Thomas Paine (January 29, 1737-June 8, 1809) was the American Revolutionary author who wrote a sixteen-pamphlet series titled, The American Crisis, which he signed "Common Sense." Greatly fanning the flames of colonial independence, his first essay, issued December 23, 1776, was read out loud to the Colonial Army at Valley Forge by order of General Washington.
In The American Crisis, Thomas Paine wrote:
<THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own*; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover.
The present winter is worth an age, if rightly employed; but, if lost or neglected, the whole continent will partake of the evil; and there is no punishment that man does not deserve, be he who, or what, or where he will, that may be the means of sacrificing a season so precious and useful.
I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent.
Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house- breaker, has as good a pretence as he.
'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth [fifteenth] century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc.
Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer.
They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.
As I was with the troops at Fort Lee, and marched with them to the edge of Pennsylvania, I am well acquainted with many circumstances, which those who live at a distance know but little or nothing of. Our situation there was exceedingly cramped, the place being a narrow neck of land between the North River and the Hackensack. Our force was inconsiderable, being not one-fourth so great as Howe could bring against us.
We had no army at hand to have relieved the garrison, had we shut ourselves up and stood on our defence. Our ammunition, light artillery, and the best part of our stores, had been removed, on the apprehension that Howe would endeavor to penetrate the Jerseys, in which case Fort Lee could be of no use to us; for it must occur to every thinking man, whether in the army or not, that these kind of field forts are only for temporary purposes, and last in use no longer than the enemy directs his force against the particular object which such forts are raised to defend.
Such was our situation and condition at Fort Lee on the morning of the 20th of November, when an officer arrived with information that the enemy with 200 boats had landed about seven miles above; Major General [Nathaniel] Green, who commanded the garrison, immediately ordered them under arms, and sent express to General Washington at the town of Hackensack, distant by the way of the ferry = six miles.
Our first object was to secure the bridge over the Hackensack, which laid up the river between the enemy and us, about six miles from us, and three from them. General Washington arrived in about three-quarters of an hour, and marched at the head of the troops towards the bridge, which place I expected we should have a brush for; however, they did not choose to dispute it with us, and the greatest part of our troops went over the bridge, the rest over the ferry, except some which passed at a mill on a small creek, between the bridge and the ferry, and made their way through some marshy grounds up to the town of Hackensack, and there passed the river.
We brought off as much baggage as the wagons could contain, the rest was lost. The simple object was to bring off the garrison, and march them on till they could be strengthened by the Jersey or Pennsylvania militia, so as to be enabled to make a stand.
We staid four days at Newark, collected our out-posts with some of the Jersey militia, and marched out twice to meet the enemy, on being informed that they were advancing, though our numbers were greatly inferior to theirs. Howe, in my little opinion, committed a great error in generalship in not throwing a body of forces off from Staten Island through Amboy, by which means he might have seized all our stores at Brunswick, and intercepted our march into Pennsylvania; but if we believe the power of hell to be limited, we must likewise believe that their agents are under some providential control.
I shall not now attempt to give all the particulars of our retreat to the Delaware; suffice it for the present to say, that both officers and men, though greatly harassed and fatigued, frequently without rest, covering, or provision, the inevitable consequences of a long retreat, bore it with a manly and martial spirit.
All their wishes centered in one, which was, that the country would turn out and help them to drive the enemy back. Voltaire has remarked that King William never appeared to full advantage but in difficulties and in action; the same remark may be made on General Washington, for the character fits him.
There is a natural firmness in some minds which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude; and I reckon it among those kind of public blessings, which we do not immediately see, that God hath blessed him with uninterrupted health, and given him a mind that can even flourish upon care.
I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that the enemy have left the New England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness.
The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a Tory? Good God! what is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred Whigs against a thousand Tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.
But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard, with muskets on your shoulders.
Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for 'tis soldiers, and not Tories, that he wants.
I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, "Well! give me peace in my day."
Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;" and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.
A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.
America did not, nor does not want force; but she wanted a proper application of that force. Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off. From an excess of tenderness, we were unwilling to raise an army, and trusted our cause to the temporary defence of a well-meaning militia.
A summer's experience has now taught us better; yet with those troops, while they were collected, we were able to set bounds to the progress of the enemy, and, thank God! they are again assembling. I always considered militia as the best troops in the world for a sudden exertion, but they will not do for a long campaign.
Howe, it is probable, will make an attempt on this city [Philadelphia]; should he fail on this side the Delaware, he is ruined. If he succeeds, our cause is not ruined. He stakes all on his side against a part on ours; admitting he succeeds, the consequence will be, that armies from both ends of the continent will march to assist their suffering friends in the middle states; for he cannot go everywhere, it is impossible. I consider Howe as the greatest enemy the Tories have; he is bringing a war into their country, which, had it not been for him and partly for themselves, they had been clear of.
Should he now be expelled, I wish with all the devotion of a Christian, that the names of Whig and Tory may never more be mentioned; but should the Tories give him encouragement to come, or assistance if he come, I as sincerely wish that our next year's arms may expel them from the continent, and the Congress appropriate their possessions to the relief of those who have suffered in well-doing.
A single successful battle next year will settle the whole. America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a seemingly doubtful event.
Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.
Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state: up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake.
Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works," that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike.
The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.
'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light.
Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them?
If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man.
I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America. There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful.
It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both. Howe's first object is, partly by threats and partly by promises, to terrify or seduce the people to deliver up their arms and receive mercy.
The ministry recommended the same plan to Gage, and this is what the Tories call making their peace, "a peace which passeth all understanding" indeed! A peace which would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than any we have yet thought of. Ye men of Pennsylvania, do reason upon these things! Were the back counties to give up their arms, they would fall an easy prey to the Indians, who are all armed: this perhaps is what some Tories would not be sorry for.
Were the home counties to deliver up their arms, they would be exposed to the resentment of the back counties who would then have it in their power to chastise their defection at pleasure. And were any one state to give up its arms, that state must be garrisoned by all Howe's army of Britons and Hessians to preserve it from the anger of the rest. Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love, and woe be to that state that breaks the compact. Howe is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues or fools that will not see it.
I dwell not upon the vapors of imagination; I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as A, B, C, hold up truth to your eyes. I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it. While our army was collected, Howe dared not risk a battle; and it is no credit to him that he decamped from the White Plains, and waited a mean opportunity to ravage the defenceless Jerseys; but it is great credit to us, that, with a handful of men, we sustained an orderly retreat for near an hundred miles, brought off our ammunition, all our field pieces, the greatest part of our stores, and had four rivers to pass.
None can say that our retreat was precipitate, for we were near three weeks in performing it, that the country might have time to come in. Twice we marched back to meet the enemy, and remained out till dark. The sign of fear was not seen in our camp, and had not some of the cowardly and disaffected inhabitants spread false alarms through the country, the Jerseys had never been ravaged. Once more we are again collected and collecting; our new army at both ends of the continent is recruiting fast, and we shall be able to open the next campaign with sixty thousand men, well armed and clothed.
This is our situation, and who will may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils- a ravaged country- a depopulated city- habitations without safety, and slavery without hope- our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented.> 1737TP001
On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published his 50 page pamphlet titled "Common Sense." An immediate sensation, it sold 150,000 copies within 3 months, and, more than any other single publication, persuaded public opinion to support independence:
<Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs: but all have been ineffectual...
I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished under her former connection with Great Britain, the same connection is necessary towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing can be more fallacious than this kind of argument. We may as well assert that because a child has thriven upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. But even this is admitting more than is true; for I answer roundly, that America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken any notice of her. The commerce by which she hath enriched herself are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is the custom of Europe.
But she has protected us, say some. That she hath engrossed us is true, and defended the continent at our expense as well as her own is admitted; and she would have defended Turkey from the same motive... for the sake of trade and dominion.
Alas! we have long led away by ancient prejudices, and made large sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the protection of Great Britain without considering that her motive was interest, not attachment; and that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account, but from her enemies on her own account, from those who had no quarrel with us on any other account, but who will always be our enemies on the same account. Let Britain waive her pretensions to the continent, or the continent throw off her dependence, and we should be at peace with France and Spain were they at war with Britain...
But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families; wherefore, the assertion, if true, turns to her reproach; but it happens not to be true, or only partly so, and the phrase parent or mother country hath been jesuitically adopted by the king and his parasites, with a low, papistical design of gaining an unfair bias on the credulous weakness of our minds. Europe, not England, is the parent country of America.
This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of a mother, but from the cruelty of a monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still...
I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation to show a single advantage that this continent can reap, by being connected to Great Britain... Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be paid for, buy them where we will.
But the injuries and disadvantages we sustain by that connection are without number; and our duty to mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, instructs us to renounce the alliance: because any submission to, or dependence on, Great Britain tends directly to involve this continent in European wars and quarrels, and sets us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom we have neither anger nor complaint. As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to form no partial connection with any part of it. ÎTis the true interest of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do while by her dependence on Britain she is made the makeweight in the scale of British politics.
Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace, and whenever a war breaks out between England and a foreign power, the trade of America goes to ruin, because of her connection with Britain. The next war may not turn out like the last, and should it not, the advocates for reconciliation now will be wishing for separation then, because neutrality in that case would be a safer convoy than a man of war. Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation.
The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ÎTIS TIME TO PART. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America is a strong and natural proof that the authority of one over the other was never the design of heaven...
It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of present sorrows the evil is not sufficiently brought to their doors to make them feel the precariousness with which all American property is possessed. But let our imaginations transport us for a few moments to Boston; that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and instruct us to forever renounce a power in whom we can have no trust. The inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but a few months ago were in ease and affluence, have now no other alternative than to stay and starve, or turn out to beg. Endangered by the fire of their friends if they continue within the city, and plundered by the soldiery if they leave it, in their present situation they are prisoners without the hope of redemption...
But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Hath you lost a parent or child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then you are not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy of then name of husband, father, friend, or lover; and whatever might be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant...
Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffectual. Our prayers have been rejected with disdain; and have tended to convince us that nothing flatters vanity or confirms obstinacy in kings more than repeated petitioning and nothing hath contributed more than that very measure to make the kings of Europe absolute... Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do, for God's sake let us come to a final separation, and to leave the next generation to be cutting throats under the violated unmeaning names of parent and child...
As to government matters, it is not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice... for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us. To be always running three or four thousand miles with a tale or petition, waiting four or five months for an answer, which, which, when obtained, requires five or six more to explain it in, will in a few years be looked upon as folly and childishness. There was a time when it was proper, and there is a proper time for it to cease.
Small islands not capable of protecting themselves are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something very absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet; and as England and America, with respect to each other, reverse the common order of nature, it is evident that they belong to different systems. England to Europe: America to itself...
[The king] hath shown himself to be an inveterate enemy to liberty, and discovered such a thirst for arbitrary power, is he, or is he not, a proper person to say to these colonies, You shall make no laws but what I please! And is there any inhabitant in America so ignorant as not to know, that according to what is called the present constitution, this continent can make no laws but what the King gives leave to; and there is any man so unwise as not to see, that (considering what has happened) he will suffer no law to be made but such as suits his purpose?...
[C]an there be any doubt but the whole power of the Crown will be exerted to keep this continent as low and as humble as possible? Instead of going forward we will go backward... We are already greater than the King wishes us to be, and will he not hereafter endeavor to make us less? To bring the matter to one point, is the power jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us?
Whosoever says No to this question is an independent, for independency means no more than this, whether we shall make our own laws, or whether the king, the greatest enemy which this continent hath, or can have, shall tell us, There shall be no laws but such as I like.
But where, say some, is the king of America? I'll tell you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Great Britain...
[L]et it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the Word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to BE king, and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished...
A government of our own is our natural right; and when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting even to time and chance...
Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us the time that is passed? Can ye give to prostitution its former innocence? Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last cord is now broken... There are injuries which nature cannot forgive; she would cease to be nature if she did. As well can the lover forgive the ravisher of his mistress, as the continent forgive the murders of Britain. The Almighty hath implanted in us these unextinguishable feelings for good and wide purposes. They are the guardians of his image in our hearts. They distinguish us from the herd of common animals. The social compact would dissolve, and justice be extirpated from the earth, or have only a casual existence, were we callous to the touches of affection. The robber and the murderer would often escape unpunished, did not the injuries which our tempers sustain, provoke us into justice.
O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for all mankind.> 1737TP002
Attributed to Thomas Paine, The American Patriot's Prayer, written in 1776, reflected the sentiment of the colonies:
<THE AMERICAN PATRIOT'S PRAYER
Parent of all, omnipotent
In heav'n and earth below,
Thro' all creation's bounds unspent,
Whose streams of goodness flow,
Teach me to know from whence I rose,
and unto what designed;
No private aims let me propose,
Since linked with human kind.
But chief to hear my country's voice,
may all my thoughts incline,
'Tis reason's law, 'tis virtue's choice,
'Tis nature's call and thine.
Me from fair freedom's sacred cause,
Let nothing e'er divide;
Grandeur, nor gold, nor vain applause,
Nor friendship false misguide.
Let me not faction's partial hate
Pursue to this land's woe;
Nor grasp the thunder of the state,
To wound a private foe.
If, for the right, to wish the wrong
My country shall combine,
Single to serve th' erron'ous throng,
Spirit of themselves, be mine.> 1737TP003
Thomas Paine is attributed with the statement: 'The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.'
Thomas Paine often consulted Benjamin Franklin for advice on his political writings. Shortly before his death, Benjamin Franklin commented on a work that is assumed to be Thomas Paine's yet to be published manuscript, The Age of Reason:
<TO THOMAS PAINE DEAR SIR,
I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations of all religion. For without the belief of a Providence, that takes cognizance of, guards, and guides, and may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his protection. I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, though you seem to desire it.
At present I shall only give you my opinion, that, though your reasonings are subtile and may prevail with some readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general sentiments of mankind on that subject, and the consequence of printing this piece will be, a great deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and no benefit to others. He that spits against the wind, spits in his own face.
But, were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life, without the assistance afforded by religion; you having a clear perception of the advantages of virtue, and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for its security.
And perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is, to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value yourself.
You might easily display your excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain a rank with our most distinguished authors. For among us it is not necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.
I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person; whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortification by the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a good deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it. I intend this letter itself as a proof of my friendship, and therefore add no professions to it; but subscribe simply yours, B. Franklin> 1737TP004
In retorting Thomas Paine, John Adams wrote in his diary, July 26, 1796:
<The Christian religion is, above all the Religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of Wisdom, Virtue, Equity, and Humanity. Let the Blackguard Paine say what he will; it is Resignation to God, it is Goodness itself to Man.> 1737TP005
On November 30, 1802, in his last known letter to Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams wrote:
<When I heard you had turned your mind to a defense of infidelity, I felt myself much astounded and more grieved, that you had attempted a measure so injurious to the feelings and so repugnant to the true interest of so great a part of the citizens of the United States.
The people of New England, if you will allow me to use a Scripture phrase, are fast returning to their first love. Will you excite among them the spirit of angry controversy at a time when they are hastening to amity and peace? I am told that some of our newspapers have announced your intention to publish an additional pamphlet upon the principles of your Age of Reason.
Do you think that your pen, or the pen of any other man, can unchristianize the mass of our citizens, or have you hopes of converting a few of them to assist you in so bad a cause.> 1737TP006
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, described Paine's work as:
<...blasphemous writings against the Christian religion.> 1737TP007
Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration, wrote to John Dickinson, a signer of the Consitution, that Paine's Age of Reason was:
<...absurd and impious.> 1737TP008
John Witherspoon described Paine as:
<...ignorant of human nature as well as an enemy to the Christian faith.> 1737TP009
Elias Boudinot, President of Congress, published a refutation to Thomas Paine's work, titled:
<The Age of Revelation.> 1737TP010
Patrick Henry wrote a refutation, describing The Age of Reason as:
<...the puny efforts of Paine.> 1737TP011
William Paterson, a signer of the Constitution and a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, rebuked those who sided with Paine:
<...Infatuated Americans, why renounce your country, your religion, and your God?> 1737TP012
Zephaniah Swift, author of America's first law book, wrote:
<He has the impudence and effrontery to address to the citizens of the United States of America a paltry performance which is intended to shake their faith in the religion of their fathers.> 1737TP013
John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, responded to Paine's attack on Christianity:
<I have long been of the opinion that the evidence of the truth of Christianity requires only to be carefully examined to produce conviction in candid minds.> 1737TP014
Thomas Paine lost his popularity when he wrote The Age of Reason, a work embracing French Rationalism. In his later years, though, he is attributed with having stated:
<I would give worlds, if I had them, if The Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help! Stay with me! It is hell to be left alone.> 1737TP015
Thomas Paine stated:
<Reputation is what men and women think of us; character in what God and the angels know of us.> 1737TP016
Thomas Paine stated:
<I believe in one God....and I hope for happiness beyond this life.> 1737TP017
Thomas Paine, a man who was an "Englishman by birth, French citizen by decree, and American by adoption," gave his last words:
<I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Creator, God.> 1737TP018
Paine's views caused such vehement public opposition that he spent his last years in New York as 'an outcast' in 'social ostracism.' He died at 59 Grove Street in Greenwich Village and, as no American cemetery would accept his remains, was buried in a farm field in New Rochelle, New York. In 1819, William Cobbett exhumed Paine's body and shipped it to England, but upon reaching Liverpool, the customs agents refused to allow his corpse into the country. Paine's remains were either lost at sea or allegedly kept in a trunk in Cobbett's attic. Cobbett's son supposedly auctioned off the bones, and in the 1850's a Unitarian minister in England claimed to have Paine's skull and right hand. In the 1930's, a woman in Brighton was said to have Paine's jawbone. In 1987, a Sydney businessmen claimed to have purchased Paine's skull while on vacation in London and sold it to an Australian named John Burgess.
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1737TP001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776, in The American Crisis, No. 1. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 384. Robert Flood, The Rebirth of America (Philadelphia: Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986), p. 16. "Common Sense" Thomas Paine-1776 (Reston, VA: Intercessors For America, July/August 1993), Vol. 20, No. 7/8, p. 1. Erik Bruun & Jay Crosby, editors, Our Nation's Archives-The History of the United States in Documents (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc., 1999), pp. 135-136. The American Crisis. "Common Sense" Thomas Paine-1776 (Reston, VA: Intercessors For America, July/August 1993), Vol. 20, No. 7/8, p. 1.
1737TP002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine, January 10, 1776, published his 50 page pamphlet titled "Common Sense."
1737TP003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine, 1776, THE AMERICAN PATRIOT'S PRAYER, attributed to Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine, Additions to Common Sense-Addressed to the Inhabitants of America (Philadelphia; reprinted London, for J. Almon, 1776), p. 80. Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six (NY: Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1958; reprinted, NY: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1967), pp. 898-99.
1737TP004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine, 1790, in a letter from Benjamin Franklin. Jared Sparks, editor, The Works of Benjamin Franklin (Boston: Tappan, Whittemore, and Mason, 1840), Vol. X, pp. 281-282. "Historical Writings - Benjamin Franklin's letter to Thomas Paine". WallBuilders. 2001-09-11. www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=58.
1737TP005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine, July 26, 1796, John Adams writing in his diary a disapproval of Thomas Paine's beliefs. Charles Francis Adams, editor, The Works of John Adams (Boston: Charles Little and James Brown, 1841), Vol. III, p. 421, diary entry for July 26, 1796. L.H. Butterfield, ed., The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962), 3:233-234. Christopher Collier, Roger Sherman's Connecticut (Middleton, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1971), p. 185. Gary DeMar, America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Atlanta, GA: American Vision Publishers, Inc., 1993), p. 95. Norman Cousins, In God We Trust-The Religious Beliefs and Ideas of the American Founding Fathers (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 99. Gary DeMar, "Why the Religious Right is Always Right-Almost" (Atlanta, GA: The Biblical Worldview, An American Vision Publication-American Vision, Inc., November 1992), p. 12. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution- The Faith of the Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987), p. 277. Edmund Fuller and David E. Green, God in the White House-The Faiths of American Presidents (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 25.
1737TP006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine, November 30, 1802, in the last known letter from Samuel Adams to Thomas Paine. William V. Wells, The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1865), Vol. III, pp. 372-373. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution-The Faith of the Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987), p. 256.
1737TP007. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine. Statement by Charles Carroll. Joseph Gurn, Charles Carroll of Carrollton (New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1932), p. 203.
1737TP008. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Benjamin Rush, February 16, 1796, in a letter to John Dickinson. Letters of Benjamin Rush, L.H. Butterfield, editor (Princeton University Press, 1951), Vol. II, p. 770.
1737TP009. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Witherspoon, May 17, 1776, from the address: The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men, delivered at Princeton. The Works of the Reverend John Witherspoon (Philadelphia: William W. Woodward, 1802), Vol. III, p. 24, n. 2.
1737TP010. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Elias Boudinot, from the prefatory remarks to his daughter, Mrs. Susan V. Bradford. The Age of Revelation (Philadelphia: Asbury Dickins, 1801), pp. Xii-xiv.
1737TP011. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Patrick Henry, August 20, 1796, to his daughter Betsy. S.G. Arnold, The Life of Patrick Henry of Virginia (Auburn and Buffalo: Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 1854), p. 250. George Morgan, Patrick Henry (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1929), p. 366 n. Bishop William Meade, Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1857), Vol. II, p. 12.
1737TP012. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Patterson, 1798, Fourth of July Oration. John E. O'Conner, William Paterson: Lawyer and Statesman (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1979), p. 244.
1737TP013. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Zephaniah Swift, A System of Laws of the State of Connecticut (Windham: John Byrne, 1796), Vol. II, pp. 323-324.
1737TP014. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). John Jay, February 14, 1796, to Reverend Uzal Ogden. William Jay, The Life of John Jay (New York: J. & J. Harper, 1833) Vol. II, p. 266.
1737TP015. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine. Benjamin Hart, Faith & Freedom-The Christian Roots of The American Liberty (Dallas, TX: Lewis and Stanley, 1988, 1990), p. 309. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart'N Home, Inc., 1991), 1.29. Billy Graham, Till Armageddon, p. 203.
1737TP016. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine, Statement. For Mothers (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 5555 W. 78th St. Suite P, Edina, MN, 55439, 1994), 4.24.
1737TP017. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (Philadelphia: The Booksellers, 1794), p. 8.
1737TP018. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Thomas Paine. The World Book Encyclopedia, 18 vols. (Chicago, IL: Field Enterprises, Inc., 1957; W.F. Quarrie and Company, 8 vols., 1917; World Book, Inc., 22 vols., 1989), Vol. 13, p. 6035.