be applied as
above [_i. e._, the safety of Philadelphia], and in case it should not
be necessary to use the money when collected, the sums so paid to be
considered a part of the customary taxes." This drastic measure would
probably have been adopted had not the cloud cleared away. The winter
was presently made glorious summer by the sun of Yorktown.
Washington was received with enthusiasm by Congress on November 28th.
In the general feasting and joy Paine participated, but with an aching
heart. He was an unrivalled literary lion; he had to appear on festive
occasions; and he was without means. Having given his all,--copyrights,
secretaryship, clerkship,--to secure the independence of a nation, he
found himself in a state of dependence. He fairly pointed the moral of
Solomon's fable: By his wisdom he had saved the besieged land, yet none
remembered that poor man, so far as his needs were concerned. If in his
confidential letter to Washington, given below, Paine seems egotistical,
it should be borne in mind that his estimate of his services falls short
of their appreciation by the national leaders. It should not have been
left to Paine to call attention to his sacrifices for his country's
cause, and the want in which it had left him. He knew also that plain
speaking was necessary with Washington.
"Second Street, opposite the Quaker Meetinghouse, Nov. 30th, 1781.
"Sir,--As soon as I can suppose you to be a little at leisure from
business and visits, I shall, with much pleasure, wait on you, to
pay you my respects and congratulate you on the success you have most
deservedly been blest with.
"I hope nothing in the perusal of this letter will add a care to the
many that employ your mind; but as there is a satisfaction in speaking
where one can be conceived and understood, I divulge to you the secret
of my own situation; because I would wish to tell it to somebody, and as
I do not want to make it public, I may not have a fairer opportunity.
"It is seven years, this day, since I arrived in America, and tho'
I consider them as the most honorary time of my life, they have
nevertheless been the most inconvenient and even distressing. From an
anxiety to support, as far as laid in my power, the reputation of the
Cause of America, as well as the Cause itself, I declined the customary
profits which authors are entitled to, and I have always continued to do
so; yet I never thought (if I thought at all on the matter,) but that as
I dealt generously and honorably by America, she would deal the same by
me. But I have experienced the contrary--and it gives me much concern,
not only on account of the inconvenience it has occasioned to me, but
because it unpleasantly lessens my opinion of the character of a country
which once appeared so fair, and it hurts my mind to see her so cold and
inattentive to matters which affect her reputation.
"Almost every body knows, not only in this country but in Europe, that
I have been of service to her, and as far as the interest of the heart
could carry a man I have shared with her in the worst of her fortunes,
yet so confined has been my private circumstances that for one summer I
was obliged to hire myself as a common clerk to Owen Biddle of this
city for my support: but this and many others of the like nature I have
always endeavored to conceal, because to expose them would only serve to
entail on her the reproach of being ungrateful, and might start an ill
opinion of her honor and generosity in other countries, especially as
there are pens enough abroad to spread and aggravate it.
"Unfortunately for me, I knew the situation of Silas Deane when no other
person knew it, and with an honesty, for which I ought to have been
thanked, endeavored to prevent his fraud taking place. He has himself
proved my opinion right, and the warmest of his advocates now very
candidly acknowledge their deception.
"While it was every body's fate to suffer I chearfully suffered with
them, but tho' the object of the country is now nearly established and
her circumstances rising into prosperity, I feel myself left in a very
unpleasant situation. Yet I am totally at a loss what to attribute it
to; for wherever I go I find respect, and every body I meet treats me
with friendship; all join in censuring the neglect and throwing blame on
each other, so that their civility disarms me as much as their conduct
distresses me. But in this situation I cannot go on, and as I have
no inclination to differ with the Country or to tell the story of her
neglect, it is my design to get to Europe, either to France or Holland.
I have literary fame, and I am sure I cannot experience worse fortune
than I have here. Besides a person who understood the affairs of
America, and was capable and disposed to do her a kindness, might
render her considerable service in Europe, where her situation is but
imperfectly understood and much misrepresented by the publications which
have appeared on that side the water, and tho' she has not behaved to me
with any proportionate return of friendship, my wish for her prosperity
is no ways abated, and I shall be very happy to see her character as
fair as her cause.
"Yet after all there is something peculiarly hard that the country which
ought to have been to me a home has scarcely afforded me an asylum.
"In thus speaking to your Excellency, I know I disclose myself to one
who can sympathize with me, for I have often cast a thought at your
difficult situation to smooth over the unpleasantness of my own.
"I have began some remarks on the Abbe Raynal's 'History of the
Revolution.' In several places he is mistaken, and in others injudicious
and sometimes cynical. I believe I shall publish it in America, but my
principal view is to republish it in Europe both in French and English.
"Please, Sir, to make my respectful compts. to your Lady, and accept to
yourself the best wishes of,
"Your obedt. humble servant,
"Thomas Paine.*
"His Excellency General Washington."
* I am indebted to Mr. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia for a
copy of this letter.
{1782}
Paine's determination to make no money by his early pamphlets arose
partly from his religious and Quaker sentiments. He could not have
entered into any war that did not appear to him sacred, and in such a
cause his "testimony" could not be that of a "hireling." His "Common
Sense," his first _Crisis_, were inspirations, and during all the time
of danger his pen was consecrated to the cause. He had, however, strict
and definite ideas of copyright, and was the first to call attention
of the country to its necessity, and even to international justice in
literary property. In the chaotic condition of such matters his own
sacrifices for the national benefit had been to some extent defeated
by the rapacity of his first publisher, Bell, who pocketed much of what
Paine had intended for the nation. After he had left Bell for Bradford,
the former not only published another edition of "Common Sense," but
with "large additions," as if from Paine's pen. When the perils of the
cause seemed past Paine still desired to continue his literary record
clear of any possible charge of payment, but he believed that the
country would appreciate this sensitiveness, and, while everybody was
claiming something for services, would take care that he did not starve.
In this he was mistaken. In that very winter, after he had ventured
across the Atlantic and helped to obtain the six million livres, he
suffered want. Washington appears to have been the first to consider his
case. In the diary of Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance, there is
an entry of January 26, 1782, in which he mentions that Washington had
twice expressed to him a desire that some provision should be made for
Paine.*
* Sparks' "Diplomatic Correspondence," xii., p. 95.
Morris sent for Paine and, in the course of a long conversation,
expressed a wish that the author's pen should continue its services
to the country; adding that though he had no position to offer him
something might turn up. In February Morris mentions further interviews
with Paine, in which his assistant, Gouverneur Morris, united; they
expressed their high appreciation of his services to the country, and
their desire to have the aid of his pen in promoting measures necessary
to draw out the resources of the country for the completion of its
purpose. They strongly disclaimed any private or partial ends, or a wish
to bind his pen to any particular plans. They proposed that he should
be paid eight hundred dollars per annum from some national fund. Paine
having consented, Robert Morris wrote to Robert R. Livingston on the
subject, and the result was a meeting of these two with Washington, at
which the following was framed:
"Philadelphia, Feb. 10, 1782.--The subscribers, taking into
consideration the important situation of affairs at the present moment,
and the propriety and even necessity of informing the people and rousing
them into action; considering also the abilities of Mr. Thomas Paine
as a writer, and that he has been of considerable utility to the common
cause by several of his publications: They are agreed that it will be
much for the interest of the United States that Mr. Paine be engaged in
their service for the purpose above mentioned. They are therefore agreed
that Mr. Paine be offered a salary of $800 per annum, and that the same
be paid him by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. The salary to commence
from this day, and to be paid by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs out
of monies to be allowed by the Superintendent of Finance for secret
services. The subscribers being of opinion that a salary publicly and
avowedly given for the above purpose would injure the effect of Mr.
Paine's publications, and subject him to injurious personal reflections.
"Robt. Morris.
"Robt. Livingston.
"Go. Washington."
Before this joint note was written, Paine's pen had been resumed. March
5th is the date of an extended pamphlet, that must long have been in
hand. It is introduced by some comments on the King's speech, which
concludes with a quotation of Smollett's fearful description of the
massacres and rapine which followed the defeat of the Stuarts at
Culloden in 1746. This, a memory from Paine's boyhood at Thetford, was
an effective comment on the King's expression of his desire "to restore
the public tranquillity," though poor George III., who was born in the
same year as Paine, would hardly have countenanced such vengeance.
He then deals--no doubt after consultation with Robert Morris,
Superintendent of Finance--with the whole subject of finance and
taxation, in the course of which he sounds a brave note for a more
perfect union of the States, which must be the foundation-stone of their
independence. As Paine was the first to raise the flag of republican
independence he was the first to raise that of a Union which, above
the States, should inherit the supremacy wrested from the Crown. These
passages bear witness by their nicety to the writer's consciousness that
he was touching a sensitive subject. The States were jealous of their
"sovereignty," and he could only delicately intimate the necessity of
surrendering it But he manages to say that "each state (with a small s)
is to the United States what each individual is to the state he lives
in. And it is on this grand point, this movement upon one centre, that
our existence as a nation, our happiness as a people, and our safety
as individuals, depend." He also strikes the federal keynote by saying:
"The United States will become heir to an extensive quantity of vacant
land"--the doctrine of national inheritance which cost him dear.
Before the Declaration, Paine minted the phrases "Free and Independent
States of America," and "The Glorious Union." In his second _Crisis_,
dated January 13, 1777, he says to Lord Howe: "'The United States of
America' will sound as pompously in the world or in history as 'the
kingdom of Great Britain.'"
* Almon's Remembrancer 1778-9, p. 38a.
The friendliness of Robert Morris to the author is creditable to him.
In the Deane controversy, Paine had censured him and other members of
Congress for utilizing that agent of the United States to transact their
commercial business in Europe. Morris frankly stated the facts, and,
though his letter showed irritation, he realized that Paine was no
respecter of persons where the American cause was concerned.* In 1782
the Revolution required nicest steering. With the port in sight, the
people were prone to forget that it is on the coast that dangerous
rocks are to be found. Since the surrender of Cornwallis they were
over-confident, and therein likely to play into the hands of the enemy,
which had lost confidence in its power to conquer the States by arms.
England was now making efforts to detach America and France from each
other by large inducements. In France Paine was shown by Franklin and
Vergennes the overtures that had been made, and told the secret history
of the offers of mediation from Russia and Austria. With these delicate
matters he resolved to deal, but before using the documents in his
possession consulted Washington and Morris. This, I suppose, was the
matter alluded to in a note of March 17, 1782, to Washington, then in
Philadelphia:
"You will do me a great deal of pleasure if you can make it convenient
to yourself to spend a part of an evening at my apartments, and eat a
few oysters or a crust of bread and cheese; for besides the favour
you will do me, I want much to consult with you on a matter of public
business, tho' of a secret nature, which I have already mentioned to Mr.
Morris, whom I likewise intend to ask, as soon as yourself shall please
to mention the evening when."
A similar note was written to Robert Morris four days before. No doubt
after due consultation the next _Crisis_, dated May 22, 1782, appeared.
It dealt with the duties of the alliance:
"General Conway," he says, "who made the motion in the British
parliament for discontinuing _offensive_ war in America, is a gentleman
of an amiable character. We have no personal quarrel with him. But he
feels not as we feel; he is not in our situation, and that alone without
any other explanation is enough. The British parliament suppose they
have many friends in America, and that, when all chance of conquest is
over, they will be able to draw her from her alliance with France. Now
if I have any conception of the human heart, they will fail in this more
than in anything that they have yet tried. This part of the business is
not a question of policy only, but of honor and honesty."
Paine's next production was a public letter to Sir Guy Carleton,
commanding in New York, concerning a matter which gave Washington
much anxiety. On April 12th Captain Huddy had been hanged by a band of
"refugees," who had sallied from New York into New Jersey (April
12th). The crime was traced to one Captain Lippencott, and, after
full consultation with his officers, Washington demanded the murderer.
Satisfaction not being given, Washington and his generals determined
on retaliation, and Colonel Hazen, who had prisoners under guard at
Lancaster, was directed to have an officer of Captain Huddy's rank
chosen by lot to suffer death. Hazen included the officers who had
capitulated with Cornwallis, though they were expressly relieved from
liability to reprisals (Article 14). The lot fell upon one of these,
young Captain Asgill (May 27th). It sufficiently proves the formidable
character of the excitement Huddy's death had caused in the army that
Washington did not at once send Asgill back. The fact that he was one of
the capitulation officers was not known outside the military circle. Of
this circumstance Paine seems ignorant when he wrote his letter to
Sir Guy Carleton, in which he expresses profound sympathy with Captain
Huddy, and warns Carle-ton that by giving sanctuary to the murderer
he becomes the real executioner of the innocent youth. Washington was
resolved to hang this innocent man, and, distressing as the confession
is, no general appears to have warned him of the wrong he was about
to commit.* But Paine, with well-weighed words, gently withstood the
commander, prudently ignoring the legal point, if aware of it.
* Historians have evaded this ugly business. I am indebted
to the family of General Lincoln, then Secretary of War, for
the following letter addressed to him by Washington, June 5,
1782: "Col. Hazen's sending me an officer under the
capitulation of Yorktown for the purpose of retaliation has
distressed me exceedingly. Be so good as to give me your
opinion of the propriety of doing this upon Captain Asgill,
if we should be driven to it for want of an unconditional
prisoner. Presuming that this matter has been a subject of
much conversation, pray with your own let me know the
opinions of the most sensible of those with whom you have
conversed. Congress by their resolve has unanimously
approved of my determination to retaliate. The army have
advised it, and the country look for it. But how far is it
justifiable upon an officer under the faith of a
capitulation, if none other can be had is the question?
Hazen's sending Captain Asgill on for this purpose makes the
matter more distressing, as the whole business will have the
appearance of a farce, if some person is not sacrificed to
the mains of poor Huddy; which will be the case if an
unconditional prisoner cannot be found, and Asgill escapes.
I write you in exceeding great haste; but beg your
sentiments may be transmitted as soon as possible (by
express), as I may be forced to a decision in the course of
a few days.--I am most sincerely and affectionately, D'r
Sir, yr. obed't,
"G. Washington."
"For my own part, I am fully persuaded that a suspension of
his fate, still holding it _in terrorem_, will operate on a
greater quantity of their passions and vices, and restrain
them more, than his execution would do. However, the change
of measures which seems now to be taking place, gives
somewhat of a new cast to former designs; and if the case,
without the execution, can be so managed as to answer all
the purposes of the last, it will look much better
hereafter, when the sensations that now provoke, and the
circumstances which would justify his exit shall be
forgotten."
This was written on September 7th, and on the 30th Washington, writing
to a member of Congress, for the first time intimates a desire that
Asgill shall be released by that body.
In October came from Vergennes a letter, inspired by Marie Antoinette,
to whom Lady Asgill had appealed, in which he reminds Washington that
the Captain is a prisoner whom the King's arms contributed to surrender
into his hands. That he had a right, therefore, to intercede for his
life. This letter (of July 29, 1782) was laid before Congress, which
at once set Asgill at liberty. Washington was relieved, and wrote the
Captain a handsome congratulation.
Although Paine could never find the interval of leisure necessary to
write consecutively his "History of the Revolution," it is to a large
extent distributed through his writings. From these and his letters a
true history of that seven years can be gathered, apart from the details
of battles; and even as regards these his contributions are of high
importance, notably as regards the retreat across the Delaware, the
affairs at Trenton and Princeton, and the skirmishes near Philadelphia
following the British occupation of that city. The latter are vividly
described in his letter to Franklin (p. 104), and the former in his
review of the Abbe' Raynal.
In his letter to Washington, of November 30, 1781, Paine mentioned that
he had begun "some remarks" on the Abbe's work "On the Revolution of the
English Colonies in North America." It was published early in September,
1782. The chief interest of the pamphlet, apart from the passages
concerning the military events of 1776, lies in its reflections of
events in the nine months during which the paper lingered on his table.
In those months he wrote four numbers of the _Crisis_, one of urgent
importance on the financial situation. The review of the Abbe's history
was evidently written at intervals. As a literary production it is
artistic. With the courtliness of one engaged in "an affair of honor,"
he shakes the Abbe's hand, sympathizes with his misfortune in having his
manuscript stolen, and thus denied opportunity to revise the errors for
which he must be called to account. His main reason for challenging
the historian is an allegation that the Revolution originated in the
question "whether the mother country had, or had not, a right to lay,
directly or indirectly, a slight tax upon the colonies." The quantity
of the tax had nothing to do with it The tax on tea was a British
experiment to test its declaratory Act affirming the right of Parliament
"to bind America in all cases whatever," and that claim was resisted in
the first stage of its execution. Secondly, the Abbe suffers for having
described the affair at Trenton as accidental. Paine's answer is
an admirable piece of history. Thirdly, the Abbe suggests that the
Americans would probably have accommodated their differences with
England when commissioners visited them in April, 1778, but for their
alliance with France. Paine affirms that Congress had rejected the
English proposals (afterwards brought by the commissioners) on April
22d, eleven days before news arrived of the French alliance.*
* Here Paine is more acute than exact. On June 3, 1778, the
English Commissioners sent Congress the resolutions for
negotiation adopted by Parliament, February 17th. Congress
answered that on April 22d it had published its sentiments
on these acts. But these sentiments had admitted a
willingness to negotiate if Great Britain should "as a
preliminary thereto, either withdraw their fleets and
armies, or else, in positive and express terms, acknowledge
the independence of the said States." But in referring the
commissioners (June 6th) to its manifesto of April 22d, the
Congress essentially modified the conditions: it would treat
only as an independent nation, and with "sacred regard" to
its treaties. On June 17th Congress returned the English
Commissioners their proposal (sent on the 9th) unconsidered,
because of its insults to their ally.
The Abbe is metaphysically punished for assuming that a French monarchy
in aiding defenders of liberty could have no such motive as "the
happiness of mankind." Not having access to the archives of France,
Paine was able to endow Vergennes with the enthusiasm of Lafayette, and
to see in the alliance a new dawning era of international affection. All
such alliances are republican. The Abbe is leniently dealt with for his
clear plagiarisms from Paine, and then left for a lecture to England.
That country is advised to form friendship with France and Spain; to
expand its mind beyond its island, and improve its manners. This is the
refrain of a previous passage.
"If we take a review of what part Britain has acted we shall find
everything which should make a nation blush. The most vulgar abuse,
accompanied by that species of haughtiness which distinguishes the hero
of a mob from the character of a gentleman; it was equally as much from
her manners as her injustice that she lost the colonies. By the latter
she provoked their principle, by the former she wore out their temper;
and it ought to be held out as an example to the world, to show how
necessary it is to conduct the business of government with civility."
The close of this essay, written with peace in the air, contains some
friendly advice to England. She is especially warned to abandon Canada,
which, after loss of the thirteen colonies, will be a constant charge.
Canada can never be populous, and of all that is done for it "Britain
will sustain the expense, and America reap the advantage."
In a letter dated "Bordentown, September 7, 1782," Paine says to
Washington:
"I have the honour of presenting you with fifty copies of my Letter
to the Abbe Raynal, for the use of the army, and to repeat to you my
acknowledgments for your friendship.
"I fully believe we have seen our worst days over. The spirit of the
war, on the part of the enemy, is certainly on the decline full as much
as we think. I draw this opinion not only from the present promising
appearance of things, and the difficulties we know the British Cabinet
is in; but I add to it the peculiar effect which certain periods of time
have, more or less, on all men. The British have accustomed themselves
to think of _seven years_ in a manner different to other portions of
time. They acquire this partly by habit, by reason, by religion, and by
superstition. They serve seven years' apprenticeship--they elect their
parliament for seven years--they punish by seven years' transportation,
or the duplicate or triplicate of that term--they let their leases in
the same manner, and they read that Jacob served seven years for one
wife, and after that seven years for another; and the same term likewise
extinguishes all obligations (in certain cases) of debt, or matrimony:
and thus this particular period of time, by a variety of concurrences,
has obtained an influence on their mind. They have now had seven years
of war, and are no farther on the Continent than when they began. The
superstitious and populous part will therefore conclude that _it is
not to be_, and the rational part of them will think they have tried
an unsuccessful and expensive experiment long enough, and that it is in
vain to try it any longer, and by these two joining in the same eventual
opinion the obstinate part among them will be beaten out, unless,
consistent with their former sagacity, they get over the matter at once
by passing a new declaratory Act _to bind Time in all casts whatsoever_,
or declare him a rebel."
The rest of this letter is the cautious and respectful warning against
the proposed execution of Captain Asgill, quoted elsewhere. Washington's
answer is cheerful, and its complimentary close exceptionally cordial.
Head-Quarters, Verplank's Point, 18 September, 1782.--Sir,--I have the
pleasure to acknowledge your favor, informing me of your proposal to
present me with fifty copies of your last publication for the amusement
of the army. For this intention you have my sincere thanks, not only on
my own account, but for the pleasure, which I doubt not the gentlemen
of the army will receive from the perusal of your pamphlets. Your
observations on the _period of seven years_, as it applies itself to and
affects British minds, are ingenious, and I wish it may not fail of
its effects in the present instance. The measures and the policy of the
enemy are at present in great perplexity and embarrassment--but I
have my fears, whether their necessities (which are the only operating
motives with them) are yet arrived to that point, which must drive them
unavoidably into what they will esteem disagreeable and dishonorable
terms of peace,--such, for instance, as an absolute, unequivocal
admission of American Independence, upon the terms on which she can
accept it. For this reason, added to the obstinacy of the King, and the
probable consonant principles of some of the principal ministers, I have
not so full a confidence in the success of the present negociation for
peace as some gentlemen entertain. Should events prove my jealousies to
be ill founded, I shall make myself happy under the mistake, consoling
myself with the idea of having erred on the safest side, and enjoying
with as much satisfaction as any of my countrymen the pleasing issue of
our severe contest.
"The case of Captain Asgill has indeed been spun out to a great
length--but, with you, I hope that its termination will not be
unfavourable to this country.
"I am, sir, with great esteem and regard,
"Your most obedient servant,
"G. Washington."
A copy of the answer to the Abbe Raynal was sent by Paine to Lord
Shelburne, and with it in manuscript his newest _Crisis_, dated October
29, 1782. This was suggested by his lordship's speech of July 10th, in
which he was reported to have said: "The independence of America would
be the ruin of England." "Was America then," asks Paine, "the giant of
empire, and England only her dwarf in waiting? Is the case so strangely
altered, that those who once thought we could not live without them are
now brought to declare that they cannot exist without us?"
Paine's prediction that it would be a seven years' war was nearly
true. There was indeed a dismal eighth year, the army not being able
to disband until the enemy had entirely left the country,--a year
when peace seemed to "break out" like another war. The army, no longer
uplifted by ardors of conflict with a foreign foe, became conscious
of its hunger, its nakedness, and the prospect of returning in rags to
pauperized homes. They saw all the civil officers of the country paid,
while those who had defended them were unpaid; and the only explanations
that could be offered--the inability of Congress, and incoherence of the
States--formed a new peril. The only hope of meeting an emergency fast
becoming acute, was the unanimous adoption by the States of the proposal
of Congress for a five-per-cent. duty on imported articles, the money
to be applied to the payment of interest on loans to be made in Holland.
Several of the States had been dilatory in their consent, but Rhode
Island absolutely refused, and Paine undertook to reason with that
State. In the _Providence Gazette_, December 21st, appeared the
following note, dated "Philadelphia, November 27, 1782 ":
"Sir,--Inclosed I send you a Philadelphia paper of this day's date, and
desire you to insert the piece signed 'A Friend to Rhode Island and the
Union.' I am concerned that Rhode Island should make it necessary to
address a piece to her, on a subject which the rest of the States are
agreed in.--Yours &c. Thomas Paine."
The insertion of Paine's letter led to a fierce controversy, the
immediate subject of which is hardly of sufficient importance to detain
us long.*
* It may be traced through the Providence Gazette of
December 21, 28 (1782), January 4, 11, 18, 25, February 1
(1783); also in the Newport Mercury. Paine writes under
the signature of "A Friend to Rhode Island and the Union."
I am indebted to Professor Jamieson of Brown University for
assistance in this investigation.
Yet this controversy, which presently carried Paine to Providence, where
he wrote and published six letters, raised into general discussion
the essential principles of Union. Rhode Island's jealousy of its
"sovereignty"--in the inverse ratio of its size,--made it the last to
enter a Union which gave it equal legislative power with the greatest
States; it need not be wondered then that at this earlier period, when
sovereignty and self-interest combined, our pioneer of nationality had
to undergo some martyrdom. "What," he asked, "would the sovereignity
of any individual state be, if left to itself to contend with a foreign
power? It is on our united sovereignty that our greatness and safety,
and the security of our foreign commerce, rest. This united sovereignty
then must be something more than a name, and requires to be as
completely organized for the line it is to act in as that of any
individual state, and, if anything, more so, because more depends on
it." He received abuse, and such ridicule as this (February 1st):
"In the Name of Common Sense, Amen, I, Thomas Paine, having according
to appointment, proceeded with all convenient speed to answer the
objections to the five per cent, by endeavouring to cover the design and
blind the subject, before I left Philadelphia, and having proceeded to
a _convenient_ place of action in the State of Rhode Island, and there
republished my first letter," etc.
{1783}
In the same paper with this appeared a letter of self-defence from
Paine, who speaks of the personal civility extended to him in Rhode
Island, but of proposals to stop his publications. He quotes a letter
of friendship from Colonel Laurens, who gave him his war-horse, and
an equally cordial one from General Nathaniel Greene, Rhode Island's
darling hero, declaring that he should be rewarded for his public
services.
This visit to Rhode Island was the last work which Paine did in
pursuance of his engagement, which ended with the resignation of
Morris in January. Probably Paine received under it one year's salary,
$800--certainly no more. I think that during the time he kept his usual
signature, "Common Sense," sacred to his individual "testimonies."
On his return to Philadelphia Paine wrote a memorial to Chancellor
Livingston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Robert Morris, Minister of
Finance, and his assistant Gouverneur Morris, urging the necessity of
adding "a Continental Legislature to Congress, to be elected by the
several States." Robert Morris invited the Chancellor and a number of
eminent men to meet Paine at dinner, where his plea for a stronger union
was discussed and approved. This was probably the earliest of a series
of consultations preliminary to the constitutional Convention.
The newspaper combat in Rhode Island, which excited general attention,
and the continued postponement of all prospect of paying the soldiers,
had a formidable effect on the army. The anti-republican elements of the
country, after efforts to seduce Washington, attempted to act without
him. In confronting the incendiary efforts of certain officers
at Newburg to turn the army of liberty into mutineers against it,
Washington is seen winning his noblest victory after the revolution had
ended. He not only subdued the reactionary intrigues, but the supineness
of the country, which had left its soldiers in a condition that played
into the intriguers' hands.
On April 18th Washington formally announced the cessation of
hostilities. On April 19th--eighth anniversary of the collision at
Lexington--Paine printed the little pamphlet entitled "Thoughts on Peace
and the Probable Advantages Thereof," included in his works as the last
_Crisis_. It opens with the words: "The times that tried men's souls are
over--and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever
knew, gloriously and happily accomplished." He again, as in his first
pamphlet, pleads for a supreme nationality, absorbing all cherished
sovereignties. This is Paine's "farewell address."
"It was the cause of America that made me an author. The force with
which it struck my mind, and the dangerous condition in which
the country was in, by courting an impossible and an unnatural
reconciliation with those who were determined to reduce her, instead of
striking out into the only line that could save her, a Declaration of
Independence, made it impossible for me, feeling as I did, to be silent;
and if, in the course of more than seven years, I have rendered her
any service, I have likewise added something to the reputation of
literature, by freely and disinterestedly employing it in the great
cause of mankind.... But as the scenes of war are closed, and every
man preparing for home and happier times, I therefore take leave of the
subject. I have most sincerely followed it from beginning to end, and
through all its turns and windings; and whatever country I may hereafter
be in, I shall always feel an honest pride at the part I have taken and
acted, and a gratitude to nature and providence for putting it in my
power to be of some use to mankind."